Gallon tells New Times the challenge to Gorman's poetry book — submitted by an activist parent who incorrectly thought Oprah Winfrey wrote the work — was "woefully deficient" and used vague, culture-war dog whistles to prompt the material's removal from an elementary school library section.
"I thought the national embarrassment that we faced as a district was due to a lack of communication at every level," Gallon adds. "Although the school site carried out their duties to the best of their understanding, there was no notification to the region, district, and obviously to the board. We're going to be transparent. If we follow the letter of the law, we need to review this particular process and make adjustments to the procedures to review compliance and notification at every level."
Gallon says school leadership committees who review challenges need to be better trained on what qualifies as a legitimate objection. He proposes a measure entitled "Review of Policy 2510 and Procedures for Instructional Materials Review, Challenge, and Removal," which will be considered at today's school board meeting.
Gallon adds that if a challenge is incomplete or severely deficient, the school should send the form back to the challenger for possible resubmission consistent with the law and school board rules.
Daily Salinas, an activist with ties to Moms for Liberty who is the parent of two students at Bob Graham Educational Center, petitioned for the removal of Gorman's poetry book The Hill We Climb along with The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids, Countries in the News: Cuba, and Love to Langston in late March. She claimed the titles indoctrinated students about socialism, critical race theory, and gender theory.
Salinas said the materials were not educational and contained hate messages. In response to the complaint form's question about whether she is aware of professional reviews of the materials, Salinas wrote, "I don't need it." Her complaint did not mention Gorman and incorrectly listed Oprah Winfrey as the author of The Hill We Climb. (Winfrey contributed a foreword to the print edition of the poem.)
"It is one parent's representation that these works represented indoctrination," Gallon tells New Times. "There was no debate. There was no discourse. There was no explicit dialogue to have the individual defend their representation of it being indoctrination."Miami-Dade met in April to review 5 books: THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY, CUBAN KIDS, COUNTRIES IN THE NEWS: CUBA, THE HILL WE CLIMB, and LOVE TO LANGSTON
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) May 19, 2023
All books were challenged for CRT or “gender theory” by the same person in March 2023. pic.twitter.com/QrvmN5Slqo
Aside from Countries in the News: Cuba, a school review committee determined the four other books were "more appropriate for middle school students." The books were subsequently re-shelved and moved to the middle school library section.
"When you use arbitrary words, such as 'indoctrination,' and you are erroneous in your identification of who the author is, that tells me that, number one, the document for the challenge was deficient, and number two, the decision to respond to it... was not in comportment with the policy and statue," Gallon argues.
With Gov. Ron DeSantis at the helm, Florida has become a leading state for blocking access to educational content via the passage of the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts instruction about systemic racism in the classroom, and the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, which prohibits classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. While the laws don't ban specific book titles, they have been cited by teachers, librarians, administrators, and parents alike as the reason for books being removed from school shelves.
Florida has argued in court that the "Don't Say Gay" bill applies only to classroom materials. But in practice, some county officials have readily restricted access to school library books based on challenges mirroring the bill. Meanwhile, Florida requires local librarians to ensure "alignment to state academic standards."
HB 1467, passed in 2022, laid out new procedures for parents to review instructional materials and library books and vie for their removal. A recently passed law goes a step further by requiring a book to be removed if a single parent or resident claims it contains inappropriate sexual content. The latter bill forces staff to remove the book within five days of receiving the objection and to keep the book unavailable until the objection is resolved.
"Obviously, pornography, profanity, and some things are divisive and openly hateful. These titles that were cited were none of those," Gallon tells New Times. "I want to deal with the issue of what is cited as 'age-appropriate.' Are we talking content? Are we talking readability? Are we talking both?"
In recent years, Salinas has actively participated in local school board protests and political rallies. After the controversy over her challenge to the Gorman poem, her social media accounts were found to be spotted with debunked reposts. She apologized last month for sharing an anti-Semitic tweet, saying she thought she was promoting a post about the dangers of communism.
"I see the word 'communism,' and I think it's something about communism," she told the Jewish Telegraph Agency. "I didn't read the words."
More than 350 books were banned in Florida school districts between July and December 2022, according to the nonprofit PEN America. Behind Texas, Florida was the state with the second-highest number of book-banning incidents during that time frame, the group says.
The removal of Gorman's poem caused a nationwide firestorm, with public officials and Gorman herself denouncing the decision. In response to the controversy, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava invited Gorman to give a poetry reading. Books & Books hosted the "Banned Book Giveaway" at Coral Gables Congregational Church with readings by poet-laureate Richard Blanco, local author Edwidge Danicat, and Black historian Marvin Dunn.
Gallon says he's confident his measure will pass, as it is co-sponsored by the remaining eight members of the school board.
