Charles Bethea writes: “House Bill 1467, enacted last July, mandates that books in Florida’s public schools be free of pornography and suited to ‘student needs,’ as determined by a librarian or school media specialist. Those specialists had been waiting for retraining guidelines, which only became available in January, according to Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association. Spar estimated that public school teachers in a third of the state’s counties have been instructed to box or cover up books until they’ve been reviewed for compliance with the new law. In Palm Beach County, two books were removed last spring in anticipation of the law, and Brevard County’s classroom libraries were ‘taking a pause’ on classroom libraries by the summer.”
The New Yorker, Feb. 7; Florida Today, July 14, 2022; South Florida Sun Sentinel, Apr. 6, 2022