Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers ... move-books

"Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other "unvetted" book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to "groom" students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies. "

https://www.salon.com/2023/01/25/sorry- ... m-reading/

"The facts of this situation are straightforward: A Florida law signed by DeSantis requires that every book available to students "must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate," in most cases, the school librarian. This may sound reasonable on its surface, but as the situation in Manatee County shows, in reality, it's about creating a bottleneck preventing books from getting into the hands of students. Even more importantly, it's about establishing the idea that books are inherently dangerous objects, to the degree that no student can be allowed to handle one without heavy-handed surveillance."

Party o' free speech!

Ridiculous, but on the other hand, have not seen a real book in the hands of a kid over 5 in quite some time. Usually just a tablet or phone.

Who defines the vetting guidelines, the Ministry of Truth?

The party of limited government.

MaverickM11 wrote:

Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers ... move-books

"Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other "unvetted" book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to "groom" students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies. "

https://www.salon.com/2023/01/25/sorry- ... m-reading/

"The facts of this situation are straightforward: A Florida law signed by DeSantis requires that every book available to students "must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate," in most cases, the school librarian. This may sound reasonable on its surface, but as the situation in Manatee County shows, in reality, it's about creating a bottleneck preventing books from getting into the hands of students. Even more importantly, it's about establishing the idea that books are inherently dangerous objects, to the degree that no student can be allowed to handle one without heavy-handed surveillance."

Party o' free speech!

This would be hilarious if it weren't so tragically sad.

Gov. DeSantis has committed numerous First Amendment violations, including most recently banning Advanced Placement African-American history high school course since he doesn't like topics on LGBT and prison reform, and also firing the Hillsborough County state attorney over not pursuing gender conversion cases.

Why has this gone unchecked?

This has gone beyond "owning the libs" into insanity.

Is this what he's going to bring to the table in 2024?

DeSantis says Florida rejected new AP course on African American Studies for imposing 'political agenda'

Source: CNN

Judge Declines To Reinstate Florida Prosecutor Gov. DeSantis Fired—At Least For Now

Source: Forbes

Keep them dumb, illiterate and Christian extremist. That is the goal of DeSantis. Most of our problems in society come from the fact that we have so many people who don't know how to read and write, not from people who have read "subversive" books. Kids who read, no matter what they read, are not the problem. Please show me the data where children have been psychologically tramatized and their lives ruined because they read a book that had gay characters or contained a sex scene.

I have had discussions with librarians and school librarians on this topic. The school people did note that their libraries exist to support the curriculum. The problem with Florida is that the governor is pushing racist and other extremist curriculums. I do worry that as this works its way through state and federal courts our Supreme Court will approve of racist curriculums. There are avowed Christian Nationalists aboard that court, and possibly others who should face felony charges.

Hitler would be proud...

EDIT: And now I have the scene from Indiana Jones in my head where Dr. Jones Jr. gets his notebook personally signed instead of burned...

victrola wrote:

Keep them dumb, illiterate and Christian extremist. That is the goal of DeSantis. Most of our problems in society come from the fact that we have so many people who don't know how to read and write, not from people who have read "subversive" books. Kids who read, no matter what they read, are not the problem. Please show me the data where children have been psychologically traumatized and their lives ruined because they read a book that had gay characters or contained a sex scene.

Yep, an actual effort to Groom them to be morons on purpose and turn them loose into society to keep a segment of the population to keep the 'Lost Cause' alive and fighting.

Easy, peezy..I'm mean what other motive could there be?


BN747

FluidFlow wrote:

Hitler would be proud...

EDIT: And now I have the scene from Indiana Jones in my head where Dr. Jones Jr. gets his notebook personally signed instead of burned...

Indy: All I have to do is squeeze....

Elsa: All I have to do is scream...

I feel like its time to have a new gay porn act known as the Desantis!

Banning books is how all good societies start right?

Fred

Please stick to the topic.

The sad part of this is that the GOP has to read the books after they ban them.

I think the teachers should sue for false accusations .

phatfarmlines wrote:

Gov. DeSantis has committed numerous First Amendment violations, including most recently banning Advanced Placement African-American history high school course since he doesn't like topics on LGBT and prison reform, and also firing the Hillsborough County state attorney over not pursuing gender conversion cases.

Why has this gone unchecked?

This has gone beyond "owning the libs" into insanity.

Is this what he's going to bring to the table in 2024?

