ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County School District is not adding six more books to its list of more than 60 it says have been removed from schools.
Instead, the books will be added onto the more than 29 books restricted to certain grade levels, particularly high schools. The school board heard arguments to have them removed from school library shelves after a district committee had previously voted to have them restricted to high schools.
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This is a list of the books now being given a new set of restrictions:
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, now restricted to grades 9-12 with parents’ permission
- Strange Truth by Maggie Thrash, now restricted to grades 9-12 with parents’ permission
- Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas, now restricted to grades 9-12 with parents’ permission
- Half Of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, now restricted to grades 11-12 with parents’ permission
- Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout, now restricted to grades 11-12 with parents’ permission
- Normal People by Sally Rooney, now restricted to grades 11-12 with parents’ permission
Those who argued for the removal of these books brought up a number of problems they had with their content, from the use of vulgar language to sexual material and mentions of drug and alcohol abuse.
“Pornography is considered contraband, but you can check it out at the school library,” one of the women opposing the books said during the school board hearing.
But there were many more parents and neighbors who gave a case to keep the books during the meeting.
“A single person should not dictate what books another’s children are allowed to read,” one of them told school board members.
Action News Jax has been telling you about back-and-forth calls to ban and keep books in St. Johns County schools for more than a year. Last May, we told you when the school board voted to restrict three other books to high schools, including popular titles like Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
The Florida Department of Education says more than 700 books were removed from school districts around the state last year. Six of those books were removed in St. Johns County. The school board has had more than five meetings since 2022 to hear community arguments to ban books.
The school district has a list of more than 100 books to recently face objections in the county. You can find the list by clicking the link here.
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