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.
I can't imagine being a parent and considering moving to Florida and sending my child to a public school. Perhaps free states that are vying for new businesses and more jobs should begin promoting their states' support for free speech and intellectual curiosity.
Dennis, that could get us some of the critical thinkers but most of those people are convinced that WE are the ones blocking the important rights to them…gun ownership at any cost, forcing (the truth) suppression of their minds. They live in opposite world.
I would like to see federal governmental offices removed from the fascist state of Florida, businesses there need to threaten to leave the state, a boycott of people to vacation there. The financial hit would get the monster ousted. Let the basket of deplorable fascists stay and live without the federal support they receive. Give up medicare and Social Security voluntarily if you don’t support it….etc.
I remember reading novels by Carl Hiaasen years ago and a lot of these books had a backdrop of corrupt Florida politics. This iteration is the latest in corrupt Florida politics but unfortunately the risk with this iteration is that it infects the whole of the Country.
Public school collapse is an objective - they want vouchers to funnel public money into private schools. If public schools are demonstrably terrible then they build support in the demands for private education "choice". It is part of a multi-pronged attack.
It's not a lie ... Give them games.. tell me more about the "non-profit" NFL schedule 👉💨🫠... Forget showing up to make sure defunding every public institution (except police) doesn't become reality.... Like it's not their plan...
Call it bullying or fascism. That’s what it is. And DeSantis is who the Republicans are turning to for 2024. This could go national if it isn’t stopped.
This does, in fact, bear a striking resemblance to the way censorship worked in the Soviet Union. Just ask Shostakovich or Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Hell, the Commies banned "Robinson Crusoe." I wonder if DeSatan and his commissars have gotten around to that one yet.
The ugly reality is that the right wing in this country is clearly working with the old Soviet Union playbook.
We'd lived in Florida for a number of years; my husband the longest, as he was finishing his 30 years working in one of the city departments. ( I'd had enough of Florida & it's hurricane evacuations; moved up to Georgia, bought a home & took a new position near Atlanta.)
I read him your story this morning and he, looking disgusted, said, "Glad we got out when we did. Welcome to Nazi Germany folks. Hopefully they'll vote this DeSantis guy out of office. "
People who vote for people like this with dictatorship like tendencies, appeal to some people, who not only admire control on some level, but like to be controlled, unconsciously or not. Some perhaps think it brings a certain order ( safety) to their lives & life in general imo. But the thing with people like him, he has a certain populist appeal to a certain group, for a time. But these folks also tend to made edicts by whim over time. I think it appeals to an inner need for power. Narcissists with strong sociopathic tendencies ( like 45) feed off of this & the more they get, the greedier they get. (Wait until he starts attempting to have the content of your TV news limited, or goes after newspapers that critique his policies. ) Yes, it will be challenged in the courts as unconstitutional. But meanwhile, people like this & governments (local, state or national) create chaos for folks; while they make their best attempt to exercise their stifling, repressive, policies. (And i have to wonder if he thinks the large population of seniors in Florida have their own concerns to deal with daily. As they have no children any longer at home, no skin in the game, they wont push back. )
As we recall with trump & his administration, chaos reigned...daily.
So we have another governor with macheavelian tendencies, twisting truth & limiting one's personal application of COMMON SENSE, by placing limits on EVERYONE'S freedoms. Not allowing parents to take some responsibility in making their own judgements for THEIR OWN CHILD'S education. It means you dont have to think about it. But what they see, hear, experience on the streets when they're not home, is another matter.
A, "ONE SIZE FITS ALL EDUCATIONAL" strategy tends to lead to mediocrity, a deadening of enthusiasm, creativity & the soul, dare I say, imo. When teachers must teach in an atmosphere of fear; you tend to have the best & brightest, the most inspiring, leave the field. What you have left, are often the uninspiring, unenthusuastic & " dull;" happy to plod around the ring on a lead.
But you can bet, an expensive private education bought for the children of wealthy community leaders & the elite, will be free of many of these restraints. Someone's got to be " groomed" to think critically, or at least to aspire to the trappings of power; to be leaders of industry, political office and mind the docile sheep.
