POLK COUNTY, Fla. – At a Monday press conference, a Polk County nonprofit announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the Polk County School Board.
The nonprofit alleges that the board violated Florida Statute 1006.28 by refusing to follow its own policy on the removal of graphic sexually explicit content and other age-inappropriate materials found in county schools, which violates Florida Statute 847.012.
Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF), represented in this matter by legal counsel Anthony Sabatini, a former Florida State Representative, announced the lawsuit in a press conference Monday.
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According to the complaint, Florida Statute 1006.28 requires that school boards be responsible for the content in school libraries and that they adopt a book review policy.
The lawsuit claims that on several occasions, the Polk County School Board failed to follow its own appeals process after allowing certain challenged books to remain on school library shelves.
“This School Board has chosen to allow books that are not borderline pornographic, they are full-blown pornography,” Sabatini said.
One of the books challenged by CDF is “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven, which contains the following passage:
“Suddenly there’s something hard and damp against my thigh, and I shift a little so he can’t slide it in. …It always ends the same way—him coming into the air or into his shirt or onto himself or against my leg. …Shane is staring at me and his eyes are rolling and his breath is coming faster and faster, and he’s humping my leg like a dog. …so I maneuver my lower half away from him, and that’s when he groans and explodes. All over my inner thigh. And this is where I freak out a little, because I swear I can feel some of it dripping into me.”
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“This Board has not once, in almost three years, followed the process as outlined in their own policy, including having up to three minor children reviewing and voting to determine if content is harmful to minor children. Almost every review committee has fewer parents or community members than required by their own policy.” said Robert Goodman, executive director for Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom.
“This case is as cut-and-dry as it gets,” Sabatini said. “The Polk County School Board has a policy for reviewing challenged materials, and we have presented a plethora of evidence that the board is not following that policy. We hope the court will do the right thing to protect our children from obscene content.”
Kyle Kennedy, a school district’s spokesperson, said in a statement, “Polk County Public Schools follows state law regarding school library book challenges. The school district has not yet been served with this lawsuit. As soon as we receive service, we will begin preparation of our defense.”
CDF is seeking injunctive and declarative relief.
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