Miami-Dade School Board gets an earful from the public about book restrictions

[In It to Win It]

Miami-Dade School Board gets an earful from the public about book restrictions

Parents, community members and young people flooded the Miami-Dade School Board meeting on Wednesday to express concerns about the ease of objecting to books, the dangers of restricting access to certain titles and the need to change how the district handles book challenges — despite the board already having passed a measure to review its policy.

The policy — proposed by Steve Gallon III — calls for board members and district staff to be notified when a book challenge results in the reassignment or removal of a title. Existing policy did not request that objections or decisions be known and only required a school-level review committee to determine whether a book should remain on shelves.

The calls to review and possibly update existing policy passed unanimously and without discussion from board members early in the afternoon. Nevertheless, community members — many who were a product of the school district — showed up later in the day to speak out against what they perceive to be a growing trend of trying to restrict what can and can’t be taught or read in the state.

Groups like Families Against Banning Books, the Miami-Dade and South-Dade NAACP branches and the Transformative Justice Coalition organized most of the attendees.

Most speakers expressed frustration about the recent decision by a review committee at Bob Graham Education Center, a K-8 in Miami Lakes, to restrict three books and an inaugural poem to middle school students. They argued one parent alone should not have the power to influence what is or isn’t available in the library. (The district has maintained no books were banned, just moved to a different part of the library center. Reading advocates say it’s still a restriction to younger students.)