A Florida school district will consider banning a hefty list of books after a heated board meeting on Tuesday night in which some furious attendees accused board members of being untrustworthy “child abusers.”
“We have to fight with [the school board] about not wanting porn in the libraries,” said one meeting attendee, Katie Delaney. “You all have the authority to pull these books out of the schools… You should all resign.”
The Brevard Public Schools board unanimously voted to pass the district’s new policy for reviewing controversial books. Previously, a parent of a child in the school system had to report it to a school or district official. Then, that school could review whether or not to take the book out of its library, which could take weeks. In the meantime, the book could still remain in other libraries in the district. Now, however, the superintendent can intervene in the process and create additional committees—of his choosing—to review the books.
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The school board never acknowledged specific books at the meeting that were up for debate, but officials emailed a list of 19 books to The Daily Beast that included Forever by Judy Blume, This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Damsel by Elana K. Arnold, and Push by Sapphire.
Parents in favor of a ban claimed the books had “explicit sexual material” and community members quickly lined up at the podium on Tuesday to rage against books on the list.
The meeting, which The Daily Beast watched via video, showcased an obvious racial divide. Every community member who spoke for a book ban was white; those who spoke against the ban were Black.
A woman who said her children were not enrolled in Brevard schools fumed that the board wanted parents to read porn to their kids.
“You have no problem with descriptive, pedophilic acts, extreme detailed rape of children, and other explicit horrible sexual acts being in the books in the libraries,” she claimed. “One board member went as far as suggesting parents read these disgusting books with our children. I don’t know about you all, but I’m not going to read violent, pedophilic, pornography with my children.”
The mother appeared on the verge of tears as she explained that her oldest child has no other choice but to enroll in a Brevard school next year.
“My children don’t currently go to Brevard Public Schools because I cannot trust that the people sitting up on that dais are going to protect them,” she said.
She then got choked up about a book that allegedly described a child’s experience being assaulted by a pedophile—but was more angry at the book’s existence, rather than the scourge of child abuse it depicted.
“In one of these books that’s currently in many of the junior and senior high schools, it speaks about a man sexually abusing in detail little children,” she said as her voice cracked. “That’s what you want our 11-year-old children having access to? …I am done with you people abusing our children!”
Michelle Beavers, from the Brevard chapter of Moms for Liberty, asked to share an excerpt from a book that she said would showcase how inappropriate it was for students. However, when the board explained that she couldn’t share explicit material, she clarified, “It’s suggestive, not explicit. It’s suggestive.”
Confusingly, she later claimed the books in question were “sexually explicit material designed to excite you.”
The local Moms for Liberty chapter previously submitted a list of 41 books to Brevard Public Schools that it opposed, and complained that the review process was too long.
The district’s curriculum policy says that board members have a week to read each 100 pages of a book up for review, meaning a 300-page book would take three weeks to read. The board then goes through a process to set up a hearing about the book. In all, the ordeal could take anywhere from six to eight weeks per book.
Beavers complained that the timeline would mean it could take four years to review all 41 books on the Moms for Liberty list. The board argued its new policy could help alleviate that issue.
Moms for Liberty Brevard Chapter did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment or provide the additional books they wanted reviewed. However, Beavers suggested that parents see which books are suitable at BookLook.info, a website that rates literature on its level of explicit material. (The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a book about anti-Black police brutality, has a 3 rating for alleged “racism and racist commentary and inexplicit sexual activities.” Meanwhile, V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic, a novel about child survival, only has a 2 rating, despite themes of incest, physical child abuse, and rape.)
Jabari Hosey, the president of Families for Safe Schools, accused the board of cowing to Moms for Liberty, a group he said had “terrorized our schools for the last year.”
“Help protect our schools and allow our students to use the best tools and books to grow as well-rounded humans to live in this reality,” Hosey said. “The world is diverse. The workplace is diverse.”
A Black woman, who did not give her name but said she was a social worker in the health industry, told the board that parents need to get over the content of the books because their children are already exposed to it.
“It’s ironic how parents want the schools to take certain things out when their kids are actually doing it regardless… Parents are saying [their kids are] not having sex because parents don’t know,” she said. “Unfortunately, parents, children have their own questions.”
