OCALA, Fla. – A children’s book author and a group of parents filed a federal lawsuit against Lake County Schools over the school board’s decision to restrict access to a children’s book.
Author Peter Parnell and six children, represented by their parents, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Ocala’s federal court.
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They argue the Lake County school board violated first amendment freedoms when they decided to pull the book And Tango Makes Three from school libraries last December.
According to the lawsuit, And Tango Makes Three “tells the true story of two male penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo. The penguins, named Roy and Silo, formed an enduring pair bond and, with the help of a conscientious zookeeper, adopted, hatched, and raised a penguin chick named Tango.”
The lawsuit claimed the school board restricted access to the book for students kindergarten to third grade in the wake of the passage