A school district in northeast Florida must put back in libraries three dozen books as part of a settlement reached Thursday with students and parents who sued over what they said was an unlawful decision to limit access to dozens of titles containing LGBTQ+ content.

Under the agreement the School Board of Nassau County must restore access to three dozen titles including “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is about 35 miles (about 60 kilometers) northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.

The suit was one of several challenges to book bans since state lawmakers last year passed, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, legislation making it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.

  • Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Did the settlement include criteria or guidelines for other books the district is not allowed to ban going forword? Otherwise what’s to stop them from banning any other books they don’t like?

        • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Should… Is doing a lot of heavy lifting. But apparently there are parents and authors that will take their money.

        • Sway@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          DeSantis does love to fuck around. He never learns anything from the finding out he later recieves, but oh my he does love him some fuckery.