DeSantis changes Florida book challenge law, charges liberal activist who wanted Bible removed from schools

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Two years ago, Democrats repeatedly and forcefully warned Republicans and the governor. Ron DeSantis that a new law making it easier to challenge textbooks was worded in such broad terms that it would create havoc across the state.

Now they can say, “I told you so.” »

DeSantis backtracked on the 2022 law Tuesday when he signed a bill narrowing the scope. He blamed liberal activists for abusing the law, not citizens whose objections to certain books account for the majority of book removals from school libraries and classrooms.

“The idea that someone can use parental rights and program transparency to start opposing every book and try to make fun of it is just wrong,” DeSantis said the day before the signing Bill. “It’s performative. It’s political.

Coincidentally, PEN America, a group that fights against book banning, released a report Tuesday claiming that Florida is responsible for 72 percent of the books removed from schools nationwide during the first half of the school year in course.

The organization said liberal activists are not the ones who should be blamed for abusing the law.

“The majority of books we see removed are books that talk about LBTQ+ identities, that include characters of color, that talk about race and racism, that include depictions of sexual experiences in the broadest interpretation of that understanding,” said Kasey Meehan. , director of Pen America’s Freedom to Read program.

These challenges are being made by conservative individuals and groups such as Moms For Liberty, Meehan said.

The original law allowed anyone – parent or not, district resident or not – to challenge the books as often as they wished. Once challenged, a book must be removed from shelves until the school district resolves the complaint. The new law limits people who don’t have students in a school district to one challenge per month.

The PEN America report says Florida is responsible for 3,135 of the 4,349 textbook bans in the United States so far this school year. Just this week in conservative Clay County, a person challenged 40 pounds, Meehan said.

Before dropping out of the Republican presidential primary, DeSantis campaigned heavily on his education agenda, including the law giving people more power to challenge books.

“It’s just a big mess that DeSantis created and now he’s trying to disavow it, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to distance himself from it because he campaigned so hard on it,” he said. declared Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives Fentrice Driskell.

This isn’t the only example of a tough-talking governor having to change the ideology he championed during his campaign for the White House.

He also made concessions in settling several lawsuits involving the state and Walt Disney World. The dispute between them erupted in 2022 after the company spoke out against a DeSantis-backed law that his opponents dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.” The law prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The Associated Press asked DeSantis’ office for examples of liberal activists abusing the law and provided one: Chaz Stevens, a South Florida resident who has often ridiculed the government. Stevens has raised challenges in dozens of school districts regarding the Bible, dictionaries and thesauri.

The law change “ensures that book challenges are limited to individuals, like Chaz, who do not have children with access to school district materials,” DeSantis spokeswoman Julia Friedland said in an email. emails asking for more examples.

Stevens, who made national news 11 years ago when he installed a Festivus pole made from beer cans in front of a nativity scene on display at the Capitol, was thrilled that DeSantis’ office chose him.

“When they need to make stupid people dumber, they send me. I’m part actor, part activist, part artist. I just want a better society,” Stevens said. “I’m an idiot, but a smart guy at the same time.”

While DeSantis’ predecessor, now Republican Sen. Rick Scott, allowed what was then called the “free speech zone” in the Capitol rotunda, the rules changed under DeSantis and new barriers were put up. in place to use Capitol space for political expression. The League of Women Voters and Stevens are among the candidates denied access under the new rules.

“I didn’t realize I had the power of millions!” Stevens said. “I’m just a guy. I am an agitator. I know my role in all of this.

Driskell pointed out that DeSantis had been warned there would be problems when the law banning the books passed in 2022.

“We told him. Florida Democrats on the ground – during our debate, during our questions – pointed out the vagueness of the original law and how it could be open to abuse,” she said. “Chaz is not the problem. The problem is those who take liberties with the law.”