This is why you’ve seen stories of the wave of confusion that swept over teachers in Florida. They already are Fear of putting books on shelves in the classroom He might violate DeSantis directives, and they choose to cover up These mini-libraries or Remove them completely. others Cleansing books With LGBTQ personalities even if they have no sexual content.
Now, another development is showing how this uncertainty is spreading confusion and panic. Florida Association of Media Supervisors (FASM), which Represents supervisors Of public school library programs and collections, the state is required to clarify whether DeSantis’ “Stop Woke Act” and “Don’t Call Gay Act” apply not only to classroom bookshelves, but also to school libraries.
“They’re not going to tell us in writing that they don’t,” Michelle Jarrett, president of FASM, told me. “We didn’t get a clear message.”
This makes FASM and its members concerned that stacks of books in school libraries – which, like those available in classrooms, are It may be illegal to sit on shelves for students to look at, rather than being actively taught about.
Law “Don’t Say Like Me” bans The class “teach” about “sexual orientation or gender identity” up to the third grade, and partially restricts it in the upper grades. If this applies to school libraries, that could mean they are barred from having books “with different types of families accessible from grades K-3,” Jarrett says — which means they can’t keep them on public library shelves. , which is also open to older students.
Meanwhile, the law stops waking up bans Subjecting any student to “instructions” that promote the notion that “status” is determined by race or color, among other things. If this applies to bookstores, Jarrett worries, it could mean that some books on “social justice or anti-racism” should be removed.
Crucially, this confusion is being created by DeSantis management. These laws do not appear on their faces to be applied to school libraries. But as Jarrett points out, the Florida Department of Education recently Training guidance It explicitly states that material you “wouldn’t be comfortable” reading aloud probably means it shouldn’t be in a “children’s school library”.
This vague language leads librarians to fear that DeSantis’ laws do indeed apply to libraries, or at least that those laws should serve as guides for what to remove from them, Jarrett says: “The training was definitely meant to scare people.”
So Jarrett recently wrote a formal request to the department, asking for an explanation as to how these laws “affect self-selected materials in the school library.” She says she hasn’t received an answer yet, though more importantly, the department has recognized this as a valid request and promised an answer soon.
if it was The department makes it clear in writing that the laws do not apply to libraries, which is welcome. But at this point, as all recent developments involving schools and libraries confirm, there is little doubt that the vagueness of these laws, and the administration’s directives about how to apply them, is a key feature of the DeSantis project.
It is designed to make teachers feel like they are in constant danger. Then they fear that the “wrong” language about our racial past or the persistence of discrimination behind ostensibly color-blind laws and institutions, or the “wrong” answer to a student’s question about LGBTQ issues, risks legal punishment. It is better to refrain from discussing such serious topics.
This goes way beyond DeSantis. as a talk Report By PEN America I found several “educational gag” Laws across the country are sloppily worded. This not only creates more opportunity for parents and other citizens to charge abuses, but it also invites them to see the conspiracies against their children lurking everywhere. Demagogues feed off these fears, alleging outrageous schemes to rob children of their innocence by sexualizing them, or to indoctrinate them into believing that their country is inherently white supremacist and evil.
To be fair, the bureaucrats who provide guidance on DeSantis’ policies may be well-meaning public servants trying to advise well-meaning educators. But if that’s the case, they’re also struggling precisely because of the climate of uncertainty that DeSantis’ “conscious” campaign has created.
DeSantis was re-elected, of course, by a landslide, so one has to let most Floridians let it be may be Don’t see these laws that way. And that’s troubling for those of us who find them repulsive.
But here again ambiguity may be the point. This formulation not only instills fear in those who struggle to explain what it requires; It also makes it easier for the sponsors of these laws to sell them as mere common sense restraints in the defense of children. It’s another way this project is totally abominable.