Global Courant 2023-05-24 12:31:02
Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, spoke out on Tuesday against what she described as a book ban after access to the poem she recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration was restricted at a Florida school.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has moved “The Hill We Climb” to the high school section of the library after a parent formally objected to the work, according to documents obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and shared with the media. The Miami announces first reported the story.
“Unnecessary #bookbans like this are on the rise and we need to fight back,” Gorman said in a post on Facebook which was accompanied by a one-page statement saying her book had been banned from an elementary school.
In a statement, the district said no literature had been banned or removed.
“It was determined at the school that ‘The Hill We Climb’ is better suited for high school students and it was filed away in the high school section of the media center. The book will remain available in the media center,” the statement said.
A review of five available titles at the Bob Graham Education Center library in Miami Lakes was triggered after a parent of two students filled out forms requesting that the titles be removed “from the total environment,” according to documents obtained by the Freedom to Read Project, a group founded by public school parents and dedicated to fighting what it calls book bans in the state.
The review, by a committee made up of multiple teachers and others associated with the school, resulted in the relocation of “The Hill We Climb” to the high school section of the school library, formally referred to as the Media Center, the Miami-Dade District . said.
The committee also determined that at least two other titles it reviewed should be moved to high school bookshelves, according to the documents.
The documents were obtained after the Freedom to Read project filed a public records request in February, and include both the parent’s challenge and the review committee’s written conclusions, the group’s Raegan Miller said.
Miller denounced the school’s restriction because, she said, children who seek knowledge in their own free time and who may not be able to easily purchase books should be encouraged.
“This isn’t classroom instruction,” she said. “These are kids looking for more information.”
The Miami Herald reported that challenges to accessing Florida school libraries have increased since Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a number of education-related bills, including what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans K-. 3 instruction regarding gender identity and sexual orientation.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Last week, Gorman’s publisher, Penguin Random House, sued the nonprofit PEN America against what the organization characterized as “unconstitutional book bans” in Florida’s Escambia County School District.
In Miami-Dade County, the parent who requested that the titles be reconsidered told the Miami Herald that she was not in favor of “eliminating or censoring” books, and that she wanted students to learn “the truth” about Cuba.
The parent did not respond to a voicemail from NBC News asking for comment.
The appeal for “Cuban Kids” and “Countries in the News Cuba” mentioned “indoctrination,” according to the documents.
In the paperwork for “The ABCs of Black History,” the parent wrote that it contained CRT — the acronym for critical race theory — and “gender ideology,” according to the documents.
The title was tailored for elementary-level reading, but the committee recommended moving it to high school bookshelves because of its vocabulary and subject matter, according to the documents.
In the form related to “The Hill I Climb,” the parent wrote that it was “not educational” and contained indirect “hate messages.” The committee ruled that Gorman’s book has educational value, according to the documents, but it was moved because the vocabulary was “determined to be valuable to high school students.”
In a tweet Posted later Tuesday, Gorman said a ban is “any action against a book that restricts or reduces access to a book.” The decision to move her book following a parent’s complaint “reduces the access elementary school students previously had to my poem,” Gorman said.
