Conservative group sues Polk School Board over its handling of challenges to library books

Three years after it began challenging the presence of certain books in the libraries of Polk County Public Schools, an advocacy group is taking legal action.

Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom held a news conference Monday morning at Fort Blount Park in downtown Bartow, a short walk from the Polk County Courthouse. Minutes earlier, a lawyer representing the group had filed a lawsuit against the Polk County School Board, alleging that it has broken state law in the way it handles citizen objections to books shelved in school libraries.

Anthony Sabatini, a former Florida legislator, stood beside Citizens Defending Freedom Executive Director Robert Goodman at a podium in the park, as some 40 supporters stood behind them. Sabatini said that if the school district does not make significant changes to its review procedures, CDF will ask Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove School Board members.

“This School Board has chosen to allow books that are not borderline pornographic, they are full-blown pornography,” Sabatini said.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include two Polk County residents and CDF members, Erin Fiore and Debra Baublitz, along with Goodman and the organization. The 11-page complaint, which Sabatini shared with The Ledger, mentions two books the women have challenged: “Breathless,” by Jennifer Niven, and “Identical,” by Ellen Hopkins.

The complaint includes passages from both books, which the CDF considers to be pornographic.

Kyle Kennedy, a spokesperson for the school district, offered a written statement in response to a request for comment.

“Polk County Public Schools follows state law regarding school library book challenges,” the statement read. “The school district has not yet been served with this lawsuit. As soon as we receive service, we will begin preparation of our defense.”

Citizens Defending Freedom (originally with “County” in its name), formed in Polk County in 2021 and has since spread to other counties and five more states. The nonprofit and nonpartisan group, which advocates for conservative positions, initially protested mask requirements in schools during the COVID pandemic and has since focused largely on seeking the removal of books it finds objectionable from school libraries.

Pointing to state law

Disputes over books in public school libraries have raged throughout Florida in recent years, with conservative groups such as CDF and Moms for Liberty pushing for the removal of books that they consider age-inappropriate. While many challenges have targeted books with sexually explicit passages, objections have also been aimed at books with LGBTQ characters.

Polk County Public Schools created two committees in February 2022 to review the 16 books that had received challenges at that point. Committee members included a PCPS administrator, media specialists, teachers, parents, students and representatives from CDF and other groups.

The committees ultimately determined that all 16 books should remain on library shelves.

The lawsuit cites a law passed last year by the Florida Legislature and signed by DeSantis that established rules for how school districts select and screen materials offered in libraries. The law states that each county’s school boards “must adopt a policy regarding an objection by a parent or a resident of the county to the use of a specific material, which clearly describes a process to handle all objections and provides for resolution.”

The Polk County School Board in October 2022 adopted a policy outlining how the district would respond to challenges of books, including instructional texts, library books and assigned reading. The policy set timelines for the handling of citizen petitions, with reviews carried out by hearing officers appointed by the board, and described a process for appealing decisions.

The school district also enacted an “opt-out” policy, providing timeframes for parents to request that particular titles be kept inaccessible for their children. The district oversees more than 120 schools with about 115,000 students.

At Monday’s news conference, Sabatini said that Polk’s policy itself is inadequate and that the School Board is violating the state law in how it is carried out. He and Goodman criticized the makeup of the review committees and a lack of public notice for meetings.

They also said that the district has not been following its own guidelines in reviewing appeals on book challenges.

“The Polk County School Board, it's actually almost too hard to track the number of ways in which they violated this statute,” Sabatini said. “They have done quite literally almost nothing other than to pass ostensibly a policy having to do with dealing with book objections, but then doing quite literally nothing that's listed in the policy.”

While some school boards have voted on whether to keep or remove challenged books, the Polk County panel has not done so. Sabatini asserted that the School Board has “completely delegated and absolved themselves of the responsibility of reviewing these books.”

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Though the lawsuit mentions only two books, Goodman said that more than 50 complaints have been filed against titles in Polk County school libraries, as listed in a booklet compiled by CDF. He said the books contain descriptions or imagery of pedophilia, rape, incest, bestiality, traditional sex, oral sex and anal sex.

The complaint included brief excerpts from the two challenged books that contained descriptions of sexual encounters. “Breathless,” marketed as a young adult novel and drawn from Niven’s personal history, is told from the perspective of a recent high school graduate who welcomes her introduction to sex with a boy she meets while on vacation.

Fiore, who challenged “Breathless” last year, is the mother of children who graduated from public schools in Polk County, Sabatini said.

“Identical,” also marketed as a young adult novel, tells the story of 16-year-old identical twin girls, one of them a victim of repeated sexual abuse by their father. The complaint includes two passages, one of them describing one of the girls, Kaeleigh, enduring a forced sexual act with her father.

Polk County Public Schools carries “Breathless” and “Identical” in multiple high school libraries, plus Traviss Technical College, Kennedy said. Neither is available in elementary schools or middle schools, although it is available at Frostproof Middle-Senior, which includes middle school grades.

Sabatini, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, in the District 11 Republican primary, said that CDF’s leaders hope the Polk County School Board will reach out to them and “remedy these faults” in the policies and follow state law.

“If they do not decide to follow Florida law, not only are we going to win a court, they're going to be stuck with attorney’s fees for having violated the Sunshine Law of the State of Florida,” Sabatini said. “We're also going to be drafting a letter to the governor for the removal of these School Board members, because if you don't follow Florida statute, you're purposely violating the law.”

Goodman said that the Polk County School Board had “some good members.” Asked later if CDF might seek the removal of all board members or only some, Sabatini said by email, “Any school board member which doesn’t actively work to abide by the policy.”

Protesters make noise

Monday’s gathering drew a dozen or so protesters, among them former Polk County School Board member Sarah Fortney and Stephanie Yocum, president of the Polk Education Association, an employees’ union. Protesters carried signs saying “Freedom 2 Read” and “ALL PARENTS RIGHTS.”

Some protesters chanted or shouted as Goodman and Sabatini spoke, at times blocking out their words. After two protesters walked just behind the podium, calling out criticisms, CDF supporters moved forward to form a wall behind Goodman and Sabatini.

Misty Hart of Bartow attended the event with her 7-year-old son, Konner. Hart held a sign with the phase “Book banners” inside a red circle with a diagonal slash.

Fortney, defeated in 2022 by Rick Nolte, who has connections to CDF, wore a blue T-shirt representing the Florida Democratic Party Public Education Caucus.

“Parents should have a right to choose for their children, not other people's parents,” Fortney said before the news conference. “And these folks need to follow the policy that's in place.”

Yocum said she attended on her own time as a taxpayer and the parent of a student in Polk County Public Schools. She said the lawsuit will result in a waste of taxpayer dollars for the district’s defense.

“As a public school parent, I have as much parental right for my child to have access to books in his library as they do over what they decide to censor in their own house with their own kids,” Yocum said later by email. “This group seems to think they have the corner market on rights, freedoms, patriotism and democracy. They do not. It belongs to all of us.”

Goodman and Sabatini rejected the claim that they seek to ban books. Sabatini said the challenged books represent less than 0.1% of titles in schools.

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Goodman said that parents are free to buy any books removed from school libraries for their children. But Sabatini said any parent who allowed a 10- to 12-year-old child to read “Breathless” or “Identical,” the books mentioned in the lawsuit, should “probably lose their parental rights.”

Monday’s assembly began as CDF supporters, including some families with children, formed a circle in Fort Blount Park as CEO Steve Blackwelder stood inside, delivering a long and fervent prayer.

“We have to fight for the kids, whether they're our blood relative or not,” Blackwelder called out.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Conservative group sues Polk School Board over book challenge policy