Leader of group targeting Polk school library books asks police agencies to take action

Paul Nutcher, The Ledger
·8 min read
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The leader of the County Citizens Defending Freedom has tried to get law enforcement, state prosecutors and lawmakers, including the governor’s office, to respond to the group’s complaint that parents should be required to opt-in to let their children checkout books the group says are offensive and harmful to students.

The district has chosen instead to maintain its opt-out policy that allows parents to restrict their students from reading any book at school libraries, but keeps the challenged books in Polk schools.

Robert Goodman followed through with his pledge at the last Polk County School Board meeting to file police reports if the district kept distributing at least 12 of 16 controversial library books the group challenged late last year.

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The Polk County Sheriff’s Office and several police departments in the county have been in contact with Goodman, the leader of the Polk County CCDF.

Goodman filed reports with Lake Alfred, Winter Haven, Haines City and the Mulberry substation of the Sheriff’s Office as well as its main office to inform law enforcement of the board policy. As of Tuesday, he had not visited the Lakeland or Bartow police departments.

When none of the law enforcement agencies took action, he cast a wider net, writing an email to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, State Attorney Brian Haas of the 10th Judicial Circuit based in Bartow, members of the Florida legislature, county commissioners and the Polk School Board.

Goodman said Tuesday he had received a reply from at least one of the state officials but would not say who it was. None of the state officials contacted by The Ledger responded to requests for comment.

Why does the Polk County group want books restricted?

Last school year, the CCDF said 16 books on Polk County library shelves were in violation of Florida statutes because, the group said, they contained "pornography" or were otherwise harmful to minors.

Two book review committees were formed to read the books and recommend whether to keep them on shelves or remove them. The review committees recommended keeping all 16 books in Polk schools, but with grade-level restrictions on some of them.

Polk School Superintendent Frederick Heid had initially proposed an opt-in and opt-out policy, backed by Sheriff Grady Judd, that would keep the 16 books behind a counter and require parents to opt in to allow their students to read them. The policy also allowed parents to opt out of any books in the school district's system.

At the time, district spokesman Kyle Kennedy told The Ledger that the "opt-in and opt-out process" was "not supported by a majority of Polk County School Board members."

In the end, the district employed an opt-out only policy, similar to a policy already in place in the schools. Under the policy announced Aug. 3, parents could opt out of allowing their students access to any books they deemed objectionable until Aug. 17. The second window is between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15.

The books in question include:

  • "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

  • "The Bluest Eye" also by Toni Morrison.

  • "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan.

  • "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

  • "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer.

  • "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher.

  • "The Vincent Boys" by Abbi Glines.

  • "It’s Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley.

  • "Real Live Boyfriends" by E. Lockhart.

  • "Melissa" (formerly titled "George") by Alex Gino.

  • "I am Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings.

  • "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier.

  • "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult.

  • "More Happy Than Not" by Adam Silvera.

  • "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins.

  • "Almost Perfect" by Brian Katcher.

READ MORE ABOUT THE POLK SCHOOL LIBRARY BOOK CONTROVERSY:

CCDF claims pressure behind the scenes

Goodman wrote last week in an email to Polk County School Board members that he is deeply dissatisfied with the outcome. He said he had hoped that parents would be required to opt-in if they wanted to allow their students to checkout those books from libraries.

He said the board had indicated they would trust “Superintendent Heid to make the ultimate decision.”

“You communicated with Superintendent Heid privately and pressured him to go against the Sheriff’s recommendation and buckle to your will without the public’s knowledge and allowed Superintendent Heid to take the heat,” he wrote.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Goodman, 57, of Winter Haven said School Board members Lisa Miller, Kay Fields, Sara Beth Wyatt and Sarah Fortney all expressed concerns about the opt-in component of the plan at the May 10 meeting of the School Board.

Miller, also speaking by phone this week, said there is legal precedent and court rulings and the board had to avoid a lawsuit.

“We're doing everything we can to put parents in charge, but we understand that the … extreme left will come, I mean the other side of the spectrum will come and they'll take the Bible."

She also said that if CCDF was serious about keeping kids safe they would advocate for a policy change with the Florida Department of Education.

A media spokesperson for the DOE did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Police: 'There is not a crime at this time'

None of the police agencies that were contacted have said a crime was committed, nor was any criminal investigation launched since the allegations made by Goodman in person on Aug. 22.

Scott Wilder, communications director for the Sheriff’s Office, confirmed Thursday via text that Goodman visited the Sheriff’s Office and its substation in Mulberry.

“Yes, we have received a complaint about school books,” Wilder said. “We are currently reviewing whether or not the information we received rises to the level of something criminal.”

In Winter Haven, the Police Chief David Brannan released a report on Goodman's complaint, but said the report “is informational only as there is not a crime at this time.”

The report said that Goodman went to the police department to report a lewd and lascivious act.

“Upon arrival, I made contact with Robert Goodman (Reportee) who stated that this is a member of County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF USA),” the police report said. “Goodman further advised that the Polk County School Board has lewd material/books inside Polk County Public Schools.

“Goodman provided nine envelopes with a list of the offending books by school, Jewett Middle, Winter Haven High School, Lake Region, Ridge Technical College, Dennison Middle School, Westwood Middle School and Frostproof Middle School, along with two criminal complaints,” the police report said.

There was also an event record made by a Lake Alfred police department lieutenant following Goodman’s visit to the police department on Aug. 22, according to Police Chief Al Bodenheimer. Goodman claimed there were inappropriate books at Lake Alfred Polytech Academy.

Goodman also contacted Haines City Police, said Jim Gouvellis, its public information officer.

“We did receive complaints about books at Ridge Community High School and Haines City High School,” Gouvellis said. “Dozens of complaints, containing the same exact wording, but signed by individuals were delivered to Haines City Police Department detectives.”

“We reviewed the complaints and determined that this does not merit a criminal investigation by this department. We shared the complaints with the Safe Schools division at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office,” he said.

In a brief email statement on Wednesday, Kennedy, the Polk schools spokesman, said, “Based on our information, there are only three of the 16 challenged books that are available in a school in the Lake Alfred area ("Drama," "George" and "Thirteen Reasons Why").

“During last year’s review process, these three books received unanimous votes (including by CCDF representatives) to be retained in our school libraries,” Kennedy said.

He confirmed that Heid spoke to Lake Alfred’s police chief over the phone and addressed the chief’s questions, but he was not asked to come to the police station.

“We are not aware of any pending charges or ongoing investigation in this matter,” Kennedy said.

On Tuesday, Kennedy said, “We have not contacted by anyone at the state level.”

He added, “We developed the opt-out system to give all families a choice of which books their children are allowed to access in our libraries. We have no additional comments at this time.”

What does Florida law say?

Florida statutes forbid knowingly selling, renting, or loaning for money any obscene material that could be harmful to children, including:

  • “Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors; or,

  • "Any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter however reproduced, or sound recording that contains any matter (that is) explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct and that is harmful to minors.”

  • "In addition, adults may not knowingly distribute to a minor on school property, or post on school property, any material that is harmful to children."

But the statute makes exemptions for certain school-related material. Florida statutes also say that in order to be classified as obscene, material must lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Information from Ledger archives was used in this report. Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Book bans in Polk County, Florida: Group leader files police reports