Replies to post #445561 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[DesertDrifter]

you could have checked it yourself. I just googled it and found no less than 6 articles. Here is part of one. Just out is that the woman has apologized for doing it.

A Florida woman whose complaints led to school restrictions for a poem read at Joe Biden’s inauguration appears to have ties to several far-right groups, including the Ron DeSantis-supported Moms for Liberty and neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys.

In a complaint requesting that her child’s school remove the books entirely, Daily Salinas claimed that The Hill We Climb – Amanda Gorman’s book-length version of the poem she read at the president’s inauguration ceremony – and several other titles contained references to critical race theory, gender ideology, “indirect hate messages,” and “indoctrination,” especially of socialism, according to documents shared by the Florida Freedom to Read Project.

Her complaint prompted the school to restrict access to the book, along with The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids and Love to Langston. A school committee moved the books to the library’s middle school section, despite the books being recommended for younger readers.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/florida-book-ban-amanda-gorman-proud-boys-b2346051.html


One from NPR: 1 complaint led a Florida school to restrict access to Amanda Gorman's famous poem
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1177877340/amanda-gorman-poem-restricted-miami-school

[fuagf]

Amanda Gorman ‘gutted’ after Florida school bans Biden inauguration poem

Poet, 25, vows to fight back after single complaint, which wrongly
ascribed The Hill We Climb to Oprah Winfrey, prompts removal

Ed Pilkington in New York @edpilkington
Wed 24 May 2023 22.54 AEST
Last modified on Thu 25 May 2023 08.19 AEST


Youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman reads The Hill We Climb at Biden inauguration – video

Amanda Gorman, the American poet who shot to international stardom when she recited The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, has vowed to defeat book bans in Florida after the poem was removed for reading by elementary school children in an educational institution in Miami-Dade county.

Florida school district sued for violating first amendment rights with book bans
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/17/florida-school-book-ban-lawsuit

Gorman, 25, said she was “gutted” to learn that a complaint from a single parent led to her inaugural poem being banned from Bob Graham education center in Miami Lakes.

The poem was one of five books challenged by a parent of children at the school, including The ABCs of Black History and books on Cuba.

In the complaint .. https://twitter.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1661131826432446466/photo/1 , the parent mistakenly listed Oprah Winfrey as the author of The Hill We Climb, and said she objected to the poem because it was “not educational and have indirectly hate messages”.

Gorman hit back in a lengthy social media post ..

So they ban my book from young readers, confuse me with @oprah , fail to specify what parts of my poetry they object to, refuse to read any reviews, and offer no alternatives…Unnecessary #bookbans like these are on the rise, and we must fight back 👊🏿 DONATE here:… pic.twitter.com/p96dlnrSp4

— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) May 23, 2023

.

“So they ban my book from young readers, confuse me with Oprah, fail to specify what parts of my poetry they object to, refuse to read any reviews, and offer no alternatives … Unnecessary book bans like these are on the rise, and we must fight back,” she said.

The poet invited supporters to donate to the writer’s group PEN America, which she said had joined her publisher, Penguin Random House, to issue a lawsuit challenging book restrictions in Florida .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/florida .

“Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech,” Gorman said.

Book bans have surged in Florida in the wake of a series of laws signed by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who is poised to launch a presidential campaign. The most recent legislation .. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1069/BillText/c2/PDF , enacted earlier this month, requires schools to remove books immediately based on a complaint from a single parent.

According to PEN America, 565 books were banned in Florida .. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hTs_PB7KuTMBtNMESFEGuK-0abzhNxVv4tgpI5-iKe8/edit#gid=1397437044 .. schools in the 2021-22 school year.

The Miami Herald, which was first to report the removal of Gorman’s poem, named the parent who had brought the complaint as Daily Salinas, who has two students at Bob Graham.

She told the paper she was “not for eliminating or censoring any books” but wanted school materials to be appropriate for children.

To support her complaint of indirect “hate messages” supposedly contained in The Hill We Climb, Salinas specifically referred to two pages of the published version of the poem. They read:

"We’ve braved the belly of the beast.

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,

And the norms and notions of what ‘just is’

Isn’t always justice.

and

"And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.

Somehow, we do it.

Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed

A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/24/amanda-gorman-poem-ban-florida-school