This is such a travesty. They talk about cancel culture on the left but this is exactly what it is on the right. So very sad to see our country going to hell in a hand basket.
Florida is in a race to the intellectual bottom with several other states. Their economies are destined to deteriorate with their children's educations.
This has been going on for a while in places like Gainesville, Texas. The Holier-Than-Thou, racist hypocrites ban literature like, “The Help.” Their egos are bruised by knowing others have correctly seen through their ignorance, their lack of sophistication, their inability to think critically and their tendency to latch onto people they perceive as “stronger” than they are . . . Rather like cows.
The future of the Floriduh Republican Party, and the Trump Cult known as the National Republican Party, depends on their ability to keep people ignorant and unable to compete in the 21st century. Banning books at the elementary level is the first step. We I a teaching, I would build a bookcase with clear but lockable doors and proudly fill it up with books banned by DeSantis and his thugs. I would add little labels that spoke to why they were banned. Any kid over about third grade will quickly understand. And because the books are inaccessible, Floriduh Intelligence Kops would have no recourse.
Nazi Florida…..so sad…. I won’t be vacationing there any time soon! I feel so sorry for those school kids! If I were a teacher in Florida I’d be packing my bags. Teachers are needed everywhere….go find a state that allows you to teach and appreciates your hard work. Thank god I’m retired from teaching. I could NEVER put up with this insanity!!!
I also will NEVER go to that state unless the Fascist nut case is removed. People have got to start understanding what this monster is doing to the state of Florida.
This is easy for me to say, so excuse me for suggesting it. What if all the teachers in Florida went on strike? Would that finally arouse the non nut job parents to rise up and say enough? I don't believe these "Moms for Liberty" are in the majority even in that state.
Any parent objecting to a book should be required to fill out a form with a 500 word summary of the book and a list of specific passages that "violate" the regs, and why. The forms should be onerous enough to deter trolls, and require a nominal processing fee of say $5 or $10 each. A small price to pay for "liberty", right?
What's especially galling about this "movement" is that it ignores the rights of parents who want their children to read widely and learn about others. It's time THOSE parents stepped up.
Moms for Liberty is active in many States. I live in a blue State and in my County we had a slate of people who ran for School Board who parroted the same lines and are attempting to ban books. It’s a Nationwide effort supported by oligarchical money.
Indeed they are: https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/07/09/just-who-is-behind-moms-for-liberty-column/ "Moms for Liberty’s leaders claim to get by on T-shirt sales. They’ve barely even heard of the Koch brothers! Yet perhaps they’ve heard of the Council for National Policy. Two of Moms for Liberty’s National Summit sponsors, the Leadership Institute and Heritage Foundation are critical members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive network of right wing billionaires and Christian fundamentalist leaders that underwrites and coordinates right wing politics."
1. Again where is the outrage by organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center? They should know book banning is only step 1.
2. If I would have to hire people I would really have a lot of doubt about anyone who has gone through todays Florida school system. I wonder about long term impact of these policies on Florida’s competitiveness in the job market.
I read these comments and people are all so resigned. There has to be someone in Florida willing to fight back or offer resistance. I wonder, is there no legal way to challenge this travesty?
I agree, and I should have referred to the Marc Elias model with voter suppression challenges. His work across the country is remarkable, and he wins. Florida’s situation isn’t nationwide - yet - but I honestly believe there are attorneys who would adopt Marc’s model.
Resign not. Humanity has not changed in forever. Just as outlawing alcohol in Prohibition days resulted in a huge adoption of the drinking culture, and outlawed marijuana assured its success as a generation adopted it to challenge the previous generation, so we may already be witnessing covert exchanges of banned books on playgrounds and parking lots. Small coveys of students gathered around the trunk of a car with their own library on wheels. And oh, the dissemination of links to online sources. Forbidden fruit didn't stop Adam....in that self same bible.
