FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — A Northeast Florida school district must return three dozen books to its libraries as part of a settlement reached Thursday with students and parents who sued over what they say was an illegal decision to restrict access to dozens of LGBTQ+ titles restrict content.
Under the agreement, the Nassau County School Board must restore access to three dozen titles, including “And Tango Makes Three,” a picture book for children based on a true story about two male penguins who raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo . Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is located about 40 miles northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.
The lawsuit was one of several challenges to book bans since state lawmakers passed and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation last year, legislation that makes it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month, six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando, arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.
“Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority,” Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks said in a statement.
Among the books removed in Nassau County were titles by Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jodi Picoult and Alice Sebold.
Under the settlement, the school district agreed that “And Tango Makes Three” is not obscene, is appropriate for students of all ages and has value as it relates to teaching.
“Students will once again have access to books by well-known and critically acclaimed authors who represent a wide range of viewpoints and ideas,” Lauren Zimmerman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement.
Brett Steger, an attorney for the school district, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
