Total number of library books removed from Clay County schools pending final decision

Parent-challenged library books were once again the topic of debate at the Clay County school board meeting last week. A teacher, a parent, a pastor, a professor and a student each weighed in on the discussion.

As of the Thursday school board meeting, Clay County District Schools has received 216 library book challenges. Thirty books have already been reviewed, with 186 still awaiting the review process. Challenged books are removed from all school library shelves until a review is complete.

Two books have been banned entirely from school libraries, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “Julian is a Mermaid” by Jessica Love.

The Clay County School District's policy allows parents to challenge library books them deem inappropriate or unfit for children.Photo byClay County District Schools

At the meeting, Jennifer Burkhardt, a 10th-grade English teacher in Clay County District Schools, brought two challenged books with her to the podium, (“Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds and “Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood) both of which she taught in her classroom last year, she said.

“Long Way Down” is a book that is recommended in the district-approved “Tempest unit,” Burkhardt said. It aligns with themes of revenge and tells a story of a teenager who is dealing with thoughts of whether or not to act out of revenge for the death of his brother, she said. He ultimately goes through an internal conflict to understand the consequences of acting out of emotion and impulse.

“He chooses to not perpetuate endless cycles of violence,” she said. “So, I am not sure why we would ban the book that literally suggests we need to stop cycles of violence, that is written by an African American author, that is in our district-approved textbook.”

“I did not misspeak,” Burkhardt said. “I said banned book list because that is what our challenges are. They are immediately removed without due process and there is no end in sight.”

In reference to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Burkhardt said she read the book in a public school Florida classroom when she was a student and she now teaches the book to her English students. She read aloud several student responses about the book—citing comments about the book’s overall theme, how much they enjoyed the opportunity to read the story and their desire to read the next book in the series.

Bruce Friedman, chapter president of the Clay County No Left Turn in Education organization and local father, spoke to school board members claiming that he has submitted “hundreds of books for review that have inappropriate materials, sometimes called pornography, obscenities, indecencies, or just plain gross.”

Friedman said that not all his book challenges need to be removed from libraries, but rather moved from one age group to another.

“The problem is that I am the only one looking,” he said, noting he brought 30 new challenges with him to the meeting. “Some of the other speakers believe that there is no issue with a book in the hands of a child ever, which is incorrect, especially for my child.”

Shari McGriff, an author and former professor at St. Johns River State College, came before the school board saying that she felt called to pray for the school district and the people within it for allowing pornographic and harmful materials in the school libraries.

“I have the authority, even though you may not understand this, to pray about this,” she said. “It is not okay that this county has stolen the innocence of our children through the schools.”

McGriff proceeded to lead a prayer “repenting of the sins done by the school board and all the teachers and government in Clay County.”

McGriff was followed by Jeffrey Dove, pastor of St. James AME Church in Orange Park. Dove told board members that he is a father, a pastor and “most of all a strong Black man.” He said somebody called him, distraught, about books being removed which motivated him to start reading the books.

“There are some books that need to be removed,” he said. “But when you start talking about removing African American authors and African American history, I have a problem with that.”

Dove said he will be meeting with Chief Academic Officer Roger Dailey to further discuss the issues and that he hopes to find some resolution.

The last speaker during the public comment section was a Ridgeview High School student who is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program geared for university and higher education. She said she is the official student organizer for the Clay County reading alliance and the past few weeks have been stressful for her due to the high volume of challenged books.

“Unfortunately books that promote open-mindedness and diversity are being challenged,” she said. “And that is really scary because in the process of doing that, you are creating students who are going into society with one perspective and it is so important that we see from all perspectives in order to understand the real world.”

The student noted that the International Baccalaureate program has a different set of criteria for books, so she may not be as impacted by the bans, but she worries about other students who will not have access to the titles.

“You may not agree with Critical Race Theory or anything to do with race or homosexuality—you might not agree with any of that, and that’s okay,” she said. “But at the end of the day, in the real world, homosexuality exists, racism exists and we need to be exposed to that in high school in order to become well-rounded people.”

The movement to ban books began with legislation approved March 28, 2022, when Gov. Ron DeSantis approved House Bill 1557 that “reinforces parental rights in education.”

A unanimously approved school board policy dating back to August 2022, gave parents the power to challenge books they deem unfit for school-aged children and potentially have them removed from library shelves.

The policy allows a parent to submit a form challenging a book, so long as the title and page number citing questionable material are provided for media specialists and the District Curriculum Council (a group of parents, principals and media specialists) to review.

The District Curriculum Council is set to meet again on Feb. 28 at the Teacher In-Service Center at Fleming Island High School, Chief Academic Officer Roger Dailey said. The time for the meeting has not yet been posted.

There is no timeline on when the school district will be able to review all 186 books awaiting a decision for their placement on library shelves, he said.

“If you look at other districts across the state, compared to us, the number of challenges are very small or none at all,” Dailey said. “We have a very high number because we have one individual who is very passionate about this topic and is driving this work in ways we never could have anticipated.”

Dailey said that, so far, each District Curriculum Council group has reached a unanimous decision on the status of the book they were assigned to read. In the case of a split decision, Superintendent David Broskie or school board members would be asked to weigh in on the final decision.

“We are working overtime to try and get this right,” Dailey said. “We appreciate the attention of the community members including the individual with hundreds of challenges. Our effort needs to be excellent and collaborative in this area.”

With that, however, comes an indefinite timeline for book status decisions because the process of assigning books to be read and holding District Curriculum Council meetings must be done when the adults volunteering their time are not working, Dailey said.

“These conversations about books and their material are important and there is no ‘fast’ way to do this that wouldn’t be sloppy,” he said.

The District Curriculum Council meetings are open to the public and notices for meetings are posted seven days ahead of time at this link.

Click here to view the current list of challenged books.