Volusia County Schools dismisses Bible challenge, book will not be removed

DELAND — A Volusia County Schools graduate who serves as president of Central Floridians for Social Equality challenged the Bible in Volusia's school district Thursday; come Tuesday, she learned that the book will remain in district buildings.

Christina Quinn, a Daytona Beach resident, does not stand for book banning but believes the Bible should be removed if the district is banning books with similar content.

Eighty-nine books were objected and two books — "Flamer," by Mike Curato, and "Relish: My Life in the Kitchen," by Lucy Knisley — were removed from Volusia County Schools during the 2022-23 school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

"If we're going to have some kind of protocol for books that are banned, then we have to make sure that the same rules apply across the board," Quinn said. "That includes the Bible."

But the Bible will not be removed from Volusia County Schools, according to Desirée Rybinski, Volusia's coordinator of instructional materials, who cited Florida Statute 1003.45 as the reasoning. This statute allows students to study the Bible and religion in Florida's K-12 public schools and requires teachers to hold a moment of silence in their classrooms at the start of each school day.

Quinn's objection to the Bible is resolved, Rybinski said in an email Tuesday.

About Quinn's challenge

Central Floridians for Social Equality's mission is to advocate for equality among all marginalized communities. And according to her press release, Quinn said that includes books.

"If a book is being removed from public school bookshelves due to its sexual content (which often includes stories of marginalized people), then so should books such as the Bible," she wrote in a statement. "Heteronormativity and/or the character's race should not be the determining factor for which books stay and which ones go."

The Bible is housed in 15 of Volusia's schools: Atlantic, Spruce Creek, DeLand, Seabreeze, Mainland, Pine Ridge and University high schools; T. Dewitt Taylor Middle High School; Heritage, Hinson, River Springs, Silver Sands and Southwestern middle schools; and Friendship and Indian River elementary schools.

Portions of the Bible are also included in the Florida Department of Education's B.E.S.T. (Benchmark for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards for English Language Arts. The reading list recommends the Book of Esther for seventh-graders, 2 Samuel for high school sophomores, and the Book of Psalms for high school juniors.

According to her request, Quinn specifically objected the following passages, noting that they are sexually explicit and should be removed from schools per Florida Statute 1006.28 2.b: Ezekiel 16:17; Deuteronomy 25:11-12; Ezekiel 23:18-21; Judah 38: 8-10; Song of Solomon (Old Testament); and Ezekiel 23:20. The statute Quinn cited says that each Florida school district's objection process must allow county residents to provide evidence that their challenged material depicts sexual conduct as defined in statute 847.001(19).

Upon learning that her objection was resolved, Quinn was "perturbed."

"It's hypocritical. It's a very hypocritical decision," Quinn said. "They've chosen to pick the Bible over the statute that says they cannot have 'pornographic' material, or sexually explicit material. So it's allowed for the Bible, but it's not allowed when it's describing marginalized communities and books."

Bible's place in Volusia board room

Banning books was not on the agenda for Volusia County Schools' Sept. 26 board meeting, but many people showed up to discuss books during the public comment period.

While some speakers read sexually explicit content from books in school libraries that they deem should be banned, others advocated for the importance and necessity of diversity among books available to students.

"At this same meeting, Jessie Thompson, a school board member that was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, listened to Bible excerpts being read by a Unitarian Universalist that were sexually explicit and Thompson stated that, 'If you are being aroused sexually by the Bible then you might be doing it wrong,'" Quinn wrote in a statement. "Therefore, she is suggesting that sexually explicit content is perfectly fine on school bookshelves, and in classrooms, as long as it is from what Thompson called 'the good book.'"

Thompson said she received an email Monday morning from Sheila Zinkerman and Laurel Robinson, co-founders of Citizens for Truth an Justice in Education, a grassroots organization advocating for equal, free access to age-appropriate, professionally-vetted educational materials in public schools. In the email, Zinkerman and Robinson asked Thompson — on behalf of CTJE and Free To Be Florida, an organization aiming to end the proliferation of educational censorship in Florida K-12 schools and libraries — to remove her personal Bible from the Volusia board room dais to "respect religious freedom for all."

"We believe a bible or any other faith-based books has no legitimate place on a dais occupied by elected government officials. While it is permissible and common practice for public officials to place their hand on a bible for swearing-in ceremonies, that action is acknowledge as a personal reference to the faith of the individual being sworn in and does not tie that faith to official actions of the school board," Zinkerman and Robinson said in a statement. "To have an official blatantly use a bible as a prop for decision-making is inappropriate and displays one religious bias to the exclusion of all others."

CTJE and FTB agree that Thompson's response to Unitarian Universalist public speaker at the Sept. 26 school board meeting was the "tip of the iceberg of the erosion of democratic rights."

However, Thompson said, "I stand by my faith, my Bible, and my religious freedom granted to me by God. Therefore, I will not be removing my Bible."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bible challenge dismissed in Volusia County Schools