ARCHIVAL(CBS MIAMI, 9-20-24):
NEWS REPORT: Efforts to ban books in the U.S. are on track to break a record, and Florida’s among the states that top the list. 

NARRATION: Florida has become the epicenter of the war over what books should be allowed in schools after a law was passed in 2022.

ARCHIVAL(CBS MIAMI, 9-21-23):
NEWS REPORT: South Florida public schools are moving and removing certain books that some parents find objectionable.

ARCHIVAL (FIRST COAST NEWS, CBS MIAMI, 5-24-22):
NEWS REPORT: Each of the books up for review have to do with LGBTQ and racial issues.

ARCHIVAL(CBS MIAMI, 6-22-23):
WOMAN (SPEAKING AT A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING): The vagueness of these laws is forcing our schools to practice censorship.

NARRATION: At a time when the debate is no longer civil…

ARCHIVAL(WPTV, 8-28-23):
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: How long has that book been on the shelf? When was it ordered?
WOMAN: You all voted for it last year. How many times –
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: Don’t interrupt me!

ARCHIVAL(CBS MIAMI, 4-16-24):
MAN (SPEAKING AT A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING): You all reviewed this book and said that it was educational.

TITLE: How to (Respectfully) Disagree

NARRATION: We asked a group of high schoolers in Miami to show us a different way to confront the issue.

BRYAN: I think that we should leave our education system to those who have large amounts of experience within the educational field, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what one parent might believe or what another parent might believe. What should be done within the best interests of the child is what’s going to help them grow.

ROCIO: Instead of having politicians and lawmakers deciding this, we should have a lot of more teacher input, because again, these are the trained professionals who studied and who are with the students in the classroom every day.

ISABELLA G.: I would like to disagree with what you guys have said. I do agree with the fact that yes teachers are trained professionals and ultimately know the best way to teach a child. However, some teachers unfortunately bring their biases to the classroom. So yes, I do believe that we should not like ignore teachers. However, I think putting the responsibility solely on them and ignoring the parent is a danger because, at the end of the day, the parent knows their child best and I think they should have greater input as to how their child should be educated. I think it would be better than having one teacher who might be biased affect 20 to 30 kids at a time.

JULIAN: Subjects like religion or sexuality, they should be – not necessarily restricted, but they should be more encouraged by the school system to be done at home rather than in the captive audience that is the classroom.

ISABELLA M.: One of my experiences was, I read a book in 10th grade called “The Poet X,” and I really enjoyed it. It was an awakening of a girl’s sexuality and what she’s going through, and recently I found out that it was banned. It was argued that the topics were too controversial.

ROCIO: That’s such a negative thing for the students, because we’re removing the topics that we really need to be talking about, to learn about ourselves, to learn about our future and the world that we’re living in.

ISABELLA M: It’s not like we can’t handle it. We were in 10th grade. We were, what, 16? We are, we can definitely handle exactly what’s going on.

ISABELLA G.: I would like to have hope that there could be compromise, but there is interest groups trying to become involved in our education system. And until we don’t tackle that, I think it’ll be very difficult to find middle ground when all these interest groups are trying to affect what our children are learning.

BRYAN: I think the way that initially a lot of these, this legislation was written, it allowed nearly anybody to strike or to challenge literature inside the classrooms, which led to a lot of activists that are not inherently involved in children’s lives, just striking it based off their own beliefs. I think we all agree that there should be a reduction as to the extent of which people should be able to challenge afterwards that are not parents.

JULIAN: The most likely way to have a positive change to this type of legislation would be to modify it so that you have a more specific backing of what is and what is not inappropriate content to the classroom.

BRYAN: Broadly, I imagine there would be a consensus that there should be some restriction as to when children can consider certain literature and media within the classroom.

GABRIELLE: I agree with what Julian said. Maybe the Department of Education could set up like a committee of, like, teachers and maybe parents too, coming like from different parts of the state to really, like, understand like what they think the children should be learning.

ISABELLA M.: That won’t be easy neither, because there’s, everyone’s going to have an opinion, but I guess we could find the middle ground, you know?

BRYAN: There is room for compromise. Florida has historically been a state where compromise has been a driving force – in the past few years, maybe not so much. But I do think that we need to try to return to that sense of compromise that has driven the state for so long.

ISABELLA G.: Whenever I try to bring the opposing point of view, I don’t come in with the perception that I’m right and you’re wrong. I don’t like thinking in extremes because that doesn’t come across as well.

BRYAN: I would say an important thing to take away from today is really the importance of, of listening.

JULIAN: We never saw it as – your idea is bad. We just disagreed, and found ways we could stand on a common ground instead of dividing ourselves.

(END)