Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Friday, January 12th, 2024

In attempt to shield kids from sexual content, Florida school district bans dictionaries

Author:     Heidi Stevens
Source:     Tribune News Service / Raw Story
Publication Date:     11 January 2024 | 3:18 PM EST
 Link: In attempt to shield kids from sexual content, Florida school district bans dictionaries
Stephan:  

Sexual hysteria is one of the most prominent characteristic of the MAGAt personality. The entire craziness about the LGBTQ portions of the American population is the most glaring example. But it has also become a major issue in schools and their libraries. How crazy has it gotten? Consider this story from Florida, one of the most poorly governed states in the country. When I read this, I thought this cannot be true, but when I checked other sources I found out it was. MAGAts want to ban dictionaries from school libraries, and another report said they also want to ban encyclopedias. Think about that for a second. They want to ban dictionaries and encyclopedias, two of the central sources of information when you are a school child. As I have published in SR and discussed on the SR podcast states governed by Republicans are already less literate than Blue states, and less capable at math. And now Red state children are going to get even less educated, if their MAGAt parents and the politicians they voted for have their way.

Credit: Dreamstime / Dreamstime / TNS

A school district in Florida has made the bold and bewildering decision to ban dictionaries (dictionaries!) from its libraries on the grounds that allowing children to read them violates a law aimed at protecting children from sexual content.

Under HB 1069, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, Florida residents have the right to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct.”

“As the world goes mad,” Gov. DeSantis said in a statement announcing the new law, “Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”

The bill was part of a sweeping package of bills called Let Kids Be Kids. I remember it being a very big deal when we all got calculators in fifth grade because one kid showed the rest of us how to use boring old numbers to spell funny words for female anatomy.

Kids will, in fact, be kids.

Meanwhile …

“The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary are among more than 2,800 books that have been […]

Read the Full Article

5 Comments

  1. Albus Eddie on Friday, January 12, 2024 at 5:41 am

    Ya can’t make this stuff up.

  2. Nate G on Friday, January 12, 2024 at 7:38 am

    I have a sister who a number of years ago was expelled from the Teach For America program for”going against the curriculum”, her offense, teaching her class of poor African American seventh grade students how to use a dictionary. For the life of me I can’t figure out why it’s so hard as a society to look at the best examples and worst examples of countries through history and compare and contrast our own actions.

  3. Terri Quint on Friday, January 12, 2024 at 7:55 am

    Does anyone feel like we’re living in a Eugene Ionesco world of absurdity? Banning dictionaries? Banning books? Then the earlier comment about homelessness, food insecurity, finding clean drinking water? That’s for Third World countries, right? No, the USA! Right. We can thank the GOP and the ultra-rich who fund their campaigns for where we are now! That’s the truth! Terri Quint

  4. Wilma on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 5:38 am

    So what are they going to ban next down there…children can’t go to zoos or be raised on farms fir fear if seeing animaks “gettin’ it on”????

    • Albus Eddie on Monday, January 15, 2024 at 5:26 am

      Don’t give them any ideas!