Rockin' and rollin' with book challenges: Internal emails show Moms for Liberty plans
A Moms for Liberty chapter in Florida is working to remove more than a dozen books from school library shelves. But internal emails indicate the conservative group has its eyes on hundreds.
Those emails, obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, show a slice of the chapter’s methodical strategy in challenging titles – and some of its ambitions.
“Good Evening, Joyful Warriors!” wrote Priscilla West, chair of Moms For Liberty-Leon County, in an email to members last week. “We are rockin' and rollin' with these book challenges!”
The group has already gotten started. There are five books currently being challenged in Leon County Schools, according to a list posted on the district website.
But the emails foreshadow more are coming. Maybe many more.
What is Moms for Liberty, and what’s coming?
Moms for Liberty started amid protests against COVID-19 rules in schools. It quickly took on a broader swath of issues, including how schools discuss gender, sexuality and race as well as school library book content.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights watchdog, recently labeled it an extremist group, but its leaders have dismissed that as absurd.
As local chapters spring up across the state and nation, the group has become one of the leading voices trying to remove “inappropriate” books from schools.
That’s certainly evident in the Florida Panhandle's Leon County, which holds the state capital.
In an email, West refers to a list of 17 books the chapter warned the school district about in early July – books her group is now trying to ban from school shelves.
“As of today 8/17, the following 11 titles are 'Taken' for challenge,” West wrote, before listing them.
They include “Kingdom of Ash” at Lincoln High School, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” at Leon High School and Swift Creek Middle School, “Normal People” at Chiles High School and “Identical” at SAIL High School.
Volunteers were assigned to each of those titles, and West then listed out the remaining six books "in need of challenge." In a later email, West reported back what challengers had heard from principals.
None of the planned challenges involved Amos P. Godby High School, but West wanted to change that.
"It would be good for someone to file a challenge with Godby, also — happy to provide candidate titles," she wrote.
West went on to tell members that if none of the books "speak" to them or if they'd like to challenge a book at a different school, "by all means do."
“These are simply the books from our M4L letter to LCS — we'd like to cover them first, but there are hundreds more where these came from," she wrote. "Challenge away!”
But in follow-up emails with the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, West denied her group's mission was to "go on challenging hundreds of books" and instead said its aim was to challenge the 17 books.
“Members and non-members alike have been sending us additional lists of books for review, totaling in the hundreds — but this is not something we’re committing to undertake,” she said.
In her email to members, West also encouraged members to let her know if they have any non-member friends who would be willing to file a challenge.
“We've got a list of titles that would be good candidates, if they're looking for suggestions,” she wrote. “The district and the schools will know that parents are paying attention.”
West reassured the group it doesn’t take long to file a challenge.
“The challenge form only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete, if you've been on the fence,” she wrote, also encouraging members to include copies of book reviews by BookLooks.org, which has close ties to the organization.
Those reviews, which are used by various Moms for Liberty chapters across the nation, usually have a "profanity count" and are packed with examples of graphic content – but little context. Each of the five current Leon County challenges include these reviews.
The book challenge process
While it may take minutes to fill out a challenge and attach a report, a lengthy process follows.
Currently in Leon County, a parent complaint first heads to a school principal. If unresolved, the complaint goes up the chain of command to the superintendent. The superintendent will then meet with the parent. If they cannot agree on an outcome, it goes to an appointed third-party officer, who holds a hearing and gives a recommendation to school board members to vote on.
The school board is considering a new process, though, which includes a “District Literacy Council."
But, amid pressure from Moms for Liberty, some books are being removed without going through the process at all.
Following prodding from West’s chapter, Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced in July that five books would be removed from high school libraries.
The books hadn’t even been formally challenged, but Hanna said they were “black-and-white, cut-and-dry, need-to-be removed,” in violation of new state law.
The chapter emailed the district the 17-book list hours after the announcement.
In a Tuesday school board meeting, Hanna said the school district has identified and pulled 68 books for content review. That's out of the more than 450,000 across the school system.
“Last time I stood up here, I encouraged individuals and groups, if they have lists of books, to turn those lists over, and we'll do some more research and see what we can find,” he said. “If there are people that have lists, don’t nickel and dime us, don’t drop, drop, drop, drop, just hand us the list and let us get to work.”
West said in her email that the group is tracking the status of books challenged “by our members (and allies, friends, and families).”
“At the end of the school year, we'll want to hold LCS accountable in reporting challenged/removed books (as required by DOE each June 30th), rather than letting them disappear quietly,” she wrote.
Recent opinion piece by Priscilla West: Here’s a simpler solution: Rid schools of inappropriate materials
Controversy, confusion, Shakespeare: Florida clarifies that Shakespeare is OK for classrooms, but confusion still reigns
How did we get here?
When DeSantis signed the Curriculum Transparency Act last year, he touted it as a way to increase parental involvement in education and prevent "indoctrination." The law requires districts to catalog every book they offer and put a formal review process in place for complaints.
School districts took wildly varying approaches to the law, and teachers, looking at their own classroom libraries, have been afraid of legal repercussions. Resulting book restrictions and removals have generated headlines nationwide and lawsuits.
And then came House Bill 1069, the newest school book law, which took effect July 1.
The law has once again prompted widely-varying interpretations as to what to remove for “sexual conduct,” with some school districts even putting William Shakespeare works on the chopping book.
The Florida Department of Education has since said it doesn’t believe Shakespeare should be removed from classrooms, but confusion remains across the state.
And book access advocates are concerned this, mixed with the fear of consequences, controversies and costs, will lead school districts to only cave to the pressure exerted by groups like Moms for Liberty.
“If we're going to talk about parental rights, let's talk about parental rights,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, a senior policy advisor for Equality Florida, at a Wednesday Florida Board of Education meeting. “But we must respect the rights of all parents, including the rights of parents who want to make sure that their kid has access to a high quality public education and access to the materials that they have a right to access as well."
When a USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida reporter approached West after a Tuesday school board meeting, she declined an interview and said she preferred written questions.
"We will continue working to educate and empower all parents to exercise their right to direct the education and upbringing of their children," she said in an email.
Contributed: The USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida's Ana Goñi-Lessan and the Tallahassee Democrat's Alaijah Brown.
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. He can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com. Twitter: @DouglasSoule.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Emails reveal Florida Moms for Liberty chapter's strategy to pull books
