Judd Legum1. This high school English teacher is trying to ban 150 books from school libraries in Florida
I talked to her to find out why
Buckle up
This one gets a bit wild
🧵
2. One book challenged by the teacher, Vicki Baggett, is When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball
The book is about the childhood of Rudolph, a sprinter who won three gold medals
It covers how she overcame physical limitations and racial prejudice in the 40s to become a champion
3. In the challenge form submitted Baggett on August 24, she claims that the purpose of the book is "race-baiting" and it is not appropriate for any age group.
4. In an interview, Baggett said the book "trashes and puts down those who are not black." She describes the book, which is a true story of Rudolph's experience, as "very anti-white."
5. Baggett didn't dispute the book was an accurate portrayal of life in the American South in the 40s (separate water fountains etc) but insisted it would make white students "feel uncomfortable" because "they are being white-shamed."
6. Baggett says When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is inappropriate because "not all whites treated blacks like this."
Baggett added that "not all blacks do drug crimes, like a lot of people say."
7. Baggett said she challenged the book because she believed it violated the DeSantis' Stop WOKE Act.
The bill prohibits instructing students that they "must feel guilt, anguish… because of actions... committed in the past by other members of the same race"
8. Pressed on whether her interpretation of the Stop WOKE Act would allow any instruction about historical prejudice, Baggett suggested that the book might be appropriate for children starting in fourth grade.
This directly contradicts what she wrote on the form
9. Baggett's social media accounts raise more questions about her approach to racial issues.
In 2015, Baggett posted a picture of the Confederate Flag on her Facebook page.
10. Baggett said she posted the flag because "everyone in my clan fought in the Civil War" and she was not "ashamed of that."
Baggett added that she was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which has been designated as part of the Neo-Confederate movement.
11. As recently as 2018, the Daughters of the Confederacy website stated: "Slaves, for the most part, were faithful and devoted. Most slaves were usually ready and willing to serve their masters."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/10/united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-statues-lawsuit
12. Baggett said she did not believe the photo of the Confederate Flag she posted on Facebook could make her students uncomfortable. She said her students "know me very well" and "my best friend is a black woman."
13. The Escambia County School District is dealing with a flood of book challenges, and nearly all of them were filed by Baggett.
Baggett is responsible for 148 of the 150 book challenges in Escambia this year.
MORE:
Meet the Florida English teacher trying to ban 150 books from school libraries
When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is a book about the childhood of Wilma Rudolph, a legendary sprinter who won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympic games in Rome. The book, which is 32 pages long, is geared toward readers in elementary school. The story focuses on Rudolph's childhood and the obstacles she had to overcome to achieve success. Rudolph, for example, had polio as a child and was forced to wear a leg brace. She was told by a doctor that she would never be able to walk without the brace. But Rudolph was determined.
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15. Baggett's challenges are not limited to books she believes handle racial issues inappropriately. She has also challenged numerous books for allegedly violating the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" law.
16. Among the books challenged by Baggett is And Tango Makes Three.
The book is the true story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in the Central Park Zoo. The pair build a nest together, and — after the zookeeper provides them w/an egg — raise an adopted child, Tango
17. In her form challenging the book, Baggett alleged it promoted the "LGBTQ agenda using penguins." On the form, Baggett said she believes the purpose of the book is "indoctrination."
18. In an interview, Baggett said she objected to And Tango Makes Three because it exposes students to "alternate sexual ideologies."
She noted that, at one point in the story, the zookeeper says, "these two penguins must be in love."
That, she says, is sexual "innuendo."
19. Baggett explained her objections in more detail: "I think what would happen is a second grader would read this book, and that idea would pop into the second grader's mind… that these are two people of the same sex that love each other."
20. She said she challenged the book because she believed it violated the law.
Baggett did say she supports the Parental Rights in Education Act because she believes that "kids need to be kids."
21. These kind of challenges to books, and academic freedom in general, are happening across the country.
For more coverage and updates, subscribe to Popular Information.
it's free to sign up.
22. Baggett has also challenged dozens of books for high school students, primarily objecting to sexual content.
Books Baggett has challenged on this basis include Perks of Being a Wallflower, Beloved, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Water for Elephants.
23. According to Baggett, "[i]f I could not walk up to you and start saying to you in a conversational tone" anything written in the book "and know that I'm not going to be in trouble," then that book is pornographic and should be removed from the library.
24. Baggett's test, however, does not comport with Florida or federal law. Florida's law prohibits books in school libraries that both contain "explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct" AND are "harmful to minors."
25. Florida law and Supreme Court precedent affirm that not every book with explicit sexual content is harmful to minors.
26. The Miller test defines obscenity as work that appeals to "purient interests," depicts sexual conduct in a "patently offensive way," AND "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
27. The Miller test means people like Baggett cannot "take a single image or paragraph and say the book is obscene or harmful to minors."
