After national backlash, Florida lawmakers eye changes to book restrictions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature wanted to keep obscene books out of the hands of kids. But some are now acknowledging they created a “logistical nightmare” that lawmakers are trying to rein in.

Legislators this month introduced a new idea to curb frivolous challenges to books — one of the first admissions the law, which tightened scrutiny around books with sexual content in K-12 schools, may have gone too far. The potential solution: allowing local schools to charge some people a $100 fee if they want to object to more than five books.

“I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children,” said state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, a Republican from Fort Pierce who is sponsoring the legislation. “But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time.”

Florida’s Legislature in 2023 expanded education transparency laws by requiring books considered pornographic, harmful to minors or that depict sexual activity to be pulled from shelves within five days and remain out of circulation for the duration of any challenge. If school officials deem a book inappropriate, it can be permanently removed from circulation or restricted to certain grade levels.

The law caused a national outcry after local schools received hundreds of challenges to a wide range of books, leading to reviews of titles like Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “And Tango Makes Three,” a kids book about a penguin family with two dads. It’s also led to multiple lawsuits againsttop education officials andlocal school boards asserting that the restrictions violate free speech. Florida, according to the free speech advocacy group PEN America, has “banned” more books than any other state — some 1,406 works total.

Even conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly derided the law after school officials in Escambia County removed two of his books — Killing Jesus: A History” and “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” — pending a review for possible sexual conduct. O’Reilly toldNewsweek he implored the state and Gov. Ron DeSantis to take action because the policy is “far too nebulous in Tallahassee” and needs to be “tightened up.”

State officials including DeSantis, however, have downplayed accusations that the state is “banning” books and labeled the claims as a “hoax.” DeSantis and other conservatives argue the law is meant to target books that broach sensitive topics like sexuality and gender orientation — such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” for showing sex acts and “Flamer,” which depicts young boys performing sexual acts at a summer camp.

The proposal from Trabulsy, tucked into a larger effort seeking to deregulate rules in public schools, authorizes local districts to collect a $100 fee for each book objection that comes from anyone without a student in the district. The fee would kick in only after the complainant challenged five books and the money must be returned if the objection is ultimately withheld.

House legislators have advanced the bill through two committees, though the Florida Senate doesn’t have similar legislation. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said this week that the upper chamber has “not yet looked into” the idea.

Andres Malave, spokesperson for Speaker Paul Renner, said the original law is necessary to ensure kids aren't exposed to inappropriate books and helped keep obscene material off shelves. But he added that this year’s proposal will hopefully “weed out the possibility of abuse in the process, encouraging only legitimate claims to be brought forward for review.”

The proposal has strong supporters, especially among some school officials who say the book review process is “cumbersome” for campuses, especially among smaller school districts with less staff.

“It is a burden, and we need to make sure that the books that are being removed from the children are actually obscene,” Sue Woltanski, chair of Monroe County’s school board who favors the policy, told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday. “If they are challenged for frivolous reasons, well maybe it will stop that, and we’ll be able to focus on getting the books that really could be harmful to children out of the library.”

The potential book challenge fee, which received bipartisan support from House members, is still facing resistance from inside the Statehouse and beyond. One conservative group that has been active in book challenges, the Florida Citizens Alliance, has “major opposition” to the proposal and believes it will “backtrack” the state’s policies.

And state Rep. Mike Beltran, a Republican from Apollo Beach, voted against the overarching bill during its introductory hearing, saying it would be a “real tough vote” to consider it on the floor.

“I’m afraid that this fee would potentially chill those challenges,” Beltran said during a hearing earlier this month. “I’m not aware that there are any frivolous challenges. There’s been no evidence before this committee that there have been people who are abusing the system or making frivolous complaints.”

Other lawmakers disagreed with Beltran.

“If you say that you haven’t seen abuses of this provision, and books challenged that had nothing to do with obscenities, then I don’t think you’re really paying attention to the issue,” state Rep. Christopher Benjamin, a Democrat from Miami Gardens.