Pockets of resistance: reading about Columbia and how people, small groups and individuals, got around the crushing domination of paramilitary groups and rebels like the FARC. We could learn a thing of two from them.
This continues to be the issue. The only people who can do anything about this are parents represented by attorneys. If parents are fine with this, or resigned to it, then the issue disappears.
One of the problems trying to stop this fascist behavior and many others is the result of Gerrymandering.
It is hard to evoke change when state legislatures are primarily Republican. Florida can't get Gaetz out of office, but neither could they defeat DeSantis nor Rubio in statewide elections.
The problem is the Florida majority vote for the people who promote book bans, threats to teachers and the list is long of other right wing ideals voted in to law.
This one sits in the lap of Florida voters and the future for education there is bleak
Outsiders (tourists) a massive business for the state must boycott! If people can’t do that, then there is nothing that can stop this. Bring down Disney visitors drastically and you will see power vs power to remove this fascist travesty.
Why teach kids to read? Close the schools and burn the books. We need more Cotton pickers.
Better yet, lets just round up anyone who is darker skinned than DeSantis and send them straight to prison when they're born because that's what this is really about.
This type of thing will be happening more and more in the future. Red state governments are telling physicians how to provide medical care via mandated abortion restrictions. It's not really a stretch to say they won't trust teachers and librarians not to toe politically drawn lines defining state censorship standards.
I can't imagine being a parent and considering moving to Florida and sending my child to a public school. Perhaps free states that are vying for new businesses and more jobs should begin promoting their states' support for free speech and intellectual curiosity.
Dennis, that could get us some of the critical thinkers but most of those people are convinced that WE are the ones blocking the important rights to them…gun ownership at any cost, forcing (the truth) suppression of their minds. They live in opposite world.
I would like to see federal governmental offices removed from the fascist state of Florida, businesses there need to threaten to leave the state, a boycott of people to vacation there. The financial hit would get the monster ousted. Let the basket of deplorable fascists stay and live without the federal support they receive. Give up medicare and Social Security voluntarily if you don’t support it….etc.
I remember reading novels by Carl Hiaasen years ago and a lot of these books had a backdrop of corrupt Florida politics. This iteration is the latest in corrupt Florida politics but unfortunately the risk with this iteration is that it infects the whole of the Country.
Public school collapse is an objective - they want vouchers to funnel public money into private schools. If public schools are demonstrably terrible then they build support in the demands for private education "choice". It is part of a multi-pronged attack.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-politicians-far-right-christian-megadonors-rcna55546
The same thing is happening across the country. Co-ordinated astroturfing.
Guess the book ban won’t matter since half the kids can’t read anyway — let’s just keep them stupid (and voting for idiots) 🤯
Obviously, this has been the actual plan all along and it is clearly working.
We need ‘dislike’ button 🤨
It's not a lie ... Give them games.. tell me more about the "non-profit" NFL schedule 👉💨🫠... Forget showing up to make sure defunding every public institution (except police) doesn't become reality.... Like it's not their plan...
Well Dr. Bob, you do make a point. Sadly, not a helpful one. Cynicism is useless.
Sometimes a bit of levity is helpful (and provides insight on the idiocy of this legislation.)
Wow, welcome to the USSR. The GOP loves citizens to be uneducated and intolerant.
Call it bullying or fascism. That’s what it is. And DeSantis is who the Republicans are turning to for 2024. This could go national if it isn’t stopped.
If only the DOJ did the job of holding high crime-criminals accountable, we would not have this!
It sure could! Scary stuff.
This does, in fact, bear a striking resemblance to the way censorship worked in the Soviet Union. Just ask Shostakovich or Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Hell, the Commies banned "Robinson Crusoe." I wonder if DeSatan and his commissars have gotten around to that one yet.
The ugly reality is that the right wing in this country is clearly working with the old Soviet Union playbook.
Indeed!!! I wish more people were paying attention. smh
We'd lived in Florida for a number of years; my husband the longest, as he was finishing his 30 years working in one of the city departments. ( I'd had enough of Florida & it's hurricane evacuations; moved up to Georgia, bought a home & took a new position near Atlanta.)
