Polk County book review panels approve 3 books on LGBTQ topics for school libraries

LAKELAND — The committees reviewing books that have been targeted by a conservative group for removal from Polk County Public School libraries voted on three more of them Thursday, approving keeping the books at age-appropriate levels.

All three deal with transgender topics, with one book also detailing the lives of gay teenagers.

The majority of one panel — 15 out of 18 people — said the illustrated book “I am Jazz,” about a transgender child and aimed at elementary age children and their parents, should remain at all grade levels. One person said the book, written by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings and illustrated by Shalagh McNicholas, should be kept at middle and high school libraries only, while two people voted to remove it from all school libraries.

The same panel also voted on “Almost Perfect” by Brian Katcher, about a boy falling in love with a girl he finds out is transgender. This book had the closest vote — eight people voted to keep it at high schools, seven voted to allow it in middle and high school libraries and three people voted to remove it from all public-school libraries.

“Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan is told from the viewpoint of gay men who died of AIDS as they hope for better lives for today’s teens boys. No one voted to remove the book from all libraries, while 16 committee members voted to keep it at middle and high school levels, one person voted to keep it at all levels and one person voted to keep it in high school libraries only.

They are the 13th, 14th and 15th books reviewed by the two panels, comprised of parents, teachers, counselors, librarians and members of the group that filed the complaint, County Citizens Defending Freedom.

The issue in Polk schools began late last year when County Citizens Defending Freedom found that 16 books the group deems objectionable were available in PCPS media centers. None of the books are required reading in any Polk County public school. CCDF said the books are “harmful to children” or meet the definition of pornography under Florida State Statutes 847.001 and 847.012. Distributing pornography to minors is a third-degree felony.

They used complaint forms filled out by people outside of Polk County who belong to another conservative group called Florida Citizens Alliance, based in Naples. The group issued a “Porn in Schools Report” last year at https://floridacitizensalliance.org/porn-in-schools-report.

PCPS Superintendent Frederick Heid placed the books in “quarantine” at the end of January until they could be reviewed and it could be determined whether they were pornographic, harmful or age-inappropriate.

Two committees were formed to read and review eight books each. The committees consist of 17 adults each. In addition, more than a dozen students are rotating participation for each review.

In addition to this week’s books, the committees have approved leaving in schools at appropriate age levels: “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “Drama” by Raina Telgemeier, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, “George” by Alex Gino, “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harrison, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, “The Vincent Boys” by Abbi Glines, “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, “Real Live Boyfriends” by e. lockhart, and “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins.

Read more on the effort to ban books in Polk County:

• National effort to label schools' library books pornography takes root in Polk County

• These are the 16 books a conservative group wants banned from Polk public schools libraries

• Why Polk County schools are handling these 16 books differently than a normal 'complaint'

• US Supreme Court has consistently sided against banning books

'I Am Jazz'

The American Library Association ranked “I Am Jazz” number six on its list of the country's Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2019.

It was available at Bethune Academy Elementary in Haines City, Citrus Ridge Academy, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Davenport, and Lewis Elementary School in Fort Meade. It has been checked out twice in the past two years at Citrus Ridge.

Someone with the last name Skipper reviewed the book for Florida Citizens Alliance and said the “Materials designed for Pre k and Elementary students are age inappropriate and hyper-sexualize children, violating numerous Florida Statutes.” Skipper added that the writer was subjecting all readers to a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer agenda.

“I would not want my elementary age grandchildren checking this book, ‘I Am Jazz’ out of a public school library.” Skipper wrote. “They have not been exposed to transgender lifestyles and this would raise significant number of questions the children would ask that should only be exposed to them through their parents when they decide on the appropriate time to do so.”

The 24-page book with watercolor illustrations tells the true story of Jazz Jennings and her struggle to become the girl she knows she is. It was the shortest book on the list, but elicited some of the most personal stories from the group.

Lake Region High School librarian Danielle Doyle said her family faced a situation when her children were in elementary school.

"We had a family friend that went from being Uncle Matthew to Aunt Gabby and they had a lot of questions,” Doyle said. “I wish this book had been around then because, you know, we tried to answer their questions, but we didn't know what to say and just how they explain in here, you know, that they were born this way. It's a medical condition. It normalizes it so it's not this big, weird thing.”

