![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Shakespeare_Droeshout_1623.jpg?resize=338%2C338&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIn Leon County, home to the state’s capital, school media specialist Kathleen Malloy says “The Bard,” William Shakespeare, could be at risk. Shakespeare’s works have already been restricted for certain grades in Orange County, which includes Orlando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schools are having to ditch long-established methods for choosing what books to purchase and teach. Since the new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis took effect July 1, if a school district finds material that contains \u201csexual conduct,\u201d under the state\u2019s definition, it must \u201cdiscontinue use of the material for any grade level or age group for which such use is inappropriate or unsuitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malloy said she used to go by a system called the Miller Test, a three-prong method\u00a0established with Supreme Court rulings<\/a>\u00a0to determine whether the material was obscene. No longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Even Shakespeare is suspect<\/strong>,\u201d Malloy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n State law goes into effect over ‘sexual conduct’ in books at schools<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malloy and other media specialists around the state are interpreting the new legislation, HB 1069<\/a>, to mean that districts could be breaking the law if they do not pull media containing \u201csexual conduct.\u201d That includes many books needed to take the College Board\u2019s Advanced Placement literature exam and dual-enrollment classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malloy said that could even apply to books that overall are “very valuable as a piece of literature,” with just one or two small scenes that fall under the “sexual conduct” definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Districts are awaiting training from the Florida Department of Education on how to proceed, and some have put their review processes on hold to wait for state guidance, including Brevard and Hillsborough<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime, book-access advocates are disputing how districts are interpreting the “sexual conduct” provision, and committees are leaning toward “erring on the side of caution” \u2013 something the state Department of Education advises media specialists to do when considering what books to keep in their libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is overly cautious,\u201d said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder and director of research and insight for the Florida Freedom to Read Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parents who disagree with a school board’s final decision on a book challenge can now also request a special magistrate from the state to review the decision, on the school district’s dime, which Ferrell said could encourage groups to pressure school districts without actually filing book challenges \u2013 and potentially forcing districts to cave to avoid the challenge costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, school districts must remove any book challenged because it includes pornography or sexual conduct within five days until the complaint is resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Education did not respond to a media request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does ‘sexual conduct’ mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state’s definition of \u201csexual conduct,\u201d<\/a> includes actual or simulated intercourse, exhibition of or physical contact with genitalia, or any depiction of “sexual battery.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Brevard County,<\/a> the district\u2019s book review committee voted to remove three texts by poet Rupi Kaur because of sexual content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Committee member Michelle Beavers said her favorite poem is from “The Sun and All Her Flowers,” one of the texts under review, but she was still in favor of removing the book. The book includes drawings depicting outlines of naked bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s against statutes. We’re done. That’s it,” she said, holding up copies of the drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While a review process is ongoing in Orange County Public Schools, four Shakespeare plays are listed as approved for only grades 10 through 12, the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> reported. Also on the temporarily rejected list are books that had been frequently taught in county high school classes, including \u201cThe Color Purple,\u201d \u201cCatch-22,\u201d \u201cBrave New World\u201d and \u201cThe Kite Runner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The common rationale: \u201csexual conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And in the Tampa area,\u00a0Pinellas County school officials, while choosing books for their annual\u00a0Battle of the Books<\/a>\u00a0competition, voiced concern about relationships and sexual situations mentioned in the texts, which could make them off-limits under the new law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pushback on book bans<\/p>\n\n\n DeSantis, who is vying for the Republican nomination for U.S. president, signed the law on the same day he signed three other bills that critics say target transgender people and the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis has maintained that the idea of book bans across Florida, which have made headlines across the nation,\u00a0is a “hoax.”<\/a>\u00a0He has bashed books<\/a>\u00a0that have been recently removed or restricted from public schools as pornographic, violent, or otherwise inappropriate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those restrictions and removals have swelled in Florida over the last two years with legislation signed by DeSantis and a push by conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, armed with lists of offending excerpts from targeted books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Leon County, the school district is contemplating delaying the checking out of books at all schools at the beginning of the school year until they can make sure they\u2019re abiding by state statute, said Superintendent Rocky Hanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not banning books, I am not that guy,\u201d Hanna said. “I also, because of this new law, do not want to be found in violation of the law and targeted by the DOE and the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this week, Hanna pulled five books that he deemed were in violation of state statute\u00a0following prodding from\u00a0a local chapter of Moms for Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will not do more than the law requires,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read project at PEN America, said the removal was an example of an activist group “intimidating” school administrators by using “overly vague” Florida law to label content as pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that discuss sex, include LGBTQ+ characters, or feature characters of color: books that do not remotely fit notions of \u2018harmful ideology and overt sexualization,\u2019\u201d Meehan said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To be or not to be on the shelf? 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