A nonprofit based in Polk County announced in a Monday press conference that it has filed a lawsuit against the Polk County School Board, alleging that the board has violated Florida Statute 1006.28 by refusing to follow its own policy on the removal of graphic sexually explicit content and other age-inappropriate materials found in county schools that violate Florida Statute 847.012.
Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF), represented in this matter by legal counsel Anthony Sabatini, a former Florida State Representative, announced the lawsuit in a press conference Monday.
According to the complaint, Florida Statute 1006.28 requires that school boards are responsible for the content in school libraries, and that they must adopt a book review policy. The lawsuit claims that on several occasions, the Polk County School Board failed to follow its own appeals process after allowing certain challenged books to remain on school library shelves.
One of the books challenged by CDF is “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven, which contains the following passage:
“Suddenly there’s something hard and damp against my thigh, and I shift a little so he can’t slide it in. …It always ends the same way—him coming into the air or into his shirt or onto himself or against my leg. …Shane is staring at me and his eyes are rolling and his breath is coming faster and faster, and he’s humping my leg like a dog. …so I maneuver my lower half away from him, and that’s when he groans and explodes. All over my inner thigh. And this is where I freak out a little, because I swear I can feel some of it dripping into me.”
“This Board has not once, in almost three years, followed the process as outlined in their own policy, including having up to three minor children reviewing and voting to determine if content is harmful to minor children. Almost every review committee has fewer parents or community members than required by their own policy.”- said Robert Goodman, Executive Director for Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom.
