DeSantis believes that the removal of books from Florida has gone too far

Courtesy: YES Market Media – Shutterstock– Juno Beach, Florida, USA – June 30, 2020: Governor Florida Ron DeSantis with Casey DeSantis and Madison DeSantis will make a major announcement at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.

The non-successful Ron DeSantis, the ex-Republican nominee for president, maintained on Thursday that books are not banned in Florida, even if he acknowledged that certain school districts have been overly lenient in their acceptance of challenges to remove books from their shelves.

The governor argued that Florida book prohibitions are a “hoax” in a press release issued by DeSantis’ office, saying that the state has only “empowered parents to object to obscene material in the classroom.”

“Still, some have abused this process to object to items including books about Johnny Appleseed, The Giver and even the Bible,” the release continues.

“Prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions from intentionally depriving students of an education by politicizing the book review process,” DeSantis instructed education authorities.

Additionally, new legislation was demanded in the press release to restrict “bad-faith objections made by those who don’t have children learning in Florida.”

DeSantis discussed putting restrictions on his state’s book bans at an Orlando press conference.

“Members of the community, although we like people wanting to be involved in what’s going on, to just show up and object to every single book under the sun, that is not an appropriate situation here and we’ve seen that occasionally,” he said.

A Florida school district removed dictionaries from the shelf in January so they could be reviewed because they defined terms like “sex.”

The contentious HB1069 bill in Florida mandates tighter regulations on materials related to sexual education and has resulted in the widespread removal of LGBTQ+ and sexual health-related books.


Stories that matter are our priority. At Florida Insider, we make sure that the information we provide our readers is accurate, easy-to-read, and informative. Whether you are interested in business, education, government, history, sports, real estate, nature or travel: we have something for everyone. Follow along for the best stories in the Sunshine State.