Parents in Florida have spoken out about their dismay over the finding of a book series about the murder of a teacher in their children’s classrooms.
The book series has a “Minor Restricted” rating and a prominent, red “CONTENT WARNING” label because it contains graphic violence, bad language, and sexual situations. The state director of the Florida Chapter of County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF), Sarah Calamunci, has called the book series “disturbing and frightening.” She has urged parents to check their children’s schools’ libraries for the series to address any potential problems.
Nadia Combs, chair of the Hillsborough County School Board, instructed fellow board members to submit a book challenge over the “Assassination Classroom” novels because of their controversial subject matter. Cassandra Palelis, press secretary for the Florida Department of Education, has stated that local school districts are responsible for vetting library media resources and deciding what should be accessible to students.
Distributing obscenity “to a juvenile on school premises” is illegal under Florida’s Obscenity Law.
Mothers for Liberty supporter Kelly Carling spoke out against the “Assassination Classroom” series for depicting graphic acts of violence, including school shootings, child rape, human trafficking, porn, underage porn, prostitution, and suicide.
Carling predicted that removing all 139 volumes would take 56 years. Cato Carling, Carling’s son, recently reminded the board of directors of the importance of the monthly lockdown exercises. Molly Blanton and Pat McCall said the novels convey ambiguous themes of salvation and murder.
The parent’s book research produced some shocking results. Fred Stone read some shocking passages from Volume 21. Laura Kissak, a local Mothers for Liberty activist, petitioned the Board to ban the book “Assassination Classroom” from use in Hillsborough County classrooms. High schooler Gay Jones was troubled by the literature’s advocacy of suicide, but what got to her was the class’s and their monster teacher’s shared case of Stockholm Syndrome. Thirty locals from Hillsborough County spoke out during the public comment period, and they weren’t all against the proposal.
Theo Townsend pushed for a policy change allowing parents to remove their children’s books from classroom libraries.
Parent, educator, and media expert Nicole Huff suggested that parents discuss their concerns about a book with a media professional. Another Hillsborough educator, Jen Heart, discussed “book banning,” claiming that the media specialist at her school selected which novels pupils could and could not read.
Kissak was outraged that school administrators had reprimanded parents who had voiced concerns about publications that advocated such depraved content. She felt that telling parents to “shut up” was the same as “banning books” and “depriving kids of something they need” and was thus incredibly offensive to her.
