Brevard's school board votes to ban Ellen Hopkins books, keep Bible-based stories

The latest chapter in Brevard Public Schools' debate over which books are and aren't appropriate for students ended with the school board opting to ban two books and keep two others available.

At Tuesday's board meeting, board members voted based on a recommendation given by the district's book review committee. The committee, made up of five community members selected by each board member, recommended during an April 5 meeting that "Tilt" and "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins be removed, with only member Paul Roub suggesting that both books be kept available. As for "The Action Bible" by David Cook and "Bible Stories for Little Angels" by Sarah Dodd, all members recommended keeping both titles.

School board members voted to approve the recommendation without discussion, with all in favor except board member Jennifer Jenkins.

The vote came after several members of the public spoke out against book bans and brought up concerns that the review committee had made their recommendations based on religious biases. Both Hopkins books deal with themes of sex and coming of age, while the other two books are based on Bible stories.

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During public comment, Gregory Ross brought up that any material used in a classroom or school library should be age-appropriate, according to Florida statute. He questioned if "The Action Bible" was really appropriate, saying it depicted murder, genocide, incest and more.

"This book was found in elementary schools," he said. He added that he was happy the committee recommended keeping it, but that he felt they weren't considering the full language of the statute as they made their decisions.

It's a concern Kelly Kervin, mother of two BPS students, also expressed, saying that while the committee referenced the part of the statute that discusses sexual content, they did not consider the appropriateness of the content based on students' grade or maturity level.

"You all are choosing to follow badly worded laws, written vaguely on purpose, massive in scope, to follow a Christian nationalist agenda to indoctrinate our students, while ignoring that these same laws would ban virtually every book from our classrooms and libraries, because our classrooms are filled with students who mature and comprehend topics at varying rates and speeds," she said.

Katie Schlimmer, a former Brevard Public Schools student who is now enrolled at Eastern Florida State College, warned against assuming all parents have the best interest of their children in mind, saying she was physically and mentally abused as a child.

"Their agenda was rooted in hatred toward anyone who did not look or think like them, and this caused them to make decisions which ultimately isolated me from valuable opportunities simply because they could not see past their own biases," she said.

"If I was a student in Brevard Schools in 2024, I have no doubt my parents would be challenging books that are at risk of being banned today simply because they did not agree with them and covering up their own ugliness with concern."

In addition to the books voted on by the committee, a district review team — which includes media specialists — chose to discontinue the use of "Forever" by Judy Blume, saying it broke Florida statute because of sexual content within the book, according to an email obtained by FLORIDA TODAY.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard school board opts to keep Bible stories, bans 2 teen novels