The law requires an evaluation of the book as a whole.
Context matters.
28. Under Baggett's test, how could a school offer sex education? A teacher could not, in a casual hallway conversation, describe to a student the mechanics of oral sex. But that does occur in sexual education classes.
29. Baggett said that the high school where she teaches does not offer a sex ed class.
Baggett said that she believed it "is not the school's place" to offer sex ed.
She said that people who support sex education in schools "assume that the teacher knows what they are doing"
30. While Baggett's views may not be widely shared her efforts have already restricted dozens of books from Escambia students. Every book that Baggett labels as "pornography" is immediately placed in a "restricted" section of the library.
31. 125 books are currently under restrictions as a result of Baggett's challenges.
They will remain in restricted status until the challenge process is complete.
Although Baggett began filing challenges in August, thus far, only one book has made it through the process.
32. It's unclear if Escambia County's approach is legal.
In 2002, a federal court in Arkansas ruled that requiring a permission slip to check out Harry Potter books from a school library was unconstitutional.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/295/996/2307891/
33. An official from Escambia County Schools involved in processing the book challenges declined to comment.
You can find a full list of the challenged books, almost all by Baggett, HERE:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hv6Wtu55zY3t5bmbksY2ie7Q-L3zAQdjrtaFh4duLC4/edit#gid=0
ECPS 22-23 Reconsiderations (website)
Sheet1 Title,Author,Level (ES, MS, HS),Restricted Access Y/N TBD - remain in restricted access until a decision has been made D - decision,School form submitted and date,Professional Reviews,Community Input Form for District Committee Consideration Forms will close 3 days before the committe...
34. Last week I covered another Florida man who is threatening to challenge as many as 3600 books in Clay County Florida
How to ban 3600 books from school libraries
This year, at least 102 books have been removed from the shelves of school libraries in Clay County, Florida. Many of these books were pulled at the request of one man: Bruce Friedman. A conservative activist and longtime resident of New York, Friedman moved to Clay County this May.
36. If you are interested in issues of academic freedom and the efforts to ban scores of books from school libraries, subscribe to Popular Information.
It's free to sign up.
achrisvet
38. This actually happened in Escambia. The district refused to consider the challenge.
Joy Cohen@juddlegum So which version of the Bible? The MAGA version, most likely.
Enema CowboyInteresting how quickly the legislature streamlined that book through the system. Perhaps some troublemaker ought to suggest banning The Quran and observe it not get the same preferential treatment as the Christian Bible.
Scott, present & accounted for
Unprecedented 2023@Enema_Cowboy @jlippertcohen @juddlegum No religion, that would solve a host of problems for humanity.
I would hope that to be true, but there was an episode of *South Park* that gives me pause. But religion does provide "moral cover" for people to act horribly.
Jon@juddlegum A better test case would be “Dick and Jane: Fun with our family” or whatever the modern equivalent is. It gives as much instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity as Tango… this awful woman just doesn’t realize it.
@jonpainterphoto @juddlegum That’s why I believe Floridians should file complaints against those types of books for heterosexual indoctrination.
Edith Prickley@juddlegum This bigoted pea-brain has absolutely no place teaching children. This thread made me sick, Judd... those poor kids. Can anyone challenge this menace? She's deranged and unfit.
PrezDennison@juddlegum
I’m not sure if I want my child reading this book “The Holy Bible”
It contains stories about rape, incest, homosexuality, murder, and many other adult situations.
It is also a blatant attempt at indoctrination. You know, that big scary word Fox News uses all the time.
@PrezDennison @juddlegum Thank you for your comment. I did not know Holy Bible had all that. Enticement by a snake too to eat an apple?
@Mallulady @juddlegum euphemisms galore!
But seriously, kids see much worse on the internet than in school library books.
But seriously, kids see much worse on the internet than in school library books.
@juddlegum
I wonder if there will be other religious texts used or is it just the bible?
I wonder if there will be other religious texts used or is it just the bible?
Lynne Jackier@juddlegum Hey there! Could you do long threads by posting all but the first one as replies? Otherwise all the posts fill up people's home feeds. Thanks!
retnap@juddlegum florida slowly ridin off into that christian nationalist dystopia sunset
@retnap @juddlegum DeSantis better not nationalize it. Won’t work.
Cogito Ergo Resist@juddlegum if the buybull is deemed appropriate, then any book with rape, incest, torture, and murder is also acceptable. Quite frankly, The Story of O is less upsetting than many buybull parables.
Jenny@juddlegum Wow. I used to work as a librarian at a private Christian K-12 school. I’m very pro books/anti ban. I can only recall a parent challenging one book in my 8 years there.