Doyle said her mother told her at the time that her children should no longer associate with Aunt Gabby.

"And I'm like, “Mom, which lesson do you want me to teach them? When our friend does something unusual, we shun them? Or we stick by our friends? She never mentioned it again,” Doyle said. “This book is not encouraging everyone to go and become transgender. It's explaining it's a medical condition, so you're not going to catch it, you're not going to become it. You either are or you aren't.”

Simone Paolercio, a social studies teacher at Lakeland Highlands Middle School and the mother of four children, said she moved to Polk County when she was 14.

"I had to unlearn a lot of the ideas about my gender identity and a lot of the ideas about homosexuality and I made it an effort to make sure my children didn't learn this stuff,” Paolercio said. "I have a cousin that lives in Canada and she's gay and at her wedding, my mom decided she was going to mock her sister 'cause she has a gay daughter. Something like this I think would be nice when our children are that small, because if you make it like a stigma, then it's harder for them to accept it when they get a little older. So, I I think it is a good way for you to say, ‘Hey guys, there are people out there that are different from us. And they've known forever."

Lindsay Persohn, who is on the education committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, talked lovingly about her elderly transgender neighbor.

“When my elderly neighbor was hospitalized, I was the person who tracked down her family, I was the one who was asked to make her medical decisions. She'd been my neighbor for two years — I had seen one car at her house ever,” Persohn said. “So it is a very solitary, lonely life unless we can create some sense of understanding that there's acceptance, right, that we are all humans on some level. So. I think that this book really would help in order to create a society where we can accept our neighbors, where we can love our neighbors, because I assure you that my neighbor did not generally experience that in her lifetime.”

Tim Owens, a PCPS district psychologist, mentioned to the group that he has a friend who is transgender and researched some statistics.

"I have done some research on the prevalence of transgender in American society, worldwide numbers … specifically related to the age at which people feel like they are not their assigned their biological sex, that they have that different feeling,” Owens said, citing a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association from a study of 110 transgender people seeking surgery at Cedar Sinai Hospital. "And 78% of them said that they felt that they were transgender at age 7 or younger. That's a huge number.”

Hunter Barickman, 17, is a junior at Harrison School for the Arts and recommends the book for all ages, adding that it shows that children are able to know what their gender is.

"I think it shows that they regularly do not have the power to make a decision like that and regularly it is yielded to their parents,” Barickman said. “And I think that, as some of you have stated, this is a very good book to share with parents, to show them that this is totally OK, this is totally normal. If your child feels this way, talk to a medical professional, get their opinion on it ... The story of someone's life requires some things that may make people uncomfortable.”

Matti Friedt, the retired director of the pre-kindergarten program at PCPS, a mother and a grandparent, did not want to see the book in any public-school library. She was not in attendance Thursday, but her written comments were read into the record.

"The work presents a strong influence using context that young children do not have the mental capacity to sort through,” Friedt wrote. “The book is a personal story about her feelings, but I don't think there's true literary merit. There is no curriculum or educational need for the context of a book written for early childhood to be provided by the school district.”

'Almost Perfect'

“Almost Perfect” is a novel about teens living in small-town Boyer, Missouri, where people only rarely come across those who are not white, straight and Christian. But then Sage, a new girl in town, shows up in school and sits next to Logan in science class. The pair begin to fall for each other until Sage reveals she is transitioning from a boy to becoming a female, including taking hormones to grow breasts. Logan tries to stay away, but the two wind up spending the night together. Throughout the book, Logan constantly fears that someone will find out about Sage and think he is gay. Sage, who also has to contend with her father’s rejection of her desire to live her truth, is then brutally beaten by a college boy when she reveals her secret to him. She winds up in a psychiatric facility after threatening to kill herself and says she has given up on the hope of becoming a woman.

It had been available for checkout at the media centers at Auburndale High, George Jenkins High, Winter Haven High, and Haines City High schools, Gause Academy of Leadership and Applied Technology, a middle and high school in Bartow, Lake Gibson Middle School and Ridge Technical College. Records provided by PCPS officials show it has not been checked out in the past two years at any school in Polk County.

