Would you believe a school library system would go so far as to ban a book about book banning just because it mentions banned books?
Over the last many months and years, we’ve been bringing you news and action around the troubling and growing trend of school systems removing books from library shelves over the objections of the majority and under the direction of a radical minority. We have discussed how many of these books are being banned from schools, oftentimes not for their actual content but for the perception of their content. That the parties requesting these books be banned have again and again shown that they are unfamiliar with, or have never read, the books they want stripped away.
We have shown that all it takes to have a book ripped away from your students is for one person— just one— to register some nominal complaint, and within the bounds of state laws, that single complaint about an unfounded claim can force a book’s removal.
But would you believe a school library system would go so far as to ban a book about book banning just because it mentions banned books?
If that sentence was confusing to read, the rationale is even more confusing.
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Yes. Indian River recently removed the book “Ban This Book,” against a committee recommendation to retain it on library shelves, simply because it mentions books that are commonly banned by school systems around the nation.
Think about that. The book itself does not have any objectionable content. But it mentions books that small minorities elsewhere have found objectionable.
And for that reason, in Indian River, it had to go.
So here is, briefly, what happened. The Moms for Liberty Chapter Chair submitted an objection to Alan Gantz’s book Ban This Book, a junior fiction novel about a student who finds that her favorite book has been banned from her school library. The mere mention of book banning was enough for a case to be filed against it to have it removed from shelves.
However.
A district committee that included parents, per the county’s own guidelines, met and reviewed the book. They submitted a recommendation to the IRC School Board that the book be retained on library shelves. They found nothing objectionable in its contents based on the Florida state laws on what cannot be present in school libraries.
That’s when the school board stepped in and reversed the decision.
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In a 3-2 decision, the Indian River County School Board overrode the decision of the review committee and had the book removed.
The argument made by members of the school board and commenting parents (several of whom were part of the radical group Moms for Liberty) was that Ban This Book teaches kids how to fight back against book bans and keep their favorite books around.
…Except that these individuals said the books children were being encouraged to fight for were books that encouraged bestiality and pedophilia. Something so abhorrent and downright false it shocks the conscience.
The vote count itself is the result of the direct influence of Governor Ron DeSantis as well. A new member sitting on the Indian River County school board was placed there after a former member, who believed he was no longer districted to sit on the board after map lines were redrawn, was forced to resign. When the former board member realized his error, he rescinded his resignation.
Governor DeSantis did not accept and went forward with putting his own appointee in place. That appointee not only swung the vote, but delivered some of the most egregious comments regarding the content of Ban This Book.
Is this liberty? Is this parental rights? Governor DeSantis himself overturned the voice of the people. He denied an elected official elected by his county to return to his seat after a mistake and installed his own board member. Fundamentally, that is undemocratic and a subversion of the will of the people of Indian River County.
And what about parents’ rights, something these parties constantly put at the forefront of their argument? Two out of five parents found the book objectionable— but what about the other three? Since a minority of parents represented didn’t like the book, they get to take it away from the majority? What about the rights of the parents who wanted the book to remain?
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Further! Some of the arguments made in the session referred to restrictions on topics that can or cannot be discussed in schools. Except that those rules apply to classroom discussion, not library content! This point is actually so confusing that state lawmakers themselves do not understand the bill they passed and do not realize this nuance. So the argument being made at the school board meeting echoes the understanding of state lawmakers— but it still is not the correct interpretation of the law!
It all would be funny if it were not so serious. A book that has been bought and paid for by the taxpayers of Indian River County is now denied to its students because of the absurd arguments brought against it, and because of an undemocratic process where the minority took something away from the majority.
Ban This Book was not supposed to be a challenge to lawmakers. It was supposed to be a lighthearted, junior read about freedom of speech and what it means to stand up for your favorite books.
The school board of Indian River County seems to have missed that message.
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