'Major Win' in Fight Against Dictionary-Yanking School District

A Florida school district is keeping students from accessing dictionaries which, in defining sex and other concepts, are considered to violate the state law prohibiting materials in schools that depict or describe sexual conduct, per the Messenger. Escambia County School District has pulled more than 1,600 books from school libraries while reviewing whether they violate state law HB 1069. At least five dictionaries—the American Heritage Children's Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary for Students, Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary, the Clear and Simple Thesaurus Dictionary, and the Dictionary of Costume—have been removed, according to a list shared by PEN America, which sued the district last May, alleging violations of the First and 14th amendments.

Among the plaintiffs are seven Escambia County parents, five authors, and publisher Penguin Random House. They want to force the school district to return removed books to libraries and prevent it from removing more. They also seek reimbursement for the costs of the suit, which a federal judge refused to dismiss on Wednesday, per the Pensacola News Journal. US District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II said the 14th Amendment claim did not apply but the First Amendment claim could move forward. The school district argued it had authority to decide which books appear in schools under the state law. But Wetherell said the district could remove books only for legitimate reasons, such as the inclusion of pornographic material, not because officials consider them "woke" or immoral.

He appeared to agree with the plaintiffs' argument that books containing sexual content are not inherently harmful to children, referring to the example of the discussion of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird. He suggested school libraries should allow for a "marketplace of ideas," even if that meant including Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, per WUWF. He also noted that because the school district did not put a time limit on its review process, books pulled for review under the law could end up in "purgatory," per the News Journal. The district has 28 days to file a response. Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America Florida, said the decision to allow the suit to proceed marked "a major win" for students and "a good day for the Constitution and democracy." (More Florida stories.)