Tipsheet

Is Florida Truly Banning Classics Like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' From Its Classrooms?

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  August 24, 2022 9:30 AM

Over the weekend, an anonymous Twitter account tweeted a collection of supposedly banned books in Florida's schools, ranging from beloved novels that tell classic tales in American history to others whose characters deal with the subject of race. Is the so-called banned book list a fabrication? If so, is it merely misinformation? Or could it be disinformation that baited Twitter's loudest progressives while attempting to damage the pro-free speech image of Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration along the way?

CLAIM: The president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teacher's union in America, propagated the claim that classic novels like "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"—which depict historical race relations between black Americans and whites when racism and discrimination ran rampant in the country—are allegedly on "Florida's Anti-Woke Banned Book List." (The social media graphic failed to link to any source.) "Books we have taught for generations!!!!" outraged AFT president Randi Weingarten exclaimed Sunday evening on Twitter.

FACTS: The state of Florida has not banned the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin rebutted. In fact, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is recommended reading material by Florida's Department of Education for eighth-grade English language arts students, according to an official list compiled by the state's Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards, a product of Florida literacy experts and educators, for the grade-level subject. The sample titles the state provides "serve as mentor texts for students, demonstrating exemplar writing," and likewise have been selected as both "a guide for teachers" as well as "a foundation for educators when selecting additional rich and meaningful texts."

NewsNation reporter Zaid Jilani shared a screenshot of an AP (advanced placement) English literature and composition summer-reading assignment for Jupiter Community High School, one of the largest high schools in its Florida region with over 3,300 students enrolled. The novels that the AP students are instructed to pick to base an in-depth essay on include "Huck Finn," "The Kite Runner," "Nineteen Eighty-Four," and "The Grapes of Wrath," which are all books that Weingarten and others on the left had believed to be banned.

The journalist provided other local examples that counter the purported list of banned books in Florida. Key West High School's summer reading list for 10th graders includes George Orwell's dystopian fiction and a memoir by Black Lives Matter leaders while Pensacola High School's pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) program listed the not-so-banned "A Wrinkle In Time" as a choice for ninth-grade required reading this summer.

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Snopes, of course, provided PR cover for the bad-faith actors at work here, determining that the claim "Originated as Satire," but was "later stripped of some of its satirical markings, repackaged, and posted elsewhere," according to the "fact-checking" website's definition of the satirical rating, which "also applies to content not necessarily labeled as satire but that audiences perceived as satirical nonetheless."

The fact-checking giant's reason for the rating faults how content is often taken out of its "original context" on the Internet and shared by social media users who "assumed it was real." Although, the troll Twitter account that disseminated the made-up list maintained later on that the tweet was meant as mockery, but in the initial Twitter thread, the user said they're "not going to say where this list came from due to protecting sources."

Since the debunking, both the original image that Weingarten quote tweeted and her initial tweet were deleted.

Weingarten has since walked back the assertion and issued a non-apology for circulating a fake story. "I should have double checked before I retweeted this list. My bad. Looks like some of the books weren't banned. Book bans are very real & dangerous," the powerful Democrat lobbyist added and then restricted who can reply.

Oops, indeed. So who are the real censor-happy fascists? Turns out they're in "progressive" and "anti-racist" California. "To Kill a Mockingbird;" "Huck Finn;" "Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry;" and "Of Mine and Men" were removed from classroom instruction in 2020 by the Burbank Unified School District in Los Angeles County.

RATING: The claim that Florida has banned classic literature that teaches its students about racial tensions and the maltreatment of blacks in America is FALSE. Students studying timeless works of great American novelists such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee is even encouraged by Florida's officials in education.