Florida School District bans dictionaries and encyclopedias under Florida law

 

As if Florida could not get any stupider, it once again sinks to a new low.  Florida school district of Escambia County, the westernmost county in the panhandle, has removed dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauruses from its libraries, concerned that making these books available to students would violate Florida law HB 1069. The law, signed by Ron DeRacist in May 2023, demands the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual content".

They banned dictionaries! 

Dictionaries are some of more than 2800 books banned in Escambia County. Other titles that have been banned include To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, and Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.

The school district used a checklist to determine which titles to ban. Escambia County provided a copy of the checklist to the Florida Freedom to Read Project. See below:

Note that there is no requirement to actually READ the book. Just look it up on social media and believe what others are telling you to believe.

Read the full article here:

https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-removes-dictionaries

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: State of Oklahoma bans "Killers of the Flower Moon" from schools

 

Although Oklahoma's state measure HB 1775 doesn't specifically ban David Grann's award-winning novel Killers of the Flower Moon about how dozens of members of the Osage Nation were killed by white settlers who wanted in on the oil profits, its wording is so vague that teachers are afraid to include it in their school curricula.  The measure prohibits schools from 

"teaching the idea that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously” or that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.”"

Educators fear that assigning the book will result in them being punished or fired.  Oklahoma school districts are not longer to use terms including 'diversity' and 'white privilege' in classrooms.  To Kill a Mockingbird has been banned and teachers are to teach students that slavery was 'beneficial' to African Americans.  

Oklahoma, where the hate comes sweeping down the plain.