MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — School district officials in Martin County shared with WPTV their process of reconsideration for any book or curriculum of concern, after books deemed inappropriate are being removed from schools. Meanwhile, one author affected by the changes is sounding off.
Inside media centers across the state, administrators are mulling the process of addressing newly filed complaints from parents about books.
WPTV caught up with curriculum leaders inside the media center at one Martin County elementary school on Thursday.
An administrator explained the process when a request for reconsideration comes into Martin County schools.
Once the form is submitted, the principal has 15 days respond.
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If the principal and parent don’t see eye to eye, the complaint is advanced to county curriculum leaders. However, school officials are always, they said, talking to the parent.
“Even if it’s resolved at the level of the school level, they are contacted by email, phone call, Zoom or in-person meeting, but in each step of the process it's built into within reaching out to the principal," Jennifer said. "If it’s not resolved there, they’re going to receive a contact from our curriculum instruction department, and if we ever did have a title that had to go before school board, they would be notified of time of that meeting so they could attend as well."
Martin County has pulled 92 books to date. After residents filled out request for reconsideration form, some of the 92 books reported, so far, were simply reconsidered for different age groups, while others were removed entirely.
RELATED: Dozens of books removed from Martin County schools
One author affected by the move is Jodi Picoult. She sounded off on Twitter saying her books were not read before being banned.
“The claim against my book is that they are "adult romance." In many of my 20 banned titles, there is not even a kiss,” she said in a Tweet.
School board officials are defending their actions, pointing to the letter of the new law they now have to follow.
“We don’t think it’s any type of criticism on the author or books they write necessarily we think it’s about a parent really wanting us to look at the age groups and the themes and the content to make sure they’re appropriate for agile level might be being presented.”
Have to look at guidance and directives coming from state about themes appropriate for children and harmful to minors that have access to children in school libraries.