Conservatives have been losing their sh*t over what is taught in schools and books. Educators are being harassed, and books are being taken off the shelves. If a book is about to be banned, read it. Florida is at the center of book bans and taking schools to task for daring to do their jobs. After all, Florida is governed by a wannabe authoritarian.
Judd Legum of Popular Information reports:
Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other “unvetted” book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to “groom” students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, told Popular Information that the policy was communicated to principals in a meeting last Wednesday. Individual schools are now in the process of informing teachers and other staff.
Teachers in Manatee County lamented the news on social media. “My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one Manatee teacher wrote on Facebook.
Chapman said he was not aware of teachers being told specifically to prohibit students from bringing books from home but, as a policy, “all materials we use in a classroom are all state approved.”
So, now librarians are forced to review thousands of books.
That review must also be consistent with a complex training, which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.
This is straight-up Fascism. There is already a teaching shortage in Florida. The Florida Education Association survey tallied 5,294 vacancies in Florida public schools. Five years ago, the state had only 1,492 vacancies. The state is denying it, but the numbers don’t lie. This almost seems intentional.
