Dictionaries were removed from library shelves in a Florida school district last year as part of an investigation of more than 1,600 titles for mentions of “sexual conduct” that could violate a 2023 state law.
Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary and other titles were pulled from schools in Escambia County, Fla., where officials are reviewing books for compliance with the law’s prohibition on materials with “sexual” content.
Also investigated were the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other reference books on topics including science, mythology and the Bible, according to a list published by the school district and circulated this week by PEN America, a free-speech group that has sued the school board over the removals.
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That dictionaries were included in the review process and triggered the “sexual conduct” criteria for a second look demonstrates how sweeping the state’s new rules are and how fraught the climate in districts has become, said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program.
“This was just another example that illuminates the heightened atmosphere, the chilled atmosphere, that we’re navigating,” Meehan said. “Librarians are feeling so pressured to err on such extreme caution that these are the types of books that are being pulled for review.”
Florida has been among states leading the national surge in school book challenges that began in 2021, and Escambia County has become ground zero for book removals within the state. With the lawsuit against its school board proceeding in federal court, it has also become a testing ground for free-speech advocates’ arguments against book restrictions.
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The dictionaries were listed as having been under review as of Dec. 7, but they were no longer on an updated list Wednesday, indicating that they may have been returned to shelves. The list was updated a day after PEN America publicized the dictionaries’ inclusion; it still included some reference books.
An Escambia schools spokesperson did not answer questions Thursday from The Washington Post but sent a statement from Schools Superintendent Keith Leonard that said the district remains “committed to adhering to all statutes and regulations, while also providing valuable and varied literacy opportunities for every student.”
“The dictionary has not been banned in our district,” Leonard said.
Some considered the fact that dictionaries were caught in the review’s net at all concerning.
“Dictionaries have always held an important place in our schools,” Greg Barlow, president of Merriam-Webster, told The Post in a statement. “They help all of us, including students of all ages, expand our knowledge, learn the value of words, and most importantly teach us how to communicate with each other.”
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“We absolutely believe that everyone should have access to them,” he added.
The review of the dictionaries is a small piece of the larger book ban uproar in Escambia. The district, home to more than 50 schools in the panhandle, began pulling books for review after Florida in May passed H.B. 1069, which also prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for eighth grade and below.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his allies hailed the law as expanding “parental rights in education” and have claimed that “pornographic and inappropriate” materials were being placed in schools.
Share this articleShare“What we’ve seen in these libraries and in some of the books, there’s clearly a concerted effort to try to do indoctrination in the middle school grades,” DeSantis said at the May bill signing.
At the start of the school year in the fall, Escambia closed some libraries and covered some bookshelves with black paper to protect students from “potentially objectionable or illegal content,” spokesman Cody Strother told local reporters.
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As of early December, the district had removed 2,868 copies of 1,607 titles as part of its review, Escambia’s coordinator of media services, Bradley Vinson, previously told The Post. The dictionaries were among them.
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the lawsuit against the school board could proceed, denying the board’s request to have the case dismissed.
In the suit, which was filed in May, PEN America, publisher Penguin Random House, parents and authors alleged that the board violated students’ First Amendment rights by “systematically excluding certain viewpoints and perspectives” from libraries, including those of LGBTQ communities and people of color. The group hopes a court will rule that the efforts to remove books in Florida are unconstitutional and thus send a signal to states nationwide.
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The school board, meanwhile, has argued that its actions qualify as government speech that’s not subject to First Amendment protections. And in removing board-purchased books from school libraries, its lawyers argued in a court filing, the board “hasn’t banned any books.”
The national wave of school book challenges began in 2021 as some parents took issue with the ways schools teach and discuss issues of race, racism, U.S. history, gender identity and sexuality. Since March 2022, Florida has passed multiple laws making it easier for residents to review and object to books in schools and for parents to force schools to pull books from shelves — fueling efforts to restrict children’s access to books and the turmoil that often follows.
Escambia isn’t the only Florida district reviewing books. In at least two counties, school officials have directed teachers to cover their classroom libraries or empty their bookshelves to avoid possible penalties. In other cases, parental permission is required for books. Librarians say they have seen students stop reading.
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A Post analysis showed that books with LGBTQ characters or protagonists of color were most likely to be challenged nationwide — and that the wave of challenges came from a small handful of highly active adults.
Just 11 people were responsible for more than 60 percent of schoolbook challenges filed nationwide in the 2021-2022 school year, The Post found. Almost half of challenged books are eventually returned to shelves, The Post found, although LGBTQ books are most likely to be banned.
In Escambia County Public Schools, the controversy has been near-constant since September 2022, when English teacher Vicki Baggett filed objections to at least 113 titles, leading the district to place the challenged books in a restricted section that children could not access without parent permission.
In the following months, the school board voted to restrict or remove at least nine books, most of which dealt with LGBTQ themes or storylines. The board also voted to fire Schools Superintendent Tim Smith in part for his refusal to unilaterally yank titles, Smith told The Post.
Other books removed for review, according to the district’s list, included classics such as “Dracula” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”; titles by authors including Stephen King, James Joyce and Agatha Christie; and books relating to African American and LGBTQ experiences, AIDS, and dating violence. It also included recently popular books by authors such as Sarah J. Maas, John Green, Meg Cabot, Nicola Yoon, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Celeste Ng.
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