Polk County Public Schools Regional Assistant Superintendent John Hill and several of his colleagues spent Tuesday morning going to area middle and high schools to gather 16 books out of media centers after County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative political group, complained to Superintendent Frederick Heid that the novels, graphic novels, autobiographies, and sex education books contain pornographic material harmful to children.
Heid sent an email Monday evening to middle and high school principals and media center librarians, stating that a “stakeholder group” is alleging that the books may be in violation of Florida Statute 847.012, which deals with distributing obscene or harmful materials to children.
“While it is not the role of my office to approve/evaluate instructional or resource materials at that level, I do have an obligation to review any allegation that a crime is being or has been committed,” Heid wrote in the email. “It is also my obligation to provide safeguards to protect our employees. The district will be taking the following steps to ensure that we address this issue honestly, fairly, and transparently.”
PCPS spokesman Jason Geary said in an email that the books have been placed “in quarantine” and will not be available for checkout at this time.
“It is important to note that these 16 books have NOT been censored or banned at this time,” Geary said. “They have been removed so a thorough, thoughtful review of their content can take place.”
Geary said the district is following a longstanding protocol when a book is challenged by a parent or community member.
“The process requires the establishment of a review committee consisting of district curriculum staff, literacy/ELA staff, media specialists, parents, and community members,” Geary said. “This process is traditionally done at the individual school level. However, copies of some of the named titles are currently housed in multiple secondary school media centers, so this review will be conducted at the district level. It is important to note that these books will not be available during this period of review.”
Geary said that committee members must read each book in its entirety, and he did not have a timeline of when a final decision would be made.
Among the books in question:
• “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley is a sex education book that uses cartoons to portray people having sex, including straight, gay and lesbian men and women.
• “Two Boys Kissing” by David Levithan depicts the ghosts of gay men, some of whom died of AIDS, watching relationships develop between current-day gay teens and the reactions of their parents.
• “I am Jazz” by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings is an illustrated book about a transgender girl.
Books under fire
Books County Citizens Defending Freedom want banned from Polk County Public Schools:
“Two Boys Kissing” by David Levithan
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer
“Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher
“The Vincent Boys” by Abbi Glines
“It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley
“Real Live Boyfriends” by E. Lockhart
“I am Jazz” by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
“Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult
“More Happy Than Not” by Adam Silvera
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
“Almost Perfect” by Brian Katcher
‘The books speak for themselves’
CCDF Executive Director Hannah Petersen sent an email to Heid on Nov. 1 to say CCDF had gotten calls and messages pertaining to 30 books in Polk County Public Schools’ libraries.
“I decided to obtain a list of these books from the PCSB and what schools they’re currently in,” Petersen said. “I also did a lot of research to make sure the complaints were valid. I was physical (sic) nauseous after my research and knew you would want to be made aware. I only got through about 27 or so.”
Jimmy Nelson, a leader of the local chapter of CCDF, said members of the group had read all 16 books listed in their complaint. He declined to say whether he personally has.
Nelson said their group held a meeting with Heid in the last two or three weeks to discuss the content of the books, but had not suggested to the superintendent that they would file a lawsuit if the books were not removed. There is no lawsuit on file with the Polk County Clerk of Courts.
When asked how these 16 books were chosen, Nelson declined to comment. When asked to detail what in each book they objected to, he again declined, saying he didn’t trust the reporter.
“It’s pretty evident. The books speak for themselves,” Nelson said. “Anybody who’s aware and takes the time to see what’s available to our kids can see what’s in there.”
When discussing the fact that Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” depicts the brutal rape of a boy by a teenaged boy, Nelson was asked if all books containing rape should be banned.
“I’m not going to go into that with you,” Nelson said. He became irritated when it was pointed out that the Bible and William Shakespeare plays contain rape, incest and adultery, and asked if he wanted the Bible or Shakespeare removed, too.
“It makes no difference to the story,” Nelson said. “You want to paint it in that light. You want to twist things.”
When asked where the line was between what was acceptable and what was not, Nelson said, “I don’t know where I can necessarily define that for you. When you know something’s wrong, you know it’s wrong. … No one has suggested banning Shakespeare. Our issues with these books are clear — Shakespeare’s not on the list.”
CCDF recently complained to the Polk County School Board about its reproductive health curriculum, including that the anus is listed in a diagram and a vocabulary sheet describing the reproductive system. In addition, they complained that parents were not listed as the first people students should contact to talk to about sex, pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease issues. The district has now listed parents as a first point of contact for children.
The group also held a large demonstration prior to a School Board meeting in 2021 to protest the district’s mask mandate for students during the pandemic. The School Board eventually removed the mandate from its student dress code, although they have the ability to reinstate a mandate as an emergency measure.
The County Citizens Defending Freedom website states that it is an organization that empowers and equips American citizens to defend their freedoms and liberties at the local level.
“By streamlining and simplifying activism, we support and champion American citizens who want to stand up for their independence,” the website states. A map of local chapters shows there are active organizations in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Polk counties, along with Nueces County, Texas. Half a dozen other “future” chapters are shown in Florida and another dozen in Texas.
