Leon County school board passes policy to handle challenged library books

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Leon County School Board passed a policy this week that implements a review committee for all challenged library material.

The proposal was introduced in order to comply with new state requirements. It passed 4-1 with School Board Chair Rosanne Wood being the sole opposition vote.

The policy requires the superintendent to form the committee, consisting of parents, educators and media specialists who will review library material that has been challenged by parents and determine if it complies with Florida law.

School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox told Florida’s Voice the procedural reasoning behind the proposal.

”It’s a policy that was put in place in lite of recent state legislation and state statute so that we’re in compliance with that,” she said. “And [define] what the process is if a parent challenges a book.”

The Florida Legislature passed HB 1069 during the 2023 session, restricting pronoun usage in schools, while also mandating counties produce updated parental rights policies in regards to school library content.

”It’s clear that if a book is objected to and the superintendent’s committee wants to pull it for legal reasons […] that seems to be fine,” Wood said. “But if there are other reasons that the committee wants to pull the book, it seems to me that the school board should have a little bit of say in that.”

Wood warned that the proposal “completely leaves the board out” of any decisions related to book removals and that in the future, people of “different philosophies” will have the ability to rid school libraries of content for reasons other than illegality.

She called for the policy to be reworked in order to provide the board the ability to address her concerns.

Board member Alva Swafford Smith highlighted how the board gives several input opportunities to various committees and they all perform well.

”Our textbook adoption committees, our review committees, or student advisory, our parent advisory our district advisory, we let them do a lot of work for us,” she said.

Smith also added that she believes the policy provides the appropriate provisions to allow an appeal process so an issue can come to the board if the review committee does not side favorably with them.

Cox responded during the meeting, explaining how she believed the the policy covered “all of the bases” of the review process.

”I don’t know that it’s necessary to come to the board,” she said. “Because I feel like it’s covered a lot of bases in that area.”