I read him your story this morning and he, looking disgusted, said, "Glad we got out when we did. Welcome to Nazi Germany folks. Hopefully they'll vote this DeSantis guy out of office. "
People who vote for people like this with dictatorship like tendencies, appeal to some people, who not only admire control on some level, but like to be controlled, unconsciously or not. Some perhaps think it brings a certain order ( safety) to their lives & life in general imo. But the thing with people like him, he has a certain populist appeal to a certain group, for a time. But these folks also tend to made edicts by whim over time. I think it appeals to an inner need for power. Narcissists with strong sociopathic tendencies ( like 45) feed off of this & the more they get, the greedier they get. (Wait until he starts attempting to have the content of your TV news limited, or goes after newspapers that critique his policies. ) Yes, it will be challenged in the courts as unconstitutional. But meanwhile, people like this & governments (local, state or national) create chaos for folks; while they make their best attempt to exercise their stifling, repressive, policies. (And i have to wonder if he thinks the large population of seniors in Florida have their own concerns to deal with daily. As they have no children any longer at home, no skin in the game, they wont push back. )
As we recall with trump & his administration, chaos reigned...daily.
So we have another governor with macheavelian tendencies, twisting truth & limiting one's personal application of COMMON SENSE, by placing limits on EVERYONE'S freedoms. Not allowing parents to take some responsibility in making their own judgements for THEIR OWN CHILD'S education. It means you dont have to think about it. But what they see, hear, experience on the streets when they're not home, is another matter.
A, "ONE SIZE FITS ALL EDUCATIONAL" strategy tends to lead to mediocrity, a deadening of enthusiasm, creativity & the soul, dare I say, imo. When teachers must teach in an atmosphere of fear; you tend to have the best & brightest, the most inspiring, leave the field. What you have left, are often the uninspiring, unenthusuastic & " dull;" happy to plod around the ring on a lead.
But you can bet, an expensive private education bought for the children of wealthy community leaders & the elite, will be free of many of these restraints. Someone's got to be " groomed" to think critically, or at least to aspire to the trappings of power; to be leaders of industry, political office and mind the docile sheep.
Bravo Bonnie! Bravo! Well stated and nicely done.
This is such a travesty. They talk about cancel culture on the left but this is exactly what it is on the right. So very sad to see our country going to hell in a hand basket.
Florida is in a race to the intellectual bottom with several other states. Their economies are destined to deteriorate with their children's educations.
It's been said that democracy dies in darkness. Perhaps but it also dies in the sunshine of Florida.
This has been going on for a while in places like Gainesville, Texas. The Holier-Than-Thou, racist hypocrites ban literature like, “The Help.” Their egos are bruised by knowing others have correctly seen through their ignorance, their lack of sophistication, their inability to think critically and their tendency to latch onto people they perceive as “stronger” than they are . . . Rather like cows.
The future of the Floriduh Republican Party, and the Trump Cult known as the National Republican Party, depends on their ability to keep people ignorant and unable to compete in the 21st century. Banning books at the elementary level is the first step. We I a teaching, I would build a bookcase with clear but lockable doors and proudly fill it up with books banned by DeSantis and his thugs. I would add little labels that spoke to why they were banned. Any kid over about third grade will quickly understand. And because the books are inaccessible, Floriduh Intelligence Kops would have no recourse.
Nazi Florida…..so sad…. I won’t be vacationing there any time soon! I feel so sorry for those school kids! If I were a teacher in Florida I’d be packing my bags. Teachers are needed everywhere….go find a state that allows you to teach and appreciates your hard work. Thank god I’m retired from teaching. I could NEVER put up with this insanity!!!
I also will NEVER go to that state unless the Fascist nut case is removed. People have got to start understanding what this monster is doing to the state of Florida.
Annie- although we understand that boycotts hurt some who don’t deserve it, there is no other option outside of violence.
