It requires every book to be pre-approved by a certified media specialist and easily searchable in a public database. Any book unreviewed or flagged by a parent must be covered or removed until vetted. The implementation of this law in early 2023 led to viral images of empty shelves. In one Jacksonville middle school, teachers were told to pack up or block access to classroom libraries until books could be reviewed for compliance. A substitute teacher, Brian Covey, posted a video on Twitter in January 2023 showing row upon row of barren bookshelves at his school’s library – the result of a hasty removal of all unapproved books washingtonpost.com . Covey captioned it with dismay, comparing it to dystopian novels he read as a student washingtonpost.com . The video garnered millions of views and became a flashpoint. Rather than acknowledge that some districts were overzealously stripping shelves to avoid penalties, Governor DeSantis denounced Covey’s video as “a fake narrative”, claiming “they hadn’t even put out the books to begin with… They’re trying to act like we don’t want books” washingtonpost.com . The very next day, Covey was fired from his job washingtonpost.com . The district’s contractor told him he violated policies by sharing the video, and the school district claimed he had “misrepresented” the situation washingtonpost.com . Covey, however, said he was never warned and clearly the ouster came only after DeSantis publicly criticized him washingtonpost.com . “I had no communication from the district… about what I was doing until DeSantis blew it up,” Covey said, implying his firing was politically motivated washingtonpost.com . Indeed, PEN America condemned the dismissal as retaliation against a teacher for truthfully highlighting censorship of books pen.org . Covey’s video, though derided by the governor, was backed up by other Florida teachers who shared photos of their classrooms with books wrapped in paper or stored away washingtonpost.com . By February 2023, Duval County (Jacksonville) acknowledged it had removed or covered at least 1.6 million titles pending review washingtonpost.com washingtonpost.com . Only a few thousand had been reviewed and approved at that point, leaving well over a million books off-limits to students washingtonpost.com . This stark example shows how broadly written laws and fear of penalties prompted mass self-censorship. As Covey noted, approving just 6,000 books out of 1.6 million was “0.375 percent” – meaning effectively all library books were gone for weeks or months washingtonpost.com washingtonpost.com . Florida’s government insisted it was protecting children from inappropriate content, but the practical effect was to deny students access to vast swathes of literature and information, from biographies of baseball legend Roberto Clemente (temporarily removed for review) to picture books about Rosa Parks (challenged for “age appropriateness”). Florida has by far the most book removals of any state – one report found nearly 8,000 instances of book bans in Florida in just the first half of the 2022–23 school year publishersweekly.com . And new removals continue as some counties extend the vetting to high school libraries under political pressure.
“Sexually Explicit” Book Bans: In states like Texas, Missouri, Utah, and Iowa, Republican legislators passed bills to ban any school library book that contains “sexual explicit” material or depictions of sexual acts. The definitions are often vague and overbroad, leading to classic literature, health education resources, and award-winning novels being swept up. For example, a 2022 Missouri law (SB 775) made it a misdemeanor for educators to provide students with material containing any graphic sexual content. Within months, nearly 300 books were removed from Missouri school libraries across at least 11 districts to comply spectrumlocalnews.com libguides.stchas.edu . A large portion were graphic novels or books with illustrations – even graphic novel adaptations of classics like 1984 were pulled for containing nudity or sexual scenes in artwork lindberghlookup.com lindberghlookup.com . School librarians in Missouri reported feeling “afraid and betrayed,” with some resigning rather than risk prosecution for doing their jobs spectrumlocalnews.com .