A mom is outraged that Moms for Liberty used her daughter in a harebrained scheme to ban a book

A Florida mom has accused the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Moms for Liberty of using her daughter as a pawn in a calculated scheme to get a book banned from a high school library.

Earlier this month, Jennifer Tapley and Tom Gurski (two members of a Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty) showed up at a local sheriff’s office to report the librarian at an area high school was sharing “pornography” with minors. After a 17-year-old student checked out the book, they claimed its availability to minors was a felony under Florida law.

Related:

Moms for Liberty called the cops on a librarian for letting a 17-year-old check out a YA novel

The claimed that the librarian was giving adult material to minors.

But it has now come to light that the entire incident was a plan orchestrated by Moms for Liberty. Gurski told WEAR News that a teacher asked the student to check out the book, Storm and Fury by Jennifer Armentrout. The teacher then handed the book over to Moms for Liberty to be reported. Gurski added that he did not want to resort to this method to get the book banned but that the student’s ability to check it out still provided the library had committed a felony.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

But the scheme goes even further. It turns out the teacher who asked the student to check out the book does not work at the school or even in the county.

A source told Popular Information that the teacher was Vicki Baggett, who teaches English in nearby Escambia County. Baggett has become notorious for her crusade to ban over 100 books from Escambia school libraries. Baggett has submitted almost every single one of the 150 book challenges being reviewed by the Escambia School District this year. Many of the challenged books are by Black authors or deal with LGBTQ+ topics.

Baggett’s actions have been successful in banning many of the books she has challenged and have led to a federal lawsuit against Escambia County. In May, book publisher Penguin Random House sued, accusing the district of violating the Constitution. The publisher sued alongside the free-speech organization PEN America, as well as authors and parents negatively affected by the ban.

And now it seems Baggett’s efforts have extended beyond her own school district. And now, the mother of the student Baggett asked to check out the book is furious that her daughter was used without her consent.

“I’m very angry because my daughter was used to do someone else’s dirty work,” she said. “Do I think the book should be in the library? I’m a Christian lady and I don’t think anyone should be reading those books. But I do not think my daughter should have been used to go to the police without her mother’s permission… The group needs to fight on its behalf and not use children that they’re trying to supposedly protect.”

Moms for Liberty went after Storm and Fury due to passages they have deemed too sexual. The book is a popular young adult novel that recounts a battle between humans and gargoyles fighting demons, with an 18-year-old protagonist named Trinity. There’s a make-out scene, and one character almost has sex. The book has been recommended by the Florida Association of Media in Education (FAME), a librarian association’s “Teen Reads” list, and by the School Library Journal. Barnes and Noble rates the book appropriate for 14- to 18-year-olds.

When Moms for Liberty first reported the book, Armentrout, the book’s author, told Popular Information that Storm and Fury wasn’t written to “incite sexual excitement.” She said she was surprised to learn we are “living in an era where, apparently, some adults find it appropriate to contact the police over a fictional book involving gargoyles.”

Tapley, on the other hand, told Popular Information that any book that has a “sex scene” is pornography and not “appropriate for minors.” She acknowledged there may be exceptions for “extreme classics,” but, she said, the books Moms for Liberty is targeting are “without significant literary value.” 

Tapley – a school board candidate – told WEAR that Storm and Fury “is a completely disgusting book” that is “definitely porn under Florida law.”

“This book is so pornographic and so vile. You just can’t ignore it,” she said.

The district has reportedly removed the book from circulation.