'This is child pornography": SR school board candidate takes book concerns to Sheriff's Office

Despite never formally challenging the book, Santa Rosa County School Board District 2 candidate Jennifer Tapley has taken her concerns over the district’s purportedly sex-charged school library books to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, asking for more accountability from the local school board and media specialists.

An edited video obtained by independent newsletter Popular Information, appearing to be deputy body cam footage, portrays Tapley with another Santa Rosa County citizen handing off a manila envelope containing a young adult fantasy novel “Storm and Fury” written by New York Times best-seller Jennifer Armentrout to a sheriff's deputy on Oct. 25. The News Journal’s has requested the raw footage from the Santa County Sheriff’s Office.

In the video, she details the “illegal” activity that the school district is committing by allowing a book to remain in circulation that depicts graphic sex scenes, including detailed descriptions of oral sex.

“It wasn’t just making out and kissing,” Tapley told the News Journal. “These are minors that we’re talking about …parents are not going to put up with this anymore.”

'Storm and Fury' prompts visit to Sheriff's Office

Tapley told the News Journal she was asked by a citizen to accompany him to the Sheriff’s Office to offer insight on Florida statutes. She said she had never seen the book “Storm and Fury” until their meeting. Their intention was not to get anyone in trouble, but to hold the district accountable in complying with state law, she said.

“The governor says this is child pornography. It’s a serious crime. It’s just as serious as if I handed a Playboy to her (a minor) right now, right here, in front of you. It’s just as serious, according to the law,” Tapley is shown telling a deputy.

Tapley stated that this violated HB 1069, which took effect in July, stating that once the book has been challenged for sexual content, per the law, the school district has only five days to remove it. The book appears to still be circulation on the district’s online library database as of Tuesday, though district officials said the book is unavailable for check-out.

“They didn’t do that. They left it,” Tapley told the deputy.

Tapley claims “Storm and Fury,” was checked out to a 17-year-old student at Jay High School even after it had been formally challenged.

Santa Rosa County District Schools PIO Tonya Shepherd says “Storm and Fury” was never formally challenged through the district’s process but is currently unavailable for student check-out.

"There has been no formal challenge of this book. It was checked out on Oct. 17 and returned on Oct. 26. After the school district received notice from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office about the book, district staff made contact with the school and the book was quarantined at the school on Oct. 26 and has not gone back in circulation; so it is currently unavailable for student check-out. The media specialist has one copy checked out to herself for review purposes," Shepherd wrote in a statement.

Tapley is a recent member of Santa Rosa County’s Moms for Liberty chapter, a national organization focused on revealing and removing sexually explicit material from schools. However, Tapley claims she was representing herself as a citizen at the Sheriff’s Office, not the organization.

When asked by the deputy what Moms for Liberty was, Tapley said it is a group to “bring attention to this,” referring to the appropriateness of school library material, and “trying to get rid of these books.”

Tapley also reported to the deputy that a school board member and two of the school district’s media specialists may have agendas prohibiting them from complying with state law.

She said one district library coordinator is a member of the “Santa Rosa County FL STOP moms for ‘liberty’” Facebook group, which Tapley alleges influences the way the coordinator carries out the law of removing books that contain sexual content. She also accused another media specialist of using the Facebook group to source candidates for the district’s literary review committees who contribute to decision-making on challenged materials.

“That’s illegal to do. She can’t do that. It (must) be anonymous. Well, not anonymous, but random,” Tapley told the deputy.

Tapley continued to tell the Santa Rosa County deputy that Moms for Liberty is not trying to ban books from the school district.

“They call this ‘book banning.’ It’s not book banning,” Tapley said. “We just want them moved out when they were never supposed to be there in the first place. We would like them donated to the public library so that county dollars aren’t wasted. Actually, personally, I wouldn’t like them anywhere. But that’s the compromise is we’ll send them over to the public library.

“There’s strength in numbers, so we got together to do that,” Tapley told the officer of Moms for Liberty’s mission.

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is not currently investigating Tapley’s requests, Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jillian Durkin told the News Journal on Tuesday.

