Ron DeSantis says new law limiting book challenges will stop liberals from abusing the system

As book bans across the country rise to record levels this year, the state at the epicenter of the anti-LGBTQ+, “anti-woke” effort to limit what young people can read took a step this week that may curb book challenges.

On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law an education bill that included a limit on who can challenge books and how many challenges they can register. Under House Bill 1285, people who are not the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a Florida school can only challenge one book per month. Parents of students with access to a school district’s materials, including those who are homeschooled, will still be able to challenge as many books as they want, as often as they want.

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According to Politico, critics say the change doesn’t go far enough to address the endless stream of book challenges in the state. On X, the Florida Freedom to Read Project pointed to one man, Bruce Friedman, who has challenged hundreds of books in Florida’s Clay County. Just this week, the county dropped 40 book challenges made by Friedman, who claims to be a parent.

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“HB 1285 is unlikely to slow him down with filing hundreds of objections in his district and limiting library access for all students based on his opinion,” the organization wrote. The new law, they added in a subsequent post, “is not ‘mission accomplished’ on stopping the needless censorship happening in FL schools, but it might slow it in certain areas.”

A new report from PEN America released this week found that, across the country, there were more instances of book bans in the first half of the 2023–2024 school year than in all of the 2022–2023 school year. Of those 4,349 bans, 3,135 were in Florida alone, more than in any other state.

“The majority of books that we see being removed are books that talk about LBTQ+ identities, that include characters of color, that talk about race and racism, that include depictions of sexual experiences in the most broadest interpretation of that understanding,” Kasey Meehan, PEN America’s Freedom to Read program director, told the Associated Press.

But during a press conference on Monday, DeSantis continued to characterize book banning, which he has described as a liberal “hoax,” as an effort to remove “pornographic” material from schools.

“The kids are going to be educated but not indoctrinated,” he said, according to local ABC affiliate WPLG. “Many books with pornographic or sexually explicit material have been removed from public and private schools and parents will have the right to prevent their children from reading if they see fit.”

“The idea that someone can use the parents’ rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book, to try to make a mockery of this, is wrong. And you had examples where books were put under review that are just normal books that have been in education for many, many years,” DeSantis said.

According to the AP, DeSantis was referring not to “frivolous” book challenges made by racist and anti-LGBTQ+ folks but to liberals “abusing” the system to make a political point about the absurd overreach of Florida’s book-banning policies.

“We’ve had people that have taken advantage of the current law to overwhelm districts with book challenges knowing full well that there is nothing wrong with those books — just to create a narrative to say that Florida is banning books and quite often to attack our governor,” said Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., who joined DeSantis at Monday’s event, according to the Florida Freedom to Read Project.

A spokesperson for DeSantis pointed to a single example of this so-called abuse of the system: South Florida resident Chaz Stevens, who has challenged the Bible in dozens of Florida school districts. But PEN America’s Meehan told the AP that the vast majority of book challenges come from conservative individuals and groups like Moms for Liberty.  

HB 1285 marks the second time in recent weeks that the DeSantis administration has backtracked on Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda. In March, the state reached a settlement with a cohort of LGBTQ+ rights groups that had challenged Florida’s infamous Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The settlement left the law in place but clarified that it only applies to classroom instruction and does not ban teachers or students from identifying as LGBTQ+ or mentioning their same-sex partners or family members in the classroom, nor does it apply to library books or ban discussion of LGBTQ+ people and issues in lessons or student work.