DeSantis says Florida rejected new AP course on African American Studies for imposing 'political agenda'

Source: CNN

Judge Declines To Reinstate Florida Prosecutor Gov. DeSantis Fired—At Least For Now

Source: Forbes

He clearly wants to be president, right? If so, this is remarkably ham-handed and stupid, and why Trump will wipe the floor with him in a debate. "He's a weirdo folks, he went after Disney, can you imagine going after Beauty... and the Beast folks? I can't believe it, what a disgrace, he even banned the Teapot, awful, what do you have to say for yourself, Fat Ron? What a disgrace folks, I tell ya..."
I can vaguely hallucinate Trump doing this and just demolishing him on a debate stage. If Trump dies he probably runs away with the nomination though lol. Any other cycle, he cleans up in Iowa and South Carolina, loses the squishes in New Hampshire, and rolls into Super Tuesday looking like a god among creepy authoritarians.

DeSantis is really running the table with this one, there's a First Amendment claim which has been resolved in Island Trees v. Pico, 5-4 with two concurrences that don't really read like concurrences, and Sandra Day O'Connor was still acting like a political operative with her dissent.
Do we want that one to go up to the court now? If they have even a sliver of a different argument and the court took it up, we'd be looking at 6-3, maybe 5-4, in favor of legalized censorship. Pico isn't a very good defense of the First Amendment rhetorically, and this would totally be the Court to throw it out.

I have no idea. It seems a little like the early Clinton-era lurch to the right on social issues and the investigations, but that rewarded them, ultimately, with 8 years of Bush, the undisputed master of cosplaying as a country bumpkin who "just doesn't get all that stuff." John Kennedy and Ted Cruz, take notes.
I definitely don't see it going away, and if we're hoping Florida moderates itself, we have 20 years of increasing Republican margins, and 4 years of DeSantis stoking this sort of fight, just to run away with re-election. It's... concerning.

Sounds like a "backdoor" way of extending the previous extremist policies to cover all age groups.

What's next... will segregation make a comeback? Will gay 10-12th graders start getting expelled? The "minor" definition starts wearing off at 16 there - looks like mini "Il Duce" can't even read his own shithole state's statutes, or statutes based on protection against discrimination based on race, Civil Rights Act etc...

SEAorPWM wrote:

What's next... will segregation make a comeback? Will gay 10-12th graders start getting expelled?

You might be onto something here. Put them in a seperate class with a seperate (non-religiously based) curiculum.

In 20 years they will be theonly people with a proper education. They will get to control all businesses and positions that require critical thinking, and then get to set the rules. Drag the country kicking and screaming into the 21st century!

Do you think the bible has been accepted?

Fred


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So the Librarian has to read every book before it goes on the shelf.

What about the books which are already on the shelf?.

bennett123 wrote:

So the Librarian has to read every book before it goes on the shelf.

What about the books which are already on the shelf?.

Will be removed if they don’t fit an anti-diversity narrative.

flipdewaf wrote:

Do you think the bible has been accepted?

Fred


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

FluidFlow wrote:

flipdewaf wrote:

Do you think the bible has been accepted?

Fred


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

My favorite saucy bit is that part where a guy watches a woman taking a shower from a rooftop, then sends her husband off to war to be killed, and then seduces the woman and knocks her up.

My second favorite is the gang rape and dismemberment scene.

Then we dined with prostitutes!!!

This was all part of the curriculum in my 7th and 8th grade special topics class.

luckyone wrote:

FluidFlow wrote:

flipdewaf wrote:

Do you think the bible has been accepted?

Fred


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

My favorite saucy bit is that part where a guy watches a woman taking a shower from a rooftop, then sends her husband off to war to be killed, and then seduces the woman and knocks her up.

My second favorite is the gang rape and dismemberment scene.

Then we dined with prostitutes!!!

This was all part of the curriculum in my 7th and 8th grade special topics class.

This would be great thing to have a class do an essay on.

Would be a fun social media discussion.

Tugg

luckyone wrote:

FluidFlow wrote:

flipdewaf wrote:

Do you think the bible has been accepted?
Fred

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

My favorite saucy bit is that part where a guy watches a woman taking a shower from a rooftop, then sends her husband off to war to be killed, and then seduces the woman and knocks her up.
My second favorite is the gang rape and dismemberment scene.
Then we dined with prostitutes!!!
This was all part of the curriculum in my 7th and 8th grade special topics class.

Was that a part of show-and-tell in those grades?

alfa164 wrote:

luckyone wrote:

FluidFlow wrote:

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

My favorite saucy bit is that part where a guy watches a woman taking a shower from a rooftop, then sends her husband off to war to be killed, and then seduces the woman and knocks her up.
My second favorite is the gang rape and dismemberment scene.
Then we dined with prostitutes!!!
This was all part of the curriculum in my 7th and 8th grade special topics class.