Book complaints nationwide
While complaints about and bans on books are nothing new, multiple school districts have dealt with attempts to ban books recently.
According to Newsweek magazine, the Granbury, Texas, Independent School District passed a “book review” order that would allow board members to ban books from district schools without public comment. Granbury, Texas, is a town of roughly 11,000 people southwest of Fort Worth.
The article states that the Texas House General Investigating Committee and the Texas Education Agency have been directed by Gov. Greg Abbott to review all books in the district’s schools to prevent children from viewing “pornography or other inappropriate content.”
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Tuesday that the Wentzville, Missouri, School Board voted 4-3 to remove Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from the district’s high school libraries. At least one board member said she was protecting children against obscenity.
Morrison won the Nobel Prize for literature and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, two of the top literary prizes in the world.
Terry Coney, president of the Lakeland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he has a meeting with Heid scheduled for next week to discuss the issue. He called Morrison’s books classics.
“I believe students should have the opportunity to experience classic literature,” Coney said. “That’s why they’re called classics. They have passed the test of time.”
“The Bluest Eye” is about a black girl who thinks she is ugly because she is not white and wants blue eyes. It includes passages about incest and child rape and is on the American Library Association’s annual list of most commonly banned books.
It is one of the two Morrison novels the CCDF is trying to ban, along with “Beloved.”
In November, the American Library Association said there has been “a dramatic uptick in book challenges and outright removal” from libraries of books that focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and agender issues, along with books by Black authors or that document the Black experience or the experiences of other persons of color.
“Falsely claiming that these works are subversive, immoral, or worse, these groups induce elected and non-elected officials to abandon constitutional principles, ignore the rule of law, and disregard individual rights to promote government censorship of library collections,” ALA officials stated in a release. “Some of these groups even resort to intimidation and threats to achieve their ends, targeting the safety and livelihoods of library workers, educators, and board members who have dedicated themselves to public service, to informing our communities, and educating our youth. ALA strongly condemns these acts of censorship and intimidation. We are committed to defending the constitutional rights of all individuals, of all ages, to use the resources and services of libraries. We champion and defend the freedom to speak, the freedom to publish, and the freedom to read, as promised by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”
The Lakeland Ledger reports:
Polk County Public Schools Regional Assistant Superintendent John Hill and several of his colleagues spent Tuesday morning going to area middle and high schools to gather 16 books out of media centers after County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative political group, complained to Superintendent Frederick Heid that the novels, graphic novels, autobiographies, and sex education books contain pornographic material harmful to children.
CCDF Executive Director Hannah Petersen sent an email to Heid on Nov. 1 to say CCDF had gotten calls and messages pertaining to 30 books in Polk County Public Schools’ libraries. “I decided to obtain a list of these books from the PCSB and what schools they’re currently in,” Petersen said. “I also did a lot of research to make sure the complaints were valid. I was physical (sic) nauseous after my research and knew you would want to be made aware. I only got through about 27 or so.”
Read the full article. There’s much more.
One of the removed books, The Kite Runner, depicts the rape of a boy by another teenaged boy. When asks if all books depicting rape should be removed, such as the bible and works by Shakespeare, a spokesperson for the group (Jimmy Nelson, seen in the video below) accused the reporter of wanting to “twist things.” Watch the clip.
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Scottie;
This is in regards to book banning/burning. Sorry for the novel here.
When ignorance is not the result of a failure of a student to avail him/her self of the information, but is instead the goal of the school district, it does cause one to pause a bit. But, in the continuing effort to bring light to the dark and dreary of those so far to the right that they have fallen off their flat earth, I offer the following:
I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. (NIV)
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love. (NIV)
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. (NIV)
You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. (NIV)
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled. (NIV)
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliamand the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her… (NIV)
How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice! (NIV)
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face. And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
So, here are 10 quick examples of when things got biblically freaky. Do you suppose The Bible will make the cut and be kept in the library?
The simple truth is that there is absolutely no way for a parent, especially a public school parent but really any parent who isn’t home schooling their children and living in the woods, can completely remove the idea, the thoughts of, even the experimentation of sex and love and wonder from the lives of their children. The availability of porn, for example, is so simplistically easy for someone who is as computer literate as most kids that the idea they would pursue it in a library book is laughable. The only thing these parents are doing, outside of stroking their own self-righteousness, is ensuring that the kids don’t have the well characterized plots where love, sex, abuse, wonder, etc. are explored and instead shuttle them off to the VERY easy choice of internet porn.
I would imagine that there are a huge number of people like me who grew up in the stone age of computers and still managed to find porn easily available. What I didn’t find easily available yet desperately needed was an understanding of why I felt the way I did, how everyone had feelings and confusions, how they are all part of growing up and growing beyond childhood into a good productive member of society.
Hugs, my brother.
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Randy, every one of these scriptures should be sent First Class Mail to the IDIOTS who want to ban the books from school libraries.
Moreover, as you so adeptly pointed out, if someone wants to find porn, it’s EASILY available … so in essence, the only thing these IDIOTS want is to make a name for themselves among the other idiots.