This is easy for me to say, so excuse me for suggesting it. What if all the teachers in Florida went on strike? Would that finally arouse the non nut job parents to rise up and say enough? I don't believe these "Moms for Liberty" are in the majority even in that state.
Any parent objecting to a book should be required to fill out a form with a 500 word summary of the book and a list of specific passages that "violate" the regs, and why. The forms should be onerous enough to deter trolls, and require a nominal processing fee of say $5 or $10 each. A small price to pay for "liberty", right?
What's especially galling about this "movement" is that it ignores the rights of parents who want their children to read widely and learn about others. It's time THOSE parents stepped up.
Moms for Liberty is active in many States. I live in a blue State and in my County we had a slate of people who ran for School Board who parroted the same lines and are attempting to ban books. It’s a Nationwide effort supported by oligarchical money.
Indeed they are: https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/07/09/just-who-is-behind-moms-for-liberty-column/ "Moms for Liberty’s leaders claim to get by on T-shirt sales. They’ve barely even heard of the Koch brothers! Yet perhaps they’ve heard of the Council for National Policy. Two of Moms for Liberty’s National Summit sponsors, the Leadership Institute and Heritage Foundation are critical members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive network of right wing billionaires and Christian fundamentalist leaders that underwrites and coordinates right wing politics."
Yes, and just who is behind The Heritage Foundation, right?
Hey they're a "non-partisan think tank," amirite? :-)
Well they are very brave to put up with the threats.
1. Again where is the outrage by organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center? They should know book banning is only step 1.
2. If I would have to hire people I would really have a lot of doubt about anyone who has gone through todays Florida school system. I wonder about long term impact of these policies on Florida’s competitiveness in the job market.
Agreed.
I read these comments and people are all so resigned. There has to be someone in Florida willing to fight back or offer resistance. I wonder, is there no legal way to challenge this travesty?
Sure, with money for lawyers. And eventually, Supreme Court. Full of Federalist Society hacks. Meanwhile, fascism spreads.
I agree, and I should have referred to the Marc Elias model with voter suppression challenges. His work across the country is remarkable, and he wins. Florida’s situation isn’t nationwide - yet - but I honestly believe there are attorneys who would adopt Marc’s model.
Resign not. Humanity has not changed in forever. Just as outlawing alcohol in Prohibition days resulted in a huge adoption of the drinking culture, and outlawed marijuana assured its success as a generation adopted it to challenge the previous generation, so we may already be witnessing covert exchanges of banned books on playgrounds and parking lots. Small coveys of students gathered around the trunk of a car with their own library on wheels. And oh, the dissemination of links to online sources. Forbidden fruit didn't stop Adam....in that self same bible.
Pockets of resistance: reading about Columbia and how people, small groups and individuals, got around the crushing domination of paramilitary groups and rebels like the FARC. We could learn a thing of two from them.
This continues to be the issue. The only people who can do anything about this are parents represented by attorneys. If parents are fine with this, or resigned to it, then the issue disappears.
Everyone should be in an uproar.
One of the problems trying to stop this fascist behavior and many others is the result of Gerrymandering.
It is hard to evoke change when state legislatures are primarily Republican. Florida can't get Gaetz out of office, but neither could they defeat DeSantis nor Rubio in statewide elections.
The problem is the Florida majority vote for the people who promote book bans, threats to teachers and the list is long of other right wing ideals voted in to law.
This one sits in the lap of Florida voters and the future for education there is bleak
Outsiders (tourists) a massive business for the state must boycott! If people can’t do that, then there is nothing that can stop this. Bring down Disney visitors drastically and you will see power vs power to remove this fascist travesty.
Why teach kids to read? Close the schools and burn the books. We need more Cotton pickers.
Better yet, lets just round up anyone who is darker skinned than DeSantis and send them straight to prison when they're born because that's what this is really about.
This type of thing will be happening more and more in the future. Red state governments are telling physicians how to provide medical care via mandated abortion restrictions. It's not really a stretch to say they won't trust teachers and librarians not to toe politically drawn lines defining state censorship standards.