Over 100 LGBTQ- and Race-Themed Books in a Florida School District Labeled with Advisory Warning
Tianrui Huang, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association
A southwest Florida district put parental “advisory notice” on over 100 books, many of which are race or LGBTQ-themed.
A great number of books in Collier County Public Schools, either digital or physical, now have warning labels with an “advisory notice to parents,” according to an NBC report.
The label, tweeted by nonprofit free-speech-promoting group PEN American, states, “This Advisory Notice shall serve to inform you that this book has been identified by some community members as unsuitable for students. This book will also be identified in the Destiny system with the same notation. The decision as to whether this book is suitable or unsuitable shall be the decision of the parent(s) who has the right to oversee his/her child’s education consistent with state law.”
Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, an organization working to fight book banning, told NBC that she had a call from Elizabeth Alves, the associate superintendent of teaching and learning for Collier County Public Schools. In the call, Alves told her that the district added the labels starting in February.
These measures, which Alves described as a “compromise,” happened after the district’s legal representative talked with the Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group which initiated a “Porn in Schools Report” project last year. The report included a list of books that “promote gender self-identification and same-sex marriage” as well as titles that include “indecent and offensive material,” as the group explained.
Chad Oliver, the Collier County Public Schools spokesperson, on the other hand, offered a different story.
Oliver sent an email to NBC News saying, “Based upon advice from the General Counsel, we placed advisory notices on books about which parents and community members had expressed concern and in accordance with the recently passed Parents’ Bill of Rights Law (HB 241).”
The law Oliver referred to is also colloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
According to PEN America, there are 110 books now bearing this label in total, and the list greatly overlaps with the one Florida Citizens Alliance inquired about with Collier County Public Schools.