(Photo from ocps.net)
The purchase of a nonbinary author’s coming out story “Gender Queer” has the Florida Department of Education investing its authorization, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
In late October, the Orange County Public Schools district pulled the memoir from multiple high school libraries, according to emails between the district and an FDE employee.
“This office is trying to find out who approved the book,” Ian Dohme, an FDE employee, wrote in an email to an OCPS administrator April 13.
In another email, Dohme detailed his investigation of who ordered the books to OCPS high schools. In response, he was sent purchase orders from four high schools that bought the book, as well as one document that included the name of a high school media specialist.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project issued a public records request to obtain the emails. This group opposes censorship, book bans and “Gender Queer’s” removal from school libraries.
The removal of “Gender Queer” from school libraries directly coincides with the recently passed “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, which targets what is taught in schools, specifically prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Gov. Ron DeSantis called the book “incredibly disturbing” when he signed the bill into a law in March. Stephana Ferrell, an Orange County mother and the FFRP’s co-founder, said the banning of the book is just another way to push people into going along with the new law.
“This is just another way to scare people to fall in line with new policies,” Ferrell said.
Karen Castor Dentel, former OCPS teacher and Orange County School Board member, said she was unaware of the state’s actions but found them inappropriate and unfair upon being told of the emails.
“You don’t bring the weight of the state down to an individual teacher who only brought a book,” she said.
“Gender Queer” has been highlighted as a good resource for teenagers who struggle with their gender identities and has won awards. However, it has also received criticism for its graphic illustrations of sexual acts.
In late October, OCPS administrators moved to have the book removed from three high schools that had it, stating that its graphics were inappropriate for younger teenagers.
Castor Dentel sees no harm in the media specialists’ actions, saying that they “didn’t do anything wrong” and that they were just doing their job by purchasing a book they thought would be beneficial to some students.
Dohme inquired an OCPS administrator in an email April 13 to figure out who initially approved the book in the high schools. The following day, Maurice Draggon, senior director of digital learning at OCPS wrote back that “my team has been working to try and get the invoices for the orders for you.”
Draggon attached six book orders for the book placed by four OCPS high schools: Boone, Dr. Phillips, Lake Buena Vista and West Orange, the emails revealed. Among these documents included a “payment form” from Barnes & Noble Booksellers that showed the name of West Orange High School’s media specialist who purchased the book for $14.39. The Sentinel could not reach the specialist for comment.
