The Bible will stay in Florida's Palm Beach County schools, board decides

A rabbi, a Baptist church pastor, a born-and-raised Catholic and an atheist walked into a Palm Beach County School Board meeting Wednesday.

They were all there for the same reason: to talk about removing the Bible from public schools.

The request to remove the Bible in Palm Beach County schools began with Rabbi Barry Silver in April. His repeated requests to the Olympic Heights Community High School principal and Superintendent Michael Burke failed, leading him to a final effort before School Board members Wednesday afternoon.

The board decided unanimously with practically no discussion that the Bible will remain on schools’ shelves.

In the hour-long special meeting, just over a dozen people showed up to vehemently support keeping the Bible or to opine about the slippery slope that is banning books — any book — in schools. About half spoke strongly in opposition to Silver’s request, emphasizing American, “Judeo-Christian values,” quoting from the books of Genesis and Revelation and the Founding Fathers and reciting the nation’s motto, “In God we trust.”

The others largely echoed Silver’s message, that if other books are banned for alleged sexually explicit or age-inappropriate content, then the Bible should be treated equally.

Silver challenged the book on the grounds that it included “graphic accounts” of violence and rape, executing gay people and women, discussion of gender and sexuality issues and antisemitic passages, among other issues. If not a ban, Silver suggested putting the book in the fiction or mythology section with a warning label.

Last year, DeSantis approved a “curriculum transparency” bill, House Bill 1467, which required school districts to allow parents to have a say in what reading materials are available in libraries and in classrooms. School districts across the state sent their first annual report to the Department of Education at the end of June, detailing which materials were objected to and what the objections were, any materials that were removed as a result of the objection and the grade level and course from which they were removed.

Silver’s request comes at a time when attempts to censor library materials have reached an all-time high since the American Library Association started tracking such attempts two decades ago, the association’s data showed.

At the meeting Wednesday before public comment, Superintendent Burke said the School District has not banned any books. Officials reviewed 2.5 million books and made only “minimal” adjustments to follow DeSantis’ law.

“Early on in this process when the legislation was first passed, I was offered suggestions and proposals to just box up the books, close our media center libraries. And I rejected those because it goes against everything we stand for,” Burke said.

Burke said that the Bible is not part of the curriculum and that the Torah, Quran and other religious materials are available to students. Silver’s petitions were denied because studying the Bible and religion is allowed in schools under state law.

Board Vice Chairwoman Karen Brill and District 4 member Erica Whitfield were the only members to comment on Silver’s petition.

“On a personal level, I do not support banning books of any type, as it is a form of censorship, and I believe it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution … Rabbi Silver, I completely respect and understand your argument and position. As I do not support the banning of any book, I am not going to support banning the Bible,” Brill said.

Whitfield said she understood Silver’s intent. When she first heard of Silver’s petition, she said she asked Burke whether other religious books were in the school libraries and was “very pleased” to find that they were.

“I believe that all religious texts should be represented within our schools because I do believe they’re historical documents. I think they’re really important in the history of the world. I have no interest in banning the Bible or the Torah or the Quran. I don’t want to do it.”

Board Chairman Frank Barbieri prefaced the special meeting by reminding speakers that their comments couldn’t be “obscene.” Silver opened his five-minute speech by saying that meant half of the speech he prepared couldn’t be read as “most of my speech was about the obscene passages,” he said.

“A cursory review of the Bible … makes it very clear that the Bible is at the top of the list of every single category established by the governor and the Florida legislature for banning books,” Silver said.

Silver in a letter to the School Board gave pages of examples of Bible passages.

Psalms 137:8-9 in the English Standard Version says, “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Silver included it in a section of examples of “child abuse” in the book.

He quoted a line from Leviticus. “If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.”

His list went on.

One speaker who lives in Delray Beach and grew up Catholic said she remembered the Bible giving her nightmares as a child.

“Noah and his ark,” Kathy Wallace said. “Oh! The animals go marching in two by two. Lions and tigers and bears, and they all got along and they didn’t rock the boat for 40 days and 40 nights of rain. It sounded like a really nice story until, what happened to all those people on Earth? They drowned. I thought about drowning for a long time. Did their bodies float? Did Noah have to bury all of them when he got to land? Did the animals eat them? It’s a nightmare.”

“Books are being banned because they cause harm to children,” she said. “Well, the Bible caused harm to me as a child. I think the Bible should be banned from school if you’re going to ban other books in Palm Beach County.”

Another speaker Avi Hoffman said he thought many of the people who were opposed to the petition were missing Silver’s point.

“Are we seriously living in a United States of America and a state which allows and encourages the banning of books?” he said.

“History has shown us the perils of banning books,” Hoffman said. “My parents survived the Holocaust, and they always taught me that the Nazis began by banning books, which was quickly followed by the burning of books, which was even more quickly followed by the banning and burning of human beings.”

Cindy Falco, who spoke in tongues at her sentencing trial on trespassing and resisting arrest charges in February 2022, arrived at the lectern with a Bible in hand. She read from Genesis, the story of God creating night and day, the heavens and the Earth.

“Does anybody find that offensive?” Falco said. She later referenced the Declaration of Independence, which mentions God multiple times.

“I’m appalled that we’re having this conversation at this stage of life when everything that was written … all is based on biblical principles and morality. That’s our whole roots for America, to be an American.”

Others who opposed Silver’s request said the Bible offers encouraging messages to people in need of them, teaches to love your neighbor and is “an accurate recording of ancient history.”

Belvedere Baptist Church Pastor Ray Henry cited other school districts across the country that have seen similar petitions denied and court rulings on the book’s permissibility.

The Pensacola News Journal reported last October that a resident unsuccessfully challenged the Bible in Escambia County. It was challenged in one Texas school district in August, the New York Times reported, and the Kansas City Star reported recently that a student submitted a “satirical request” to remove it. It was denied.

A school district in Utah removed the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries after a parent’s complaint in June, then reversed course and brought them back after many filed appeals, the Associated Press reported.

“To ignore the Bible in the vast area of secular subjects is to ignore a keystone in the building of an arch, at least as concerns Western history,” Henry said.

Reached by phone after the meeting, Silver told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the outcome was expected.

“I think it’s political suicide for someone to vote to ban the Bible,” he said.

Silver said there wasn’t any conflict between the two camps who attended, and he talked to several who had different viewpoints.