Florida orders schools to pre-ban books before parents complain

Florida just told its schools: don't wait for a fight. Start weeding.

That's Commissioner of Education Henry Mack's own phrase — "weed on purpose, not only after a fight" — from a seven-page letter sent September 23 to every public school superintendent and charter leader in the state. The message: if a book has already been banned somewhere in Florida, other districts should consider pulling it too, before a parent ever complains. Districts that don't comply risk losing state funding and drawing extra scrutiny from the Department of Education.

This is the second year running that a Florida education official has pushed this. Last summer it was the former Commissioner and the state Attorney General, hand-building a list of more than 50 titles. This year, Mack is pointing to the state's own annual tally of books removed district by district — a list that already includes the graphic novel adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Angela's Ashes, and titles by Rick Riordan — and telling every other district to treat it as a to-do list.

Here's the part that should worry you if you write for young readers: Mack's letter singles out specific titles still sitting on Hillsborough County shelves — Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts), the Kingdom of the Feared/Wicked/Cursed series, and 1Q84 — using excerpts, not full-text reviews. Hillsborough was called out last year too, and that led its superintendent to pull 49 titles without running them through the district's own review process. If your book turns up quoted out of context in a letter like this, don't assume due process follows.

The letter also lays out a 90-day removal plan: no accepting book donations, inventory every classroom library, involve parents in review, and "err on the side of caution" — meaning when in doubt, pull it. Book Riot's reporting makes clear this isn't really about "local control." If school boards were freely deciding for their own communities, a state commissioner wouldn't need to threaten funding to get them to act preemptively.

Here's what to actually do this week. If you write for K-12 readers, check your titles against Florida's annual district removal reports — that's the list Mack is now using as a template for other districts. If you're already on it anywhere in the state, expect ripple effects elsewhere, possibly without anyone reading your book cover to cover first. And if you have a publisher or agent, ask them now whether they're tracking these state-level directives, because the response window before removal is getting shorter, not longer.

My take: a list built from excerpts and threats isn't a review process — it's a shortcut around one. Watch Hillsborough's next move; it's the bellwether.