DeSantis signs law limiting Florida book challenges

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida residents who don’t have children attending school will have significantly fewer chances to challenge books in local K-12 libraries under a new law signed Tuesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Meant to curb what lawmakers described as a “logistical nightmare” facing school districts flooded with requests to remove books, the policy marks an admission from Republican leaders that last year’s expansions to book challenge laws may have gone too far after national backlash from free speech groups and even some conservatives.

In backing the idea, DeSantis said Florida wants to stamp out frivolous challenges as “activists” from “all ends of the political spectrum” are objecting to “everything under the sun.”

“Schools are there to serve the community,” DeSantis said Monday during an event touting the legislation. “Schools are not there for you to try to go on some ideological joyride at the expense of our kids.”

Residents who don’t have a child in school will only be able to challenge one title per month under the new law. It is a significant piece of FL HB1285 (24R), a wide-ranging education bill that also addresses struggling public schools and includes policies to benefit military families.

The new law, in part, is a response to a 2023 policy requiring schools to pull books considered pornographic, harmful to minors or that depict sexual activity within five days of an objection and keep them out of circulation for the duration of any challenge. That law caused a national outcry after local schools received hundreds of challenges to a wide range of books, leading officials to review titles such as Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “And Tango Makes Three,” a kids book about a penguin family with two dads.

According to the free speech advocacy group PEN America, Florida has “banned” more books than any other state — some 1,406 works total. A legislative analysis found that districts removed 386 books during the 2022-2023 school year.

Some book transparency advocates say the limit on challenges is “good on its face” yet falls short for not targeting the state rule surrounding book objections. They contend the law won’t slow down some of the state’s more prolific book challengers, such as one person in Clay County responsible for 94 percent of local objections. As such, some Democratic lawmakers criticized the new policy for being “too lax” in fixing the “loopholes” plaguing the current rules. It passed the Legislature with most Democrats in opposition.

The new law “is not ‘mission accomplished’ on stopping the needless censorship happening in [Florida] schools, but it might slow it in certain areas,” according to the Florida Freedom to Read Project, an organization that monitors local book challenges.

State officials including DeSantis have downplayed accusations that the state is “banning” books and label the claims as a “hoax.” DeSantis and other conservatives argue the law is meant to target books that broach sensitive topics like sexuality and gender orientation — such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” for showing sex acts and “Flamer,” which depicts young boys performing sexual acts at a summer camp. School boards should use “common sense” in considering book objections, according to DeSantis.

“The idea that a parent sending their kid to school should have to worry about some of the garbage that we’ve seen out there put into their school system, no you shouldn’t have to worry about that as a parent,” DeSantis said Monday at an event in Pensacola. “You should rest assured, send your kid to first grade — they are not going to be told they are born in the wrong body. In Florida, that is not going to happen.”

As one example of an ongoing book challenge, the Broward County school board on Tuesday is considering a local objection to the Holy Bible: King James Version. The objection called into question several verses that reference sexuality, though school officials recommend allowing the Bible to remain available to students in all grade levels.