Was that a part of show-and-tell in those grades?

I’ve heard that at some catholic schools they have practicals…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From what my friend told me, it’s not just school libraries but also classrooms. Teachers have to cover the books with paper.

If I were a teacher I would ban all books from coming into the classroom including school books. Just a pen and paper and watch movies every class and write a 1 page paper. No homework that way!

SRQLOT wrote:

From what my friend told me, it’s not just school libraries but also classrooms. Teachers have to cover the books with paper.

If I were a teacher I would ban all books from coming into the classroom including school books. Just a pen and paper and watch movies every class and write a 1 page paper. No homework that way!

I'd probably get fired for making my class watch 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Little Miss Sunshine', and then 'Kinky Boots'.

What is wrong with 'Saving Private Ryan'?.

Aaron747 wrote:

SRQLOT wrote:

From what my friend told me, it’s not just school libraries but also classrooms. Teachers have to cover the books with paper.

If I were a teacher I would ban all books from coming into the classroom including school books. Just a pen and paper and watch movies every class and write a 1 page paper. No homework that way!

I'd probably get fired for making my class watch 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Little Miss Sunshine', and then 'Kinky Boots'.

I think you’ll find this is the only sanctioned video in these classrooms now.

https://youtu.be/Kppx4bzfAaE

Fred


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

flipdewaf wrote:

Aaron747 wrote:

SRQLOT wrote:

From what my friend told me, it’s not just school libraries but also classrooms. Teachers have to cover the books with paper.

If I were a teacher I would ban all books from coming into the classroom including school books. Just a pen and paper and watch movies every class and write a 1 page paper. No homework that way!

I'd probably get fired for making my class watch 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Little Miss Sunshine', and then 'Kinky Boots'.

I think you’ll find this is the only sanctioned video in these classrooms now.

https://youtu.be/Kppx4bzfAaE

Fred


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ahhhhh shocking I have seen it years ago. Haha

bennett123 wrote:

What is wrong with 'Saving Private Ryan'?.

Lots of things potentially

Antisemite: made by a Jewish director
Far right: makes all Nazis look bad, glorifies their death/defeat in battle
Anarchist: glorifies service to government and country
University knee jerk activist: excessive violence, lack of female characters with speaking parts

FluidFlow wrote:

flipdewaf wrote:

Do you think the bible has been accepted?

Fred


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably not, all this inclusion stuff (“Love your neighbor as yourself”) can not be accepted. Also there many very sexually loaded parts that should not be in school, some people even have sex with animals in this horrendous book...

Now there's a book that needs to be banned from any modern day civilized society...

The Bible, the Torah and Quran and any other sexually retarded, sexually repressive and out right ignorant assemblage of a guide to anything intelligent.

It served it's day when everyone was extraordinarily ignorant and you pull the wool over everyone's eyes except for the one's keen on human exploitation of one another, usually the elders.

But those three and others are like a 1600+ year movie campaign and advertisment - uninterrupted - for that long, That's a guarantee that everyone has 'seen' your movie, every generation for 1000s of years. And like parrots, they repeated obsessively.

Leading to many outcomes such as the late great crooner Marvin Gaye being killed by his own father, a minister.

One needs to only look at your own home town or county's 1900 census...and make note of who could read, write and speak 'English'.
It will astound you to see just how ass backwards everyone was, but they were modern by wild west standards as they were to the Conquistadors as they were to the Neanderthals.

Ignorance has been with us FAr FAR FAR longer than actual self owning, pursuant, exhibiting individual Human Intelligence.

The one thing that assures the prosperity of the species...as long as the Ignorance is kept in check. J6 committee is a prime example of that.


The Bible, or as I prefer to call it the Book of Pervs, with no less that 8 unicorn mentions, the telling of a woman of her place, a god who deeply cares with 'what you do with wang or your VJay'. What clothes you wear and when, what to eat and what not.

The staggering Ignorance we all once were to fall for all of that without question...we didn't even know how to ask the right questions.


But I digress, every Red State embraces this Ancient Ignorance with a Gorilla grip. It's why progress is s-l-ow in places like Mississippi and rural India/Africa and Asia.


BN747

BN747 wrote:

...blah, blah, blah...

....It's why progress is s-l-ow in places like Mississippi and rural India/Africa and Asia.

BN747

...and they'd rather that galaxy load of ignorance over ever teaching their kids about the Black Experience (and making of) in America
Or the oppressive history of LGBTQ people.


They want the Bible, they prefer 'stone age thought' as oppose to discussing and tackling the difficult historical path to


BN747

Ignorant masses are likelier to vote for manipulative politicians... Until they can't vote at all anymore.