The complaint form appears to be filled out by a person named Putnam in Collier County, who stated that the book contains “explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement or sexual conduct and that is harmful to minors, and not suitable material or conduct for minors per existing statutes.”

“The author is a talented writer, but the subject matter is far too progressive for children under perhaps 16 years of age and even then is suspect,” the complainant wrote. “The vulgarity is offensive and crude, but more alarming is the seeming instruction in the abnormal lifestyle. The novel is a poor attempt at recreating Holden Caulfield in my opinion. It is pornographic. ‘Catcher In The Rye’ was not.”

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Erica Bernheim, the director of the creative writing program at Florida Southern College, said “the novel will help people see past labels and prejudices that they may have. We are fluid and evolving, and literature should reflect that.”

Ez Rodriguez, the president of Equality Florida and the statewide senior manager of safe and healthy schools, said “Almost Perfect” “helps to build empathy surrounding the development of relationships between young people. It also allows the reader to understand the complexities that are found when relationship building and confidentiality collide.”

Several people said they disliked Logan because of how he continually allowed Sage to trust him and then betrayed that trust.

“The author does a very good job of making it easy to hate the main character,” Barickman said. “He does some really kind of disappointing things and there were points while I was reading the book where I was very disappointed … He tried at the very end. He did his best. But I think that, like Sage said in one of their last confrontations, ‘You have messed up for the last time. We will not get back together.’”

Owens said he shared the book with his transgender friend.

"I'm in an intimate relationship with that person and I wanted to get their take on it and they had that exact same take and I wasn't sure I got that,” Owens said. “He was a jerk. But I thought there was some redemption in his behavior at the end, and I think that, to me, that was kind of realistic (for) high school kids ... especially like in a rural area of Missouri.”

Friedt said the book was written “to inform of the childhood struggles concerning gender identification as presented through the eyes of a gender dysphoric and typically developing male.”

When asked if reading the book would result in a more compassionate understanding of human beings, she said yes and no.

"Yes, as an adult with years of experiences and background,” Friedt said. “No, for a minor that (it) will make more likely confused by the issues presented.”

Read coverage of the other book reviews:

• Panels vote to keep 'The Kite Runner' and 'Drama' in Polk high schools and middle schools

• The Vincent Boys and George should remain in libraries, panelists say

• Panels vote to keep “Beloved” and “Nineteen Minutes” in libraries

• Polk book panels approve 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' and 'It's Perfectly Normal'

• Panels vote to keep “The Bluest Eye” and “Tricks” in Polk high school libraries

'Two Boys Kissing'

“Two Boys Kissing” is told through the eyes of the ghosts of gay men who died of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and their hope that life will be better for today’s gay teens. The characters’ struggles include hiding their sexual identity, grappling with parents who stop loving them, and navigating the emotionally fraught teen-dating drama.

“Two Boys Kissing” was available at Bartow and George Jenkins High schools, along with Frostproof Middle-Senior High School. It has not been checked out in the past two years at any Polk County Public School.

The complaint form was filled out by someone with the last name Flaugh from Collier County, who wrote that the book violates Florida’s Constitutional Amendment declaring marriage is between a man and a woman. That amendment was nullified by a U.S. District Court in August 2014 and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision in December 2014.

Flaugh also said the book violates several Florida statutes, including making sure students are aware of the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard, their ability to comprehend the material presented, and that it contains sexual conduct that is harmful to minors. Flaugh also says it is subjecting all readers to an LGBTQ agenda.

“This entire novel promotes the LGBTQ agenda with numerous scenes and narrative between young boys, kissing, making love and despair over various struggles,” Flaugh wrote. “The story is narrated through a ‘we,' representing the many victims of AIDs.”

“Two Boys Kissing” is one of four books no one on the panels voted to remove from all schools. The Others are “Drama,” “George,” and “Thirteen Reasons Why.”

There are scenes of one teen brutally beaten by homophobic men and one character in the book, Cooper, gets into a blow-up with his father when he finds out his son has been visiting gay dating sites. Cooper eventually attempts suicide.

