Three Florida Parents File Lawsuit Over Book Ban Policies

Three Florida mothers are suing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration over its controversial book ban policies, after one of the trio was not allowed to defend a book that was pulled from shelves in her school district.

Nancy Tray, Anne Watts Tressler and Stephana Ferrell are challenging a Florida law that made it easier for parents who had problems with certain books in classrooms to remove the titles. They claim their First Amendment rights are violated by the law because parents opposing the book’s removal allegedly do not have adequate resources to fight for the title.

“Plaintiffs, parents of Florida public school students, are seeking review of local school boards’ decisions to remove or restrict books in their children’s school districts and do not have access to request that review,” said Democracy Foward, one of the groups . representing the parents, said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida with Democracy Forward, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Southern Poverty Law Center representing the three plaintiffs.

The lawsuit details how Ferrell wanted to contest the removal of a book titled “Shut Up!” by Marilyn Reynolds from her district.

School officials said the appeals process was only for parents who wanted to remove books from the shelves and that she did not have an adequate basis for her objection, according to the lawsuit.

When Ferrell took the matter to the state level, his challenge was again rejected.

“The special magistrate is not available to challenge a district’s decision to remove material or for purposes of clarifying the law. As such, his request was denied,” state Department of Education officials told Ferrell.

The lawsuit argues that her request for review was denied because she did not share the state’s views.

“The state of Florida should not be able to discriminate against the voices of parents with whom they disagree – I deserve an equal voice in my child’s education as any other parent,” Ferrell said.

The Florida Department of Education declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, but said: “There are no books banned in Florida. However, sexually explicit material and instruction are not appropriate for classrooms.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story