Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. The guidance by Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested “electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials.” In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.
I work at a high school (in a library, actually) in California, and we’ve had student walkouts for much less. Are the angry students doing any major protesting that you’ve seen? Or are the schools cracking down so hard already and they don’t want to risk it, or a high enough percentage of kids are assholes so they mock kids who care and it keeps those kids from protesting? I’m sure there’s a lot happening that we don’t hear about, so I’m curious what it’s like for Gen Z who overall doesn’t seem to stand for bigotry in general.