The Orlando Sentinel published a two-page print spread Thursday listing 673 books that have been removed from classrooms in Orange County in 2023 due to fears they violate the state’s new laws banning “sexual conduct” from public schools.
Teachers with any of the 673 books on their classroom shelves have been instructed by the school district to remove them, the newspaper said, also noting that the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) staff will review the list of rejected books once again, so it’s possible the books will eventually be returned to the classroom. The district began compiling the list over the summer.
The list stems from two Florida laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis ®, who is also running for president. They require media specialists to review books in libraries and classrooms, and to exclude books that include sexually lewd material or pornography. The legislation also aims to give parents greater ability to raise objections to their children’s education.
If I was a kid right now, the absolute first thing I’d wanna do is read all of these books. These dipshits made sex even more alluring by trying to hide it entirely from kids.
My 16 year old has done that. He finds a book that’s banned, takes it out of the library (either physical copy, eBook, or audiobook) and then reads it. While doing so, he keeps an eye out for why it was banned.
He noted that one book was banned because one page describes a sexual encounter. It was about 3 lines and wasn’t extremely graphic. It just got the point to the reader that an event happened and then the book moved on. But apparently any mention of sex even existing is enough for a book to get banned.
Unless, it’s the Bible, of course. Then you can have daughters sleeping with their fathers and it’s all good for kids to read!
You have a cool kid. All these things Republicans act like they’re going to stop will just become bigger “issues” because of their actions. History is full of lessons about this type of thing but honestly your 16 year old probably absorbed much more of those lessons than every Republican alive
I mean, that’s fine. The idea is that parents are more aware of what their kids are reading, and have more say in it. Those books aren’t banned, they’re just not available in a school library. Your kid still has access to the book, just not through the school. They can order it on Amazon. They can borrow it from a friend, they can go to the local public library and borrow it there.
Saying these booked are flat out banned is like saying alcohol is banned from Florida because they don’t sell it at fast food joints. …no, it’s not banned, you just have to go somewhere else to get access.
Alcohol isn’t banned you just need a license to sell it. The analogy doesn’t work though because it’s not like beer is allowed everywhere but wine isn’t. They are making objective decisions about the content of different versions of the same product.
Also a huge number of those books have been available for decades or even a century so why are they suddenly a problem now?
And these books aren’t banned, you just need a library card to take one home. They’re far more accessible than alcohol. Anyone of any age can pull from public libraries. The analogy does work, because alcohol and non alcohol are Noth drinks, there are just some that are age appropriate and some that aren’t. Kind of like books, but books are far, far more accessible and less strictly regulated, even when they’re pulled from school libraries.
They’re a problem now because literal pornographic images and descriptions were found in some books in some school libraries, and when it was called to attention, the left doubled-down and tried to gaslight people by saying it wasn’t happening. The problem was, it *was happening, there was proof, and images and passenges were leaked.
Now, I think we’ve got an overreach problem, but don’t get it wrong, this was absolutely a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just remove anything pornographic and we would have been good.