{"id":64620,"date":"2026-04-10T18:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64620"},"modified":"2026-04-10T18:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:40:07","slug":"group-says-polk-school-district-is-removing-books-under-state-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/group-says-polk-school-district-is-removing-books-under-state-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Group says Polk school district is removing books under state pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recent reports and ongoing community advocacy highlight that the Polk County Public Schools (PCPS)<\/strong> district is currently facing significant pressure regarding book removals. While the district maintains that it is following state law, local groups and national organizations characterize these actions as censorship driven by political pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Key Developments as of April 2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Mandatory Removals:<\/strong> Under Florida Statute 1006.28<\/strong>, any book formally challenged by a parent or resident must be removed from shelves within five days<\/strong> while a review is conducted. This “guilty until proven innocent” approach has led to many titles being inaccessible to students for months at a time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Targeted Content:<\/strong> The majority of the books being challenged and removed are those featuring LGBTQ+ characters<\/strong>, themes of racism<\/strong>, or discussions of gender identity<\/strong>. High-profile titles recently under review include:\n
      \n
    • Thirteen Reasons Why<\/em> by Jay Asher<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Check & Mate<\/em> by Ali Hazelwood<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Queer, There, and Everywhere<\/em> by Sarah Prager<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • State vs. Local Control:<\/strong> Local groups, such as the Polk County DSA<\/strong>, argue that the district is over-complying with state directives to avoid legal threats. Conversely, the district leadership has expressed that they are obligated to investigate all allegations of “harmful material” to protect staff from potential felony charges under updated state statutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The Review Process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      The district has established a formal review committee system to evaluate these titles. As of April 9, 2026<\/strong>, meetings are actively being held at various high schools (including Winter Haven and George Jenkins) to determine the permanent status of several challenged books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Broader Context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Florida currently leads the nation in book challenges. New legislative efforts in the 2026 session, such as HB 1119<\/strong>, seek to further restrict how districts evaluate books by explicitly forbidding them from considering a work’s “literary, artistic, or scientific value” if it is accused of being obscene. This has created a climate where school districts like Polk feel forced to prioritize removal over professional library curation standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Recent reports and ongoing community advocacy highlight that the Polk County Public Schools (PCPS) district is currently facing significant pressure regarding book removals. While the district maintains that it is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL2ltYWdlcy01LndlYnA_Zml0PTE4NiUyQzI3MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikdyb3VwIHNheXMgUG9sayBzY2hvb2wgZGlzdHJpY3QgaXMgcmVtb3ZpbmcgYm9va3MgdW5kZXIgc3RhdGUgcHJlc3N1cmUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.oZnYQCR4g3Ck7B0qOBIJGPpVMCwWScHbfAafXtzZUIgMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9pbWFnZXMtNS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiR3JvdXAgc2F5cyBQb2xrIHNjaG9vbCBkaXN0cmljdCBpcyByZW1vdmluZyBib29rcyB1bmRlciBzdGF0ZSBwcmVzc3VyZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9._OXqebf9__gXAaurRTKhA1Ua94Tgv611GVUMqX5TfS4MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[14351],"class_list":["post-64620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-group-says-polk-school-district-is-removing-books-under-state-pressure"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64622,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64620\/revisions\/64622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}