American poet Amanda Gorman, who delivered a poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, spoke out Tuesday after access to the piece was restricted at a school in Miami-Dade.
The 25-year-old, who is the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, tweeted that she was “gutted” after learning that a complaint from a parent led to her inaugural poem being banned from Bob Graham education center in Miami Lakes.
According to reports, the poem was one of five books challenged by a parent of a student at the school, including The ABCs of Black History and books on Cuba.
The Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement stating that the book was not “banned” or “removed” from the school.
However, the school ultimately decided to restrict access to the poem among elementary-age students by moving the book to the middle school area of the media center.
“What we’re doing is just moving books to areas in which they’re appropriate for students,” said Miami-Dade School Board member Robert Alonso, whose district includes the school at the center of the controversy. “We’re never removing any books unless it has content which is really not appropriate for any of our kids in the school system.”
Reports are that Daily Salinas, the parent who filed the initial complaint, claims the titles contained “inappropriate content,” listing the topics of “gender ideology, CRT, and communism.”
In her complaint for “The Hill I Climb,” Salinas wrote that it was “not educational,” contains “hate messages,” and that its function is to “cause confusion” and “indoctrinate students.”
A new Florida law passed last year requires more transparency about what materials schools use to teach students.
Recently, PEN America and Penguin Random House sued the Escambia County School District over its removal of 10 books about race and LGBTQ+ identities, alleging that the district and its school board are violating the First Amendment.
