ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A photo inside a school library with very few books on the shelves in St. Johns County has struck a chord with people on social media.
But what is really going on in the picture? And where was the photo taken?
Those two questions are not addressed in the Twitter post.
But people responded to the post, criticizing schools and state leaders for yanking books off school shelves.
First Coast News was able to confirm the photo shows the Creekside High School Library in St. Johns County. That's according to Christina Upchurch with the St. Johns County School District and another librarian, Carolyn Milian, at a high school in the same district.
Milian and Upchurch both told First Coast News that the shelves have very few books on them because the Creekside High School library was being reorganized. They said it is not because books were yanked off the shelves because of their content.
Milian said that "reorganization" is something school librarians routinely do, to "weed" through books that have never been check-out or have become outdated.
Upchurch said St. Johns County schools had not received direction to clear the bookshelves.
The photo below was taken 10 days after the image above was. It was sent to First Coast News from the school district.
It shows books back on the same shelves.
In St. Johns County, parents can file objections to books, and those are reviewed ultimately by the school board to determine if those books will be removed from schools.
Upchurch said Superintendent Tim Forson created a committee that recently reviewed those submitted book objections based, and determined 20+ books to be removed. That list was sent to St. Johns County public schools this month.
St. Johns Education Association President Michelle Dillon said teachers are scared though, and they are choosing to remove books from their classroom shelves.
If a teacher is found to have a book that violates new state standards they could face a third-degree felony if they violate certain portions of that law.
However, Creekside High School's library with empty shelves, as shown in the twitter photo, is not a result of new state rules, according to a district spokesperson and a district school librarian.
