Unintended Consequences

More laws mean more complications.  More complications, mean more confusion.

Any time new legislation is passed, there is always not just the possibility, but the likelihood, that it will carry unintended consequences.  Sometimes these can be good, sometimes they can be bad.  But lawmakers cannot predict every single aspect of a new law’s application in the real world when they write it.  That is why they are usually extremely careful about passing new laws.

It is also why passing laws in a completely reactionary way can lead to more problems than the ones they are attempting to ‘solve.’

The laws that encourage, or at the very least create pathways for, book bans and library censorship are prime examples here in the state of Florida.  Bills like HB 1069 have required the passage of more laws like HB 1285 to try and scale back some of their unintended consequences.  The passage of one law required the passage of another just to fix the issues of the first one’s vague language. 

More laws mean more complications.  More complications, mean more confusion.

And what has that confusion led to in Florida?  Let’s take a look at an example that would be just weird if they were not so damaging to our students’ literary and educational opportunities. 

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The age appropriateness of a book is something that has become hotly contested in recent years, especially in the wake of HB1069.  While we recognize not every book is appropriate for every reader, and certainly libraries should be curated in a way to cater to their expected patrons (i.e. mostly young adult books in a high school library, more children’s books in an elementary library), we also have to recognize that exceptions exist. 

American education is designed to teach the mean.  It is structured so the average student should get marginally the same experience from one classroom to the next.  However, some students learn quicker.  Some students learn differently.  And to that end, we should have systems or opportunities in place for students of differing ability to experience an enriching educational experience. 

HB 1069 actively works against this.  It demands a flattening of the curve and does not allow for advanced readers in younger grades to explore deeper or more advanced content. 

Here is what we mean. 

HB 1069 requires that media specialists examine every material to determine whether or not it would be considered “age appropriate” under current standards for the students their library serves.  A few examples of books that have recently been deemed ‘inappropriate’ for fourth through sixth grade readers in certain Brevard elementary schools based on their story structure and vocabulary usage are Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

Topically speaking, these books are relatively innocuous and inoffensive, but some of the literary structuring they employ is more advanced. 

Here’s the unintended consequence of HB 1069. 

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Because these books have been ‘aged up’ in an attempt to comply with new appropriateness standards under the law, it necessarily requires they be denied to advanced readers at the late elementary level. 

That’s right.  An eleven year old who displays exceptional reading ability may not be allowed to read Anne of Green Gables or Little Women in their school library because a cautious media specialist has determined that the law requires they be denied based on age categorization. 

In the past, we’ve talked about the culture of fear and the chilling effect that book banning laws have.  This is a prime example.  The law forces media specialists to think only of the most conservative voices, and the largest possible group, instead of being able to work with students who might have a more advanced reading ability.  So, rather than students with higher reading capacity being exposed to more enriching texts, they are denied educational opportunities. 

Now, Governor DeSantis has stated this is not the intended purpose of HB 1069.  (In fact, as we pointed out earlier, that’s why he had to pass HB 1285).  He’s made statements against the proposed banning and challenges of certain books, and argued that they are only ‘one off’ examples of the misuse of the law’s structure.     

But is the Governor going to make a statement about every individual book being removed that should not have been?  These laws are so vague and broad that best practices and individual training are being set aside for blurry lines, broad application and for whatever the loudest voice in a community is screaming for, despite what everyone else is actually in favor of.  

And the more these ‘one offs’ spread, the more a culture of censorship becomes the norm.

Think about this.  Back in 2018, who would have objected to Little Women being present in an elementary school library?  What about in 2019?  Even 2020?  But now that HB1069 is in place, suddenly we may have to accept that Little Women is inappropriate for advanced elementary readers, despite the fact that this was categorically NOT an issue before?

These laws have created a permission structure that forces people to just accept that these books are not age appropriate.

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What about parental liberty?  Are we okay as a society that the state law dictates certain books can ONLY be read at certain grade levels, regardless of parental support? 

And what are the lasting impacts of these laws?  If a book has been removed from an elementary school and labeled age inappropriate by HB 1069, years from now if a 5th grader of advanced reading level at that very same school wants to read Anne of Green Gables and asks a media specialist for that book, will they not be able to access it? 

Further, laws like HB 1069 create a landscape where it has become easier to ‘age up’ a book’s “appropriateness,” regardless of the author or publisher’s original intent.  State lawmakers may not realize this, but a great degree of thought, marketing, and writing technique go into how a book is positioned in the marketplace.  Authors and publishers don’t just make up their intended audience as they go along.  It is something that is understood at the outset of publication, and the book is released into the world in a very specific way and with very specific language to cater to very specific audiences. 

So for the state of Florida to decide that books like Speak, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or The Hate You Give, which were very specifically written and published for young adult audiences, that they are inappropriate for teenage readers is a bit galling. 

As long as these laws remain in place, the unintended consequences of their passing will only get worse.  The landscape of censorship and fear will only continue to spread.   

Parents will continue to be denied the liberty of deciding what their children can and cannot read.

Students will continue to lose educational opportunities. 

And to be clear, it is these laws that are allowing for this to happen.  The state’s attack on libraries and literature through laws like these are allowing for books to be ripped away from students literally by the hundreds. 

Or, as one commenter put it:

Only a handful of books were used to argue a need for these censorious laws. Now, we have hundreds of titles restricted or removed in different districts throughout FL because of these laws, and the same “liberty” loving people downplay these instances as one-off scenarios that are nothing to worry about. 

Except we know that these are not just one-off scenarios that are nothing to worry about.  It is a culture of silence and censorship.  It is a culture of book bans.   

And we need to keep pushing back.

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