Gov. DeSantis speaks about controversial books in schools, parents’ rights

ORLANDO – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday held a news conference in Orlando.

DeSantis was joined by Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and members of Moms For Liberty at the University of Central Florida Cancer Center and they spoke about controversial books in schools and “parents’ rights.”

DeSantis said Florida does not ban books, instead, “the state has empowered parents to object to obscene material in the classroom.”

DeSantis is now calling on the Florida Legislature to finetune the process and prevent people from “taking advantage of Florida law that is designed solely to remove inappropriate material from the classroom.”

“Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries,” DeSantis said. “We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points. Today, I am calling on the Legislature to make necessary adjustments so that we can prevent abuses in the objection process and ensure that districts aren’t overwhelmed by frivolous challenges.”

To further streamline the parental objection process and shield districts from activism DeSantis said he directed the Department of Education to take the appropriate action to prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions from intentionally depriving students of an education by politicizing the book review process. He also called on the legislature to enact policy that prioritizes parents’ voices by limiting bad-faith objections made by those who don’t have children learning in Florida.

You can watch the entire news conference below: