Florida removed over 4,500 adult and LGBTQ books from schools last year, says report

 Florida has emerged as the top state in America for so-called "book banning," according to a recent report.

More than 4,500 total books (and 4,231 individual titles) were pulled from Florida public schools in the 2023-2024 school year, based on the report by PEN America, a free speech nonprofit. This is a massive increase from the 1,406 books banned the previous school year and accounts for nearly half of the more than 10,000 books removed from schools nationwide.

As stated in the report, 39 percent of the books banned had LGBTQ themes and characters, and 57 percent had "sex or sex-related content." Another 44 percent were about "characters of color," but PEN America did not explicitly state that race was a motivating factor for removal, merely suggesting a correlation. 

Florida's 2023 law, House Bill 1069, made a legal process for pulling out books, in addition to a requirement that they be removed while schools reply to challenges filed by parents or citizens.

The list gathered by PEN America involves books permanently removed from schools, removed pending investigation, and restricted based on grade level or parental permission requirement.

33 School districts in Florida have removed books

As stated by PEN America's report, 33 of Florida's 73 public school districts removed books from their school's shelves.

The highest removal numbers in the state came from Escambia, Clay, Collier and Orange counties.

Escambia comprised 1,582 of Florida's removals, many of which were "banned pending investigation" in August 2023, immediately after the book removal law came into effect.

"This crisis is tragic for young people hungry to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books. What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives, whether critical thinking, empathy across difference, personal well-being, or long-term success," PEN America Freedom to Read Director Kasey Meehan said in a statement.

Bryan Griffin, the spokesman of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the concept that not everything is appropriate to be in a school is still an unacceptable concept to Florida print media and Democrats. "They're still trying to equate removing porn from the classroom with a 'book ban.' Good thing they've rendered themselves irrelevant in this state," he said.

In August, Griffin said some "dumped" books were actually "just getting replaced with newer versions." During a press conference last year, DeSantis showed examples of sexually explicit materials.

"Exposing the 'book ban' hoax is important because it reveals that some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination. In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards," DeSantis said.