Three Florida parents sued Florida’s Board of Education on Thursday because they allege the board violates their rights by not having a process to object to the removal of books from school libraries and classrooms.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the plaintiffs say that Florida law H.B. 1069 violates their First Amendment rights and discriminates against parents who oppose book bans because it does not outline a formal process for individuals to challenge or overturn a decision when their school board removes a book. But the law does require school boards to adopt policies based on parent objections to books or material.
“The statute only provides a mechanism for a parent to object to the affirmative use of material; it does not provide a mechanism for a parent to object to the lack of use or discontinued use of material,” the lawsuit says.
Parents of public school children cited the removal of books including Slaughterhouse-Five, A Stolen Life, Freedom Writers Diary, and others in the complaint. “Neither one of my children had classroom libraries because of the fear of being found out of compliance for a book on the shelf,” says Stephana Ferrell, 41, a parent of two kids in Orange County Public Schools and plaintiff in the case.
H.B. 1069 restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, defines sex an “immutable biological trait,” and prevents public school employees or contractors from sharing their preferred pronouns or titles to students if their identity differed from their sex assigned at birth.
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This is not the first lawsuit filed against H.B. 1069. A judge also issued a preliminary injunction in April in favor of a transgender teacher who sued to be able to use their preferred pronouns in the classroom, though the case was appealed and is now heading to the…