This all breaks my heart. Our local public library just had their millage funding cut in half by a ballot initiative started group of ultra conservative folks. They were upset the library had a Pride month display 2 yrs ago and sadly their group gained momentum.
Melinda@bluetruedream19 @juddlegum
This is really depressing to hear. What right have these people to decide what others should read?
This is really depressing to hear. What right have these people to decide what others should read?
@Melinda @juddlegum I know, right? I grew up in a conservative Christian household, but my dad was pretty adamant I read things like Fahrenheit 451, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc bc he felt they were important books (and ended up being required reading for school).
It’s easy peasy to just not check out a book if it’s not your cup or tea. If I, as a former pastor’s wife & Christian school librarian can manage that, why can’t they do it too?
@Melinda @juddlegum My dad graduated from Granbury HS in Granbury, TX which was one of the first schools I heard about on the news doing sweeping book bans. When I told my dad about it he was so sad.
@bluetruedream19 @juddlegum
It's terrible, freedom to read widely should be a basic human right. This awful measure could see a successful black market in 'forbidden' literature, I hope so.
It's terrible, freedom to read widely should be a basic human right. This awful measure could see a successful black market in 'forbidden' literature, I hope so.
@bluetruedream19 @juddlegum Unbelievable. Keep the masses ignorant then they will follow who ever. Sad.
MyNameIs#Florida is a place we want to leave, quickly. So much for our retirement plans...Mexico is looking & better.
Violinknitter@juddlegum #ALT4you #AltText Text reads: District Committee Decision
The Florida Legislature has already determined
that the Bible is an appropriate instructional
resource in public schools. See section
1003.45(1), Florida Statutes. Therefore, the
Escambia County Public Schools will not move
forward with the reconsideration of the Bible as a
library or instructional resource.
Copies of the title will be returned to the
classroom library and school library media center
shelves.
The Florida Legislature has already determined
that the Bible is an appropriate instructional
resource in public schools. See section
1003.45(1), Florida Statutes. Therefore, the
Escambia County Public Schools will not move
forward with the reconsideration of the Bible as a
library or instructional resource.
Copies of the title will be returned to the
classroom library and school library media center
shelves.
@Violinknitter @juddlegum Sure why not. It has everything all children should know.
Stephen K@juddlegum
What a crock of shit!!
What a crock of shit!!
NotWokeButTha->ThinksIAm@juddlegum I hate to be this guy, but this lady makes me so angry I'm ready to doxx her lol.
Nutriamix@juddlegum
Apparently, there are lots of troglodytes running loose; all of them ignorant, homophobic, transphobic, and racist. This one can’t even write well or keep a straight line when doing so.
They must not have any requirements for being a teacher in Florida.
Madison Motta@nutriamix @juddlegum an ENGLISH Teacher. 🤣
Sharon Gibson MorganThis joyless b!tch wants to dictate what elementary-age and high school students get to read.
What about the rights of parents who have no problem with their kids reading what she alone finds objectionable?
Aethelstan@juddlegum but. Doesn’t it demonize the Egyptians? Make them feel uncomfortably about their ancestor’s actions?
@juddlegum oh my…..
sammiejoe@juddlegum just when I thought this thread couldn’t get any wilder I got to that tweet that says her high school doesn’t have a sex ed class 🙈 let me guess, a huge chunk of that student population drops out because of teen pregnancies… anybody have the stats on that?
Rich Stein (he/him)@juddlegum To the best of my knowledge there are no studies that indicate restricting access to reading material—books, in particular—improves student performance. Does not appear that either this teacher's personal views nor recent Florida legislation restricting book access and limiting teacher's ability to teach/mention particular subjects, are in the interest of improving student performance—which used to be an important metric by which schools were evaluated. In many cases, it still is.
@juddlegum Also used to be the case that the majority of parents who got involved in school politics (through school boards, etc.) in most US school districts, were champions of more, better resources (e.g., bigger school libraries & more, wider-ranging books) and better teacher performance—i.e., teaching students. That meant better student performance on tests as well as the ability to think and reason clearly and independently. Many new laws run counter to that.
@juddlegum Compare and contrast what is going on in parts of the US versus Finland: "How Finland starts its fight against fake news in primary schools" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/fact-from-fiction-finlands-new-lessons-in-combating-fake-news (29 Jan. 2020) Jon Henley writing in @TheGuardian
@juddlegum @TheGuardian Compare and contrast what is going on in parts of the US—e.g., Florida, where legislators are attempting to restrict access to books and teaching—versus other parts of the US: "N.J. could become first state to enact media literacy curriculum for K-12 students" https://www.inquirer.com/news/media-literacy-curriculum-bill-new-jersey-misinformation-20221201.html (1 Dec. 2022)
@juddlegum @TheGuardian Not apples to apple comparisons, but time will tell which effort produces students better prepared to perform in the world—which is no small thing for the competitiveness of states and countries, either.