Once again, the GOP takes a page from every Autocracy 101 lecture.


-Taking control of and dictating children education programs... working on it
-Taking control of the justice system... in progress
-Taking control of the media and general narrative... The billionaires are on it
-Weakening democratic and electoral processes... check
-Diverting attention from the flourishing plutocracy and eroding democracy by fostering anger over inconsequential social issues... Oh look, over there! A gay! And he wants to take your gun and turn your kid into a Drag Queen!

Francoflier wrote:

Ignorant masses are likelier to vote for manipulative politicians... Until they can't vote at all anymore.

Once again, the GOP takes a page from every Autocracy 101 lecture.


-Taking control of and dictating children education programs... working on it
-Taking control of the justice system... in progress
-Taking control of the media and general narrative... The billionaires are on it
-Weakening democratic and electoral processes... check
-Diverting attention from the flourishing plutocracy and eroding democracy by fostering anger over inconsequential social issues... Oh look, over there! A gay! And he wants to take your gun and turn your kid into a Drag Queen!

That also mirrors the playbook described by a KGB defector regarding how the US would be slow-motion destabilized into a failed democracy.

https://youtu.be/pOmXiapfCs8

Francoflier wrote:

Ignorant masses are likelier to vote for manipulative politicians... Until they can't vote at all anymore.

Once again, the GOP takes a page from every Autocracy 101 lecture.


-Taking control of and dictating children education programs... working on it
-Taking control of the justice system... in progress
-Taking control of the media and general narrative... The billionaires are on it
-Weakening democratic and electoral processes... check
-Diverting attention from the flourishing plutocracy and eroding democracy by fostering anger over inconsequential social issues... Oh look, over there! A gay! And he wants to take your gun and turn your kid into a Drag Queen!

With a conservative super majority on the Supreme Court, and with the Senate majority focusing on just confirming as many judges as possible during the first 2 years of the Trump admin, I would argue that they've already got the justice system in the bag.

Otherwise all good points. I think the erosion of civic understanding and tendency toward extreme narratives and conspiracy theories has been amplified to the extreme by smartphones and social media, especially when you consider that there's a huuuuge chunk of the US the primarily consumes media on their phones. 40% of Americans believed, on the day of the midterms, that the 2020 election was stolen. 40% of Democrats didn't think the 2000 election was stolen, even after the Brooks Brothers riot.

There's been a huge, undeniable devastation done to democratic institutions, and I'm blaming the phones and social media. I think we are definitely headed towards autocracy, I just haven't figured out what it's gonna look like yet.

bluecrew wrote:

Francoflier wrote:

Ignorant masses are likelier to vote for manipulative politicians... Until they can't vote at all anymore.

Once again, the GOP takes a page from every Autocracy 101 lecture.


-Taking control of and dictating children education programs... working on it
-Taking control of the justice system... in progress
-Taking control of the media and general narrative... The billionaires are on it
-Weakening democratic and electoral processes... check
-Diverting attention from the flourishing plutocracy and eroding democracy by fostering anger over inconsequential social issues... Oh look, over there! A gay! And he wants to take your gun and turn your kid into a Drag Queen!

With a conservative super majority on the Supreme Court, and with the Senate majority focusing on just confirming as many judges as possible during the first 2 years of the Trump admin, I would argue that they've already got the justice system in the bag.

Otherwise all good points. I think the erosion of civic understanding and tendency toward extreme narratives and conspiracy theories has been amplified to the extreme by smartphones and social media, especially when you consider that there's a huuuuge chunk of the US the primarily consumes media on their phones. 40% of Americans believed, on the day of the midterms, that the 2020 election was stolen. 40% of Democrats didn't think the 2000 election was stolen, even after the Brooks Brothers riot.

There's been a huge, undeniable devastation done to democratic institutions, and I'm blaming the phones and social media. I think we are definitely headed towards autocracy, I just haven't figured out what it's gonna look like yet.

Yes, we are headed towards an autocracy. The constant drum beat of "both sides do it so let's forgive MAGAs but put 'liberals' on trial" and "'liberals' want to indoctrinate your kids" and "'liberals' murder babies" and so on is how we are getting there. Far too many people believe these things, despite the facts presented.

And, yes, Democrats believe Florida was handed to GWB. Still, to this day. However, instead of trying to violently overthrow the government and murder elected officials, Democrats have been trying to write laws to prevent that from happening again. Those bills and laws are constantly being challenged by Republicans because "we already have laws on the books" and "'liberals' just want bigger government" and "'liberals' are trying to take our freedoms and rights".