Here are the books banned from Central Florida schools

ORLANDO, Fla. – FEB. 9 UPDATE: A revised list of books banned or under review is now available HERE.

In the last year, there have been more than 2,500 instances of books being pulled from shelves in schools across America as conservative groups coordinate efforts to target books for numerous reasons, typically related to race or gender themes.

Some of those efforts got their start here in Central Florida.

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PEN America, an international group that advocates for literacy freedom, released its report on the banned book movement Monday, as the annual Banned Books Week got underway.

PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, and 1,648 unique book titles, between July 2021 and June 2022.

Of the books banned, 41% had LGBTQ themes, protagonists or prominent secondary characters. Forty percent had characters of color as primary or prominent secondary characters, with 21% of the titles dealing with issues of race and racism.

Twenty-two percent of the books banned had sexual content.

The majority of the bans come from parent-driven efforts with groups like Moms for Liberty, a Brevard County-based group that has since gone national, with chapters in almost every state. These groups are not only targeting books in schools, but they are branching out into public libraries, and are also campaigning to take on leadership roles in school districts.

Moms for Liberty said it is committed to “unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”

The group also added it is advocating for limited government roles and fighting school indoctrination.

PEN America, and other Moms for Liberty critics, accuse the groups of using the term “parents’ rights” to undermine and intimidate education professionals and other parents.

“While parents and guardians ought to be partners with educators in their children’s education, and need channels for communicating with school administrators, teachers, and librarians, particularly concerning the education of their own children, public schools are by design supposed to rely on the expertise, ethics, and discretion of educational professionals to make decisions,” PEN America said in the report.

In Florida, groups have been galvanized by several laws passed by the Florida Legislature this year which give parents more tools to remove books they disagree with. This includes the Parental Rights in Education law, also known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, HB 1467, which allows for heightened scrutiny by the public of school library and instructional materials, and HB 7, also known as the “Stop WOKE” Act.

PEN America lists 566 bans in 21 districts in its index for Florida. This does not include three books banned from Seminole County elementary schools this summer.

We contacted every school district in Central Florida. Not every school district responded to our requests. The following is a combination of lists from the 10 Central Florida school districts that responded, or PEN America’s index.

We also asked if any other book-related activities, such as book fairs, donations, readings or classroom libraries have been stopped or banned. All of the school districts that responded to us said no.

UPDATE: Orange County Public Schools responded to News 6, stating that no books had been pulled from shelves in the district over the last 2 years. The information in the table below for OCPS contains data only from PEN America.