13 books pulled from Brevard schools after Moms for Liberty members read at board meeting
Editor's Note: Corrects earlier version to note that Moms for America-Brevard members did not read book passages Tuesday night.
Multiple Moms for Liberty members read book passages containing sexual content at Brevard's school board meeting Tuesday in an effort to get the books removed from the district, resulting in 13 titles being pulled from district schools.
The final board meeting of 2023 was marred by chaos, with the board opting at the last minute to split public comment into two sections by agenda and non-agenda items because of the 41 people signed up to speak.
That large number was in part because members of Brevard and Indian River chapters of Moms for Liberty, as well as other organizations, had organized to sign up to read explicit passages from books they wanted removed from district libraries and shelves.
It was a move planned ahead of time and a strategy that's been used in other districts to bypass the formal review process for challenged books, as House Bill 1069 says if a parent is stopped from reading a book by a school board member due to pornographic material, the book must be removed from the district. A similar act took place at an Aug. 28 meeting in Indian River County, when the local Moms for Liberty chapter succeeded in having 33 titles removed after reading passages with sexual content out loud during a board meeting.
In addition to the two Moms for Liberty chapters, members of Citizens Defending Freedom — a conservative groups — also were present, with members reading excerpts containing sexual content in front of the school board. Board Chair Megan Wright stopped speakers 13 times either because of sexual content, profanity and once for a derivative of a racial slur.
While HB 1069 says material must be removed from district shelves if a speaker was stopped on the grounds of a passage being pornographic, it does not say the same if a speaker was stopped because of profanity.
Wednesday afternoon, district spokesperson Russell Bruhn said the district would be pulling all the books from schools.
"Our legal team is researching whether speakers that were stopped from reading content for inappropriate language require the title to be discontinued," he said in an email. "Again, all the titles will be pulled from our schools effective immediately, while we await guidance on those titles not on the objected list."
Most of the books that were read were already in the formal review process, meaning they had already been pulled from all shelves and were awaiting review by Brevard's book committee.
The books read included:
Infanduous by Elana K. Arnold; formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
Beautiful by Amy Reed; formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins; formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed; formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins; formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle; formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres; formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold; formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas; formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas; formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson; not formally challenged, speaker stopped for profane language
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold; not formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas; not formally challenged, speaker stopped for sexual content
Public comment split by board, but Moms for Liberty persists
The school board chose to split the public comment section by agenda and non-agenda related comment. It was a move they had debated making routine in September due to concerns about members of the public reading explicit sections of books, though at that time they ultimately chose to keep all comments in one section.
There was no warning ahead of the meeting that public comment would be split, with Board Attorney Paul Gibbs affirming in an email Tuesday morning to a community member that "public comment is always under public comment (on the agenda) unless the matter is under a public hearing."
Those planning to read passages from books — or comment on anything that wasn't on the agenda — had to wait until the final part of the five-hour board meeting. Though some of the 41 speakers left, eight people still read passages from books.
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"I'm going to ask that you please refrain from cursing and reading horrible books," Wright said to Brevard Moms for Liberty Chapter Chair Deborah Crisafulli, the first speaker to read a selected passage aloud.
Some speakers also questioned why certain books were in district libraries to begin with, and questioned the review process approved by the district.
"You are undermining my parental rights to raise my child with what I believe is pornographic or appropriate for him or not," mom Maribelle Campos said. "If you guys choose that you want your kids to read those books, go ahead, they're at the (public libraries). ... There's parents like myself that will never approve of this."
School Board member Katye Campbell noted that only three of the books read were not already in the formal challenge process. Books in the formal challenge process are pulled from library and classroom shelves until they can be reviewed by the district's review committee.
"Most of these book were already in the formal challenge process, they are not on our shelves," she said, adding that people who want a book removed should follow the district policy. "Submit a challenge and it will be pulled. We're following statute, we're following our policy, we're going to keep following the policy."
Wright expressed similar frustration with the circumventing of the process by members of the public.
"It's a solid policy, we followed it, and now at this point, it's not a good policy and we're going to circumvent it and go around it," Wright said. "So to me, this is extremely frustrating ... it really is, because we've removed the books that have been formally challenged."
'Sold' approved to stay for high schoolers at committee recommendation
Earlier in the meeting, the board voted to approve "Sold" by Patricia McCormick, a novel that follows a young teen in Nepal sold into sex trafficking, for high schoolers only. It was a recommendation made unanimously by the book review committee at their Dec. 1 meeting.
While all book review committee members were in agreement that the book should stay, both Board Vice Chair Gene Trent and Matt Susin questioned if that was a good idea.
Trent said the book was not "anything new and groundbreaking" as it was published in 2006, and they should remove it in favor of less graphic books.
"It's disgusting, and you need to do better," he said.
Campbell highlighted that sexual content is allowed in a book, if it is deemed age appropriate.
"The committee recommended that this book was unsuitable for anything below high school, and so I think we have got a (good) policy and we'll follow that policy on this," she said.
Still, Susin requested legal guidance from Gibbs, asking if he believed the book violated state law.
Gibbs said he did not have an opinion on the book but agreed with Campbell's interpretation of the law.
Susin said the book was "on the edge of being against or for statute" and requested a legal review, which would put off the vote. Campbell disagreed with this, saying it was board members' obligation to figure out the legality ahead of Tuesday's vote.
She added that if someone wanted to file an appeal refuting the board's decision with the state and bring the book before a special magistrate, the magistrate would look to see if the district had a policy and if they had followed it.
"We have a policy, which is in line with state statute, and we're following it," she said.
Despite Susin's questions, the board voted 4 to 1 to keep the book.
Wright shared that she had read the book and sat in on the review committee. Though she felt that the book dealt with a tough topic and she may prefer to have a discussion with her own child rather than give them the book, she said the book handled it tactfully, she said.
"I would choose in my own household to not give this book to my child, but that doesn't mean that I'm responsible for making decisions for everybody else on how they're going to run their household and what they're going to do there," she said. "There's nothing in it that, I feel, in my personal opinion, violates the law."
Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida book bans: 13 titles pulled from Brevard school district shelves