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Porn is easy to find? I had no idea! Thanks for letting me know! I’m gonna look some up! 😋😊
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Hello Jeff, Nan, and all. The thing most of these people seem to not understand is not everything they think is porn is actually porn. When I was in Germany in the 1980’s I was shocked to see signs and sale flyers with topless women on them selling products, bare butts also shown publicly in advertisements. Of course, a lot of us in they military loved the swimming areas where people could be clothed or not. That stunned me, nude swimming areas with some people clothed and families with kids of all ages and no one was outraged or offended. It was not sexual nor pornographic. Yet these book banning people would have freaked. They want to show their kids movies with great explicit gory violence but claim a bare human body will scar their kids for life? Monica from the misnamed 1 million moms claims that two men holding hands or kissing is porn that kids need to be protected from. I get so angry at the claim that gay people in any media is pushing a gay lifestyle on kids and the public. But what about all the straight couples portrayed, all the hand holding and kissing of men / women with each other? What about all the boyfriends / girlfriend’s relations in media? Are these also pushing straight lifestyle on kids and the public? I don’t feel I explained / worded what I am trying to say well, but I get so frustrated that just living, just who I am makes me unacceptable to these people and they want me erased, my marriage denied and erased from society.
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“When I was in Germany in the 1980’s I was shocked to see signs and sale flyers with topless women on them selling products, bare butts also shown publicly in advertisements.” Woo! Wooo! I’m gonna havta visit Germany just for this reason alone! Woooo! Woooo!
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Hey Jeff, they had full nudity on TV also. Many service people watched TV they couldn’t understand what was said but were glued to the visuals. Ah but that was before the computers hooked to the web and the big enlightenment called internet porn. 😁😃😋😋
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Scottie, I know it’s frustrating for you to be so discriminated against, but consider the source. The very fact that gay marriage is allowed today is a sign that there are MANY people who aren’t living in the dark ages. I realize there are some who would like to “disallow” this law, but I don’t think it will ever happen.
IMO, these people are actually very insecure in their beliefs so they NEED to point out all the “sins” in the world to bolster their own faith.
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Hello Nan. I don’t mean to suggest these groups, or their members are a majority. They just act like they are. They’re on the media and they are loud and proud at pushing their views. But I agree they are desperate to please their god by pushing their own hatreds.
However back to same sex marriage. It is not as equal to opposite sex marriage as you might think. In Texas a city had to stop offering benefits to the same sex married spouses of city workers that opposite sex people automatically got because the hater population backed by a big money religious guy
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/30/texas-supreme-court-ruling-houston-same-sex-marriage-benefits/ There is more at the link.
The haters want to push that in other states. Tony Perkins and Brian Brown two big time anti-same sex marriage have vowed to do to that right what they have done to the right of abortion. They will chip away at it until it is a right in name only. Gays can get married but they won’t have the rights and benefits that go with male / female marriages. They fought hard to get it restricted in the military and that fight is not over. I bet with the SCOTUS possibly shooting down ROE these same groups think they can get rid of the Obergefell ruling because the same right that Roe is based on is what Obergefell is based on. If there is no right for Roe then how can there be a right for same sex marraige.
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Hello Randy. Well said brother, very well said. I would only add a couple of my own thoughts to your well thought out comment. On the issue of the bible it is either these ban books people don’t know what is in it or simply don’t care. The bible is automatically exempted. In fact several states are now trying to make it their state book. Their goal is both white supremacy by wiping out black voices and experiences while also remove any public sign of LGBTQ+ people from society. They attack any TV representation of LGBTQ+ no matter how insignificant or devoid of sexual content. That mayor that was illegally withholding the library funds until they removed any and all books on LGBTQ+ said it was a trick question on the bible and refused to answer because in his words that is not what they were talking about nor the goal they were trying to achieve. But it is far more than denying their kids from knowing the true racist history, what fascism looks like, and about female body autonomy, and any sexual information at all is that they also are demanding that others people children don’t get that information either. They want the right to demand what your kids have access to not just their own. Their view is their right to govern their children extends to governing yours. They don’t want their child to be taught a subject so your child cannot learn about it. That is seriously dangerous and so selfish I get chills when I think about the lengths they people will go to in order to enforce that edict. They don’t want their kids to listen to a drag queen read stories so no ones children can listen to a drag queen reading a story.
You hit on a great point brother. They seem to think if they deny their children any information about sex that LGBTQ+ people won’t exist and their child won’t be gay or trans. That is not how it works. What will happen is that kids will not get the information they need about themselves to live happy normal lives and sadly some will decide to end their lives as a result.
Thanks again brother for a grand comment.
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I dunno. As soon as something is banned, it’s what everyone wants to read. Or at least possess. So this might be a good thing.
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Hello Polly. Yes there are even clubs of high school students formed to read the books. But far too many of the kids that would want to read these books or even need the information in them wont be able to get to them with them removed from the libraries. I was banned from any books even school textbooks at home for several years by my adoptive father. I devoured books at the town library and the school library. The point of these book bans is not just removing the books from libraries but to remove the people / experiences they are about from society. They think if they ban the ideas / books they can ban the people and history they don’t like. Out of mind out of existence. Scary thought, isn’t it?
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