Miami education advocates host event to protest ‘irrationality and vagueness’ of book bans

Prominent Miami educators and literary and civil rights organizations came together Tuesday night to raise awareness about censorship and to offer a stark rebuttal to the recent decision to restrict four titles from elementary students in one Miami-Dade County school.

The event — which drew a crowd of about 300 community members, teachers and young children — was to highlight the “irrationality and vagueness” of recent laws targeting what can or can’t be taught in public school classrooms, said Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books and organizer of Tuesday’s event. The other reason, he told the Herald after the event, “is to celebrate books.”

The event, hosted at the Sanctuary for Banned Books at the Coral Gables Congregational Church, gave away three recently challenged books to attendees.

In March, a school review committee — composed of three teachers, a library media specialist, a guidance counselor and the school’s principal, among others — determined four titles were “better suited” or “more appropriate” for middle school students and would be kept in the middle school section of the media center of Bob Graham Education Center, a K-8 school in Miami Lakes.

The move to restrict the titles came after one parent challenged them for what she said was references to critical race theory, “indirect hate messages,” gender ideology and indoctrination. The titles included “The ABCs of Black History,” “Cuban Kids,” “Countries in the News Cuba,” the poem “The Hill We Climb,” which was recited by poet Amanda Gorman at the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration of President Joe Biden, and Love to Langston. (Gorman on Tuesday said in a tweet she purchased hundreds copies of the books that were banned last month to support the event.)

The Herald was the first news outlet to report the decision.

READ MORE: Miami-Dade K-8 bars elementary students from 4 library titles following parent complaint

Representatives from PEN America, a writers group that recently sued one Florida district over its removal of books; O, Miami, a non-profit organization that builds community through poetry; the Florida Freedom to Read Project and Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade, called on audience members to become involved in book discussions and to challenge the growing efforts of censorship. Florida Freedom to Read Project obtained records of the committee’s decision and shared them with the Herald.

Marvin Dunn, historian and professor emeritus at Florida International University, read “The ABCs of Black History.” Richard Blanco, Miami-Dade County’s Poet Laureate, read Gorman’s poem.

“This is a fight for our democracy, that is it,” said Katie Blankenship, of the ACLU of Florida. “This is a fight for the very fabric of our democracy and at its heart is a fight for racial justice. This battle is as old as the founding of this country.”

Moreover, she said, it is an attempt to “erase the history and the reality of the lived experience of those that are marginalized” and a fight against censorship.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools maintains no titles were banned but simply moved. Reading and education advocates, however, including those who spoke Tuesday, argue otherwise, stating a restriction still limits access to younger students.