CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — When it comes to the number of books banned at schools, Florida leads the nation -- with than double the number of banned books than the second leading state, Texas.
In Florida, Clay County School District leads the state.
And that means more books have been yanked off the shelves, than in any other school district in the nation, according to PEN America – a free expression organization.
Kasey Meehan is the program director for Freedom to Read at PEN America. She said her organization is seeing other places, “where we see a case like Clay, where they are now receiving a massive list of books that have been challenged by one single person.”
That person in Clay County is Bruce Friedman.
According to Clay County Schools Coordinator of Communication/Media Relations Terri Dennis, “The large majority of our books, approximately 94% on the list, are from one community member, Bruce Friedman, representing the organization No Left Turn in Education. Due process allows a single individual to challenge materials with no restriction on the number of titles that individual may contest. All challenges are subject to the same procedure and follow the same process regarding potential violations based on F.S. Chapter 847.”
Clay school documents show in the 2022–23 school year, 489 books received objections. And in Florida, if a person wants a school book reviewed, it is immediately taken off the shelf. Clay has more banned books than the state of Missouri. And Clay’s number of banned books accounts for more than a third of the banned books in Florida.
In a recent presentation to the Clay County School Board, Friedman said, “Myself and my associates, we’ve submitted roughly 500 challenges to items in your libraries in this county… that shouldn’t be there. Maybe all of them aren’t the problem. Maybe only some of them.”
School board members declined to talk about the matter with First Coast News. Dennis said there is a procedure in place to review a book before it is permanently removed from the shelves, and she says the increased requests makes the process “absolutely time consuming for the limited amount of staff” who works through the process. She said the person in charge is now having to devote 20 – 25 hours a week for book reviews.
Some people in Clay County are concerned this is slowing down the purchasing of new books for school libraries.
Victoria Thompkins spoke at a Clay County school board meeting once and told the board, “And why are we at a standstill? Because one man has made it his personal mission to keep books out of the hands of Clay County students.” She continued, “Many, many people are against what he is doing. People are angry and upset, yet no one at a higher level is speaking out.”
Meehan with PEN America said it is becoming a trend across the nation for one person or group to flood school districts with book ban requests and “that is being coupled with state legislation. And it’s making it easier for book challengers to have books removed.