(WSVN) - School librarians in Florida must undergo special training designed to help them understand new state laws like the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act and the governor’s controversial Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act.
The hour-long powerpoint training video is meant to help school librarians and media specialists understand new state laws that limit how race and LGBTQ issues can be taught in schools, so they can select books in compliance with those laws.
Orange Park State Representative Sam Garrison sponsored the bill in the 2022 legislative session.
“The standards set forth in the law are evident,” he said. “We want to be focused on education.”
Some of the slides in the presentation developed by the Department of Education use definitions that mirror state statutes.
While others tell librarians to consider things, like “avoiding unsolicited theories that may lead to indoctrination” when selecting books.
Andrew Spar with the Florida Education Association says parts of the training video seem open to interpretation.
“Now we’re putting our librarians in the middle of some of these debates between some parents who feel that certain books shouldn’t be in schools and other parents who believe books should be in schools,” said Spar.
Garrison says he wrote the bill and put the onus on the education department to develop the training video to avoid over-legislating.
“The fine-point details ought to be worked out on a district-by-district level,” said Garrison.
The new law includes more than just training, it also requires districts to make all learning materials in school libraries available online, so parents can access them.
Districts will also have to report objections to learning materials and the outcome of those objections to the department of education on an annual basis.
The training must be completed by July 1.
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