Amid ongoing confusion about a state law more tightly regulating school library contents, Gov. Ron DeSantis says his administration will "continue to stand with parents," panning "phony narratives" about books being banned.
DeSantis said he's working to "empower parents" with his administration's curation of "inappropriate" books from schools that include "adult stuff."
"I'm proud to be able to direct the Department of Education to take appropriate action, to deal with some of the bad actors who are intentionally depriving students of rightful education by politicizing this process," DeSantis said.
During a press conference in Orlando, DeSantis said books on Roberto Clemente and Anne Frank, as well as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Romeo and Juliet," have always been taught.
"Parents in Florida have a right to send their kids to school knowing that they're going to be educated but not indoctrinated. And so we've provided some very robust protections for the rights of parents to direct the education classrooms," DeSantis said.
The Governor then turned his attention to challenges he sees as frivolous.
"You've seen people challenge the Bible. You've seen people challenge dictionaries. And oh my gosh, in Florida, you had a teacher, I think in the Bradenton area, that put paper over all the books," DeSantis said.
He condemned the "fraudulent" practice as "trying to obscure the reason why parents have been concerned with the things that people saw which are clearly not appropriate and they're basically trying to just confuse the issue to act like somehow that classic works are somehow not welcome."
"So now what we've seen is you have seen activists that will go and just challenge almost anything that's not appropriate to be happening. Hijacking this process is not something that we want to encourage in any way. And it's been from different motivations," DeSantis added.
Many teachers and school districts, meanwhile, have argued the new state laws are poorly defined, leading to confusion about what is allowed in schools and what isn't.
DeSantis, though, claimed Thursday that some individuals are working to "create a narrative" that "these books are under review and then the media will take that run with it and try to act like that."
"There's some debate on whether Florida law requires this or not, which there's not. So this is all theater, this is all performative and it really has no place in our school system."
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said the "whole issue is about protecting kids and keeping this inappropriate material out of schools," affirming DeSantis' "leadership" in forming a "real process" for determining "what's appropriate" in government schools.
"Today we're here to set the record straight, and we'll set the record straight for as long as it takes," the Commissioner said, before going on to chide the media for being overly focused on "book banning."
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