Even Dictionaries Aren’t Safe From New Florida Law

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports:

Hundreds of dictionaries earmarked for donation from a Venice Rotary Club sit collecting dust, precluded from being given to Sarasota County students. Even dictionaries aren’t safe from the Sarasota Schools book freeze.

Ahead of the 2022-23 school year, the Sarasota County School District stopped all donations and purchases of books for school libraries while it waits for additional guidance from the Florida Department of Education about how to navigate the effects of new education laws.

The freeze comes as HB 1467 took effect July 1, requiring all reading material in schools to be selected by an employee with a valid education media specialist certificate. The district was still looking to hire three media specialists to vet books as of Friday.

Read the full article.

Hundreds of dictionaries that the Venice Rotary Club has donated to the Sarasota school system for years, have been held up so they can be properly screened under Desantis’s new law to ensure they don’t contain any improper material. https://t.co/qasphO2h7Z

— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) August 19, 2022