An Ocala high school senior asked school board members to support the removal of book and website bans in the state of Florida that she claims are “extremely unhelpful” and are “depriving students of being able to think for themselves.”
Chloe Kostowicz, who is a senior at Forest High School, presented her comments during the Marion County School Board meeting on Tuesday, February 11.
Kostowicz, who is a Wing Commander in her school’s AFJROTC program and was crowned Homecoming Queen last fall, was one of two students permitted to sit in as honorary board members for the evening.
After three board members expressed their excitement to attend an upcoming legislative session, Kostowicz asked if she could interject to make the members aware of an issue beforehand.
“I’d be doing my school a disservice, as well as my students and Marion County, if I didn’t mention the banned book policy as well as the website policy,” said Kostowicz. The student said she and her classmates are unable to access certain books and websites that she believes are “extremely helpful.”
“I would like [the Marion County School Board] to bring it to Florida legislators and tell them that students are greatly unhappy with not being able to have free access to books in their schools. Books like Animal Farm, George Orwell’s novels…as well as books that I read in middle school, are now banned,” said Kostowicz.
She said some of the books banned had profound impacts on her life and that not affording other students those same opportunities was a detriment.
“I believe that you’re depriving students of being able to think for themselves and see things as multi-spectral in a way,” said Kostowicz.
The high school senior went on to cite Seterra, an educational game that helps students with geography, as being an example of something that should not be banned.
“It is a geography game that helps you learn AP Human Geography. That has been barred,” said Kostowicz. “Addressing these issues with students not being able to access the full scope of their education, I feel like is very important.”
Each year, the Florida Department of Education is required to publish a report of the list of materials that were removed or discontinued by one of Florida’s school boards.
In each instance, the removals come “in response to an objection raised by a parent of a public school student in the school district or a resident of the county where the school district is located.”
Although the statewide list includes hundreds of entries, the list in Marion County includes around 22 books, with several works focusing on themes of homosexuality and transgenderism.
That includes books like All Boys Aren’t Blue (George Johnson), Being Transgender (Robert Rodi), Rainbow Boys (Alex Sanchez), and This Book is Gay (Juno Dawson).
What are your thoughts on certain books and websites being barred from Marion County schools? Share your comments below or, if you have more to say, write a letter to the editor.