Davenport High School English teacher Colton Rankey said that is an ever-present reality in the gay community.

“According to the Trevor Project, half a million LGBTQ youth between ages 13 and 18 have attempted suicide in the past year, and I think that this text aims to combat that,” Rankey said.

Jill Dorsett, a member of Concerned Citizens of Polk and a retired teacher and administrator, said the book “educates the reader about the struggles faced by gay and transgender males during the height of the AIDS epidemic and the isolated, painful deaths that many of them experienced during that time. It also shows the reader the struggles that young gay people experience as they explore coming out in today's society and hoping for acceptance.”

She pointed out that many people in the room probably know someone who died of AIDS or is living with AIDS.

“And so this really gives us a really strong knowledge about the pain and suffering that those particular gentlemen experienced during that particular time,” Dorsett said.

Holly Barnett, a parent of several students, was not present, but her comments were also read into the record.

She said the book was written in a way that the readers "could identify with the various characters as they experience love, rejection, loss, fear of violence, and family struggles. This work also gives readers the ability to understand and find compassion for our population that existed before their time and perished in droves because of a disease that many people openly proclaim to be God's retribution for gays.”

Parent Abby Burr objected to the wording of one of the questions: Does this work offer an opportunity to understand and appreciate better the aspirations, achievements, and problems of different cultures and/or minority groups without stressing differences of class, race, color, sex, education, religion, or philosophy in any adverse way?

"The point of a lot of these books is to point out the differences, acknowledge them,” Burr said. “We might not look like you, talk like you. (There are) so many differences that need to be pointed out so that other people understand that people that are not like them exist. They have feelings, they have needs, they have love. And stressing the differences is part of the point.”

Dorsett agreed.

“And who are we to judge?” Dorsett asked. “I mean everyone, irrespective of color, race, gender, sexual identity, religion, etc, all of those — who are we to judge? I mean, we're all deserving of love without retribution.”

Kerry McCoy with Equality Florida took exception with a question: Are questionable elements of this work an integral part of a worthwhile theme, message, or attempt to develop a character?

"I mean, things like this go on all the time,” McCoy said. “There were no questionable elements unless you think being gay is questionable and to talk about it is questionable. Then I feel like you need to educate yourself or just admit that you're homophobic.”

Barnett also called people who complained about the book homophobic.

"If the boy couples in this book were heteronormative, no one would bat an eye at the content from the perspective of sexual activity,” Barnett wrote. “This book has the least amount of truly sexual related content of all the books we reviewed, with the exception of 'George.' There's literally no sex in this book. There are thin references to the acts of sex, but only contact between human beings and a sexual reference depicted here as kissing — human beings, kissing. The fact that this book ended up on a review committee because of the same gender of the human beings is one of the most blatant expressions of homophobia I have witnessed in my lifetime.”

Kathy Bucklew, a mother, grandmother, and a member of County Citizens Defending Freedom, the group that filed the complaint, voted to leave the book in public school libraries at an age appropriate level.

"I think it's more suitable for high school students,” Bucklew said.

She added that members of the major religions in Polk County "see gay relationships as wrong, and that doesn't make them homophobic. It's part of what they may believe is right or wrong. They have a right to feel that way without being labeled homophobic. I don't think anyone here is trying to label a Muslim or Hindu or Christian as homophobic, necessarily, but I don't like that word being thrown around anymore than I like the F (slur) .. thrown around.”

The final book on the list — “More Happy Than Not” by Adam Silvera — will be discussed Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at the Jim Miles Professional Development Center in Highland City. Superintendent Frederick Heid is set to make his recommendations on these three books and the final selection to the Polk County School Board on May 10 during its afternoon work session.

The panel may or may not vote on the matter. PCSB general counsel Wes Bridges has advised the School Board that there is no precedent for them to vote on the books because past complaints have been at the school level only. It would take four board members to approve a vote on the matter.

Ledger reporter Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at kmoore@theledger.com or 863-802-7514. Follow her on Twitter at @KMooreTheLedger.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Book banning effort in Polk schools: 3 on LGBTQ topics Ok'ed by reviewers