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Penguin Random House lawsuit overview:
- Who: Plaintiffs Penguin Random House, PEN American Center, parents Lindsay Durtschi and Ann Novakowski and authors Sarah Brannen, George M. Johnson, David Levithan, Kyle Lukoff and Ashley Hope Perez filed a lawsuit against the Escambia County School District and Escambia County School Board.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim the school has removed books from its library in response to challengers who have used openly discriminatory bases and have targeted books by people of color or LGBTQ people.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Florida and applies to the Escambia County School District in Pensacola, Florida.
Plaintiffs Penguin Random House, PEN American Center, parents Lindsay Durtschi and Ann Novakowski and authors Sarah Brannen, George M. Johnson, David Levithan, Kyle Lukoff and Ashley Hope Perez filed a lawsuit against the Escambia County School District and Escambia County School Board claiming the board has sided with individuals attempting to ban books in the schools who have used a discriminatory basis for their claims.
The board has overruled book review committees at the school and district levels and has unfairly targeted books written by people of color or LGBTQ people, a violation of the First and Fourteenth amendments, according to the Penguin Random House lawsuit.
“Books are being ordered removed from libraries, or subject to restricted access within those libraries, based on an ideologically driven campaign to push certain ideas out of schools,” the lawsuit claims. “Further, the School Board is ordering the removal against the recommendations of experts within the School District. This disregard for professional guidance underscores that the agendas underlying the removals are ideological and political, not pedagogical.”
The book bans are stopping students from being exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints and blocking authors from being able to disseminate their ideas to the intended audience, according to the lawsuit.
The idea behind the book bans is to remove discussion of racial discrimination or LGBTQ issues from public school libraries and that plan is intended, according to the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs request injunction against book ban, attorneys’ fees
The plaintiffs are seeking both a preliminary and permanent injunction against the book bans; they also seek attorneys’ fees.
Amazon is facing a class action lawsuit, which it is looking to dismiss, that claims it and the five largest book publishers in the United States have worked together to covertly fix book prices.
Has your child’s school decided to ban any books? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by Lynn B. Oberlander, Kamera E. Boyd, Paul J. Safier and Shawn F. Summers of Ballard Spahr LLP and Shalini Goel Agarwal, Kristy Parker and John Langford of the Protect Democracy Project.
The Penguin Random House lawsuit is PEN American Center Inc., et al. v. Escambia County School District, et al., Case No. 3:23-cv-10385, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
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5 thoughts onPenguin Random House challenges school district’s book ban
You are full of it. Indoctrination?? Try critical thinking that does not blindly accept what is dished out by the neofascist lunatic fringe.
Go Penguin Random House! Protect free speech!
Racism and hatred ALSO do not belong in schools, but they exist and they exist because of people like you, Mr. Vansickle! If there is one thing that I have learned is that hatred is not something any human is born with; it is taught. Hated, bigotry and racism do not belong in any learning environment either!
The solution is simple. Get your kids out of public schools. They are not the schools that you may remember from decades ago. They are now nothing more than indoctrination centers where your child is at the ideological whim of the teachers. The school administration does not monitor or control the behavior of the teacher. The teacher’s union is too powerful and threatening to the administration so they let all manner of offenses slide. All you need do is listen to the outrageous ramblings of the union president Randy Weingarten since the beginning of Covid. It should be blatantly obvious that they don’t give a rat’s ass about your child and are only interested in compliance to wild, dangerous agendas that have NOTHING to do with learning subjects that actually prepare your child for a productive life and future.
Theses books that are being banned should NEVER have been in the schools in the first place and NEITHER should the courses that are taught from them PERIOD. It is an attempt to aim at our children an agenda that is against the parents knowledge and wishes. I am against Penguin Publishing in this targeted destruction of our children in every aspect.