Hillsborough mom urges school board to ‘resist book banning narrative’: ‘Intellectually dishonest’
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (FLV) – Hillsborough County mom Julie Gebhards spoke out at the county’s school board meeting to encourage board members to resist the “book banning narrative.”
During the public comment portion of the school board meeting Tuesday, Gebhards said no one is “legally prohibiting books.”
“Lets be clear. It’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that parents are banning books,” Gebhards said.
NEW: Parent speaks at Hillsborough County School Board against “book ban” narrative
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) June 8, 2023
“It's intellectually dishonest to suggest that parents are banning books […] We simply want to protect children and we won't be silent until we do." (@Julie_Gebhards) pic.twitter.com/FynGjrYZQt
“Labeling parents attempts to protect their children from the graphically sexually explicit content that I’ve read to you, again and again at these board meetings, labeling this as ‘book banning,’ may be politically acceptable, but again, it’s intellectually dishonest to do so,” Gebhards said.
“We simply want to protect children and we won’t be silent until we do,” she said.
Schools across the state have been reviewing and removing some books from shelves that contain sexual content or lack age appropriateness.
During the March school board meeting, by a slim vote, the board voted 4-3 to remove a “sexually explicit” book from all of the district’s middle schools. The book was appealed and made it past two committees that voted to allow it in Pierce Middle School before getting to the school board’s vote.
Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to claims that the administration is “banning books” in March by releasing a video showing graphic content found in school library books.
The video included pictures from books that were found in schools that contained sexual imagery. It also listed out the schools that some of the books were located in.
“That’s [book ban] a hoax. And that’s really a nasty hoax, because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children,” DeSantis said during the press conference in March.
DeSantis said 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. Florida is the education state and that means providing students with a quality education free from sexualization and harmful materials that are not age appropriate,” DeSantis said in March.
Florida’s Voice previously reported on multiple books that have been pulled, or are under review, including “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson, “Assassination Classroom” books by Yusei Matsui, “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” by Ari Folman, and more.
