Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law this week that ends teachers’ ability to abuse a book challenge law that was implemented to protect children from pornographic materials in school.
The law now significantly limits the ability of Florida residents who do not have children in the state’s education system to be able to challenge book titles.
“The idea that someone can use the parents rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book to try to make a mockery of this is just wrong,” DeSantis said the day before the bill signing. “That’s performative. That’s political.”
DeSantis said that people did not want their time wasted by the leftists who were trying to get classic books banned.
“We don’t care about your performative efforts to try to make a name for yourself, that’s not appropriate,” he said. “So when you have some school administrators or teachers that are saying that somehow state law requires them to take classic books off the shelves, that is a lie. That is not true. That is depriving students of a valid education.”
“So I think that 90% of the things, I mean, when they would say that somehow, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ couldn’t be done when that was on the state’s summer reading list for the Florida Department of Education, don’t tell me Florida law says you can’t do that,” he said. “When they said you couldn’t do a book about Hank Aaron, when that was the Book of the Month for the Florida Department of Education, don’t tell us you can do that.”
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“We’ve had one teacher put a video out, covered up every book in the classroom, ‘Oh, the state!'” DeSantis said mocking the teacher. “You know, that’s passive aggressive nonsense, and we’re just not going to tolerate it. … Here’s a good test. If I stood here with with a photo from one of these books and you guys wouldn’t be able to put it on your air, then it’s probably not appropriate in the sixth grade classroom. I mean, that’s probably where we go.”
WATCH:
Under @GovRonDeSantis leadership, Florida will NOT stand for adults trying to weaponize kids’ education for self-promotion and political rage bait. 🔥🔥🔥
👇👀Gov. DeSantis: “Don’t weaponize these book challenges for a political agenda. We don’t have time for the nonsense. We… pic.twitter.com/lXldkL9p6F
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) April 20, 2024