Tapley's concern over Santa Rosa books

Tapley said the Santa Rosa County school district is inconsistently handling the challenges and are unaware of whether the books are in the school libraries or if they have been removed.

She detailed the contents of a different book found in Wallace Lake K-8 containing discussion of oral and anal sex.

The Santa Rosa County’s Moms for Liberty chapter group picked up steam locally in May when presenting a list of 65 books to the Santa Rosa County School Board that they wanted removed from school shelves due to what they say is offensive content.

In this month’s Moms for Liberty meeting, the head of the local chapter, Mariya Calkins, released in a social media statement that the chapter would be providing “investigation updates” on ongoing investigations at the Milton Police Department, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office regarding availability of pornographic books in Santa Rosa schools.

Prior to the local chapter coming forward, Santa Rosa County’s book reconsideration process was a non-issue. In Santa Rosa County, parents have full choice on whether their child has unlimited, limited or no access to school libraries, including classroom libraries.

Shepherd said that the school district's goal is "to foster a love of reading in our students - not to expose them to inappropriate content."

She wrote in a statement to the News Journal that they have been working in compliance with House Bill 1467, which passed in 2022, and House Bill 1069, which passed in 2023, to address requirements for school districts to respond to concerns that some books in schools may not be appropriate for all students. However, there are hundreds of thousands within the district, making the review process lengthy and complex.

"In our district, we have 37 school libraries with over 500,000 books. These library collections have been developed over the past several decades. Additionally, there are approximately 500,000 books in classroom libraries, many of which our teachers, parents, community members, volunteers have purchased using their own money over the years," Shepherd wrote in the statement.

Shepherd said the district's processes related to library media materials show how "dedicated we are to providing appropriate materials to our students."

These processes include giving parents choice over their child's level of library access, regular review of library materials from trained school library personnel, an objection process that parents and citizens can use to report materials, and compliance in removing books that have been objected to on a basis of pornography or sexual content within five days. More details can be found on the Santa Rosa County District Schools website.

"As required by Florida law, the District continues to follow School Board Policy 4.22 to address each reconsideration request. Many of the books that have been submitted for reconsideration were immediately weeded from collections by school librarians based on legally permissible reasons. Other books have been quarantined and school library committees continue to review the books to determine if a book will remain in the collection or be removed," Shepherd wrote. "To be clear, if a book in one of our libraries is found to be in violation of F.S. 847.012, it will be removed immediately."

Tapley's concerns over inappropriate materials contributed to a school board run

Although keeping books age-appropriate is part of her campaign, she does not want it to overshadow issues she feels have been overlooked, such as building security, bullying, transportation issues and drug use.

“I’m not an activist, I’m a mom,” Tapley told the News Journal. “I never would have run (for school board) if they would have listened.”

When meeting with the deputies, she was hesitant to put her name on public record, in fear of "retaliation" from the school district. Since the footage has been displayed, she said she has been receiving hateful calls, text messages and emails from all over the country. However, she said she has received local support from the Santa Rosa community.

“I’ll give you my ID, but I don’t want it to be searchable if somebody at the school were to try to figure out who came here, does that make sense?” Tapley told the deputy. “I don’t mind my name being used if it has to be used, I’m just afraid of retaliation by the school district.”

Tapley claims that the sheriff’s department mishandled the footage by distributing it to a media site after asking multiple times for anonymity and was “grossly let down.” However, the deputy does not verbally agree to granting anonymity in the video.

“The recording and release of a video interaction of me accompanying a citizen at his request so he could talk anonymously with deputies about a sexually-explicit book checked out to a minor in a Santa Rosa County school - after telling me no record existed - is an epic failure of the sheriff's anonymous reporting program,” Tapley told the News Journal in a statement. “But the sheriff's office turned the video over to an online tabloid and apparently the school district, who then threatened and interrogated another student whose book had been turned over to police. It will be interesting to see how these dots are connected when this abdication of the duty to protect citizen privacy is investigated.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: School board candidate calls cops on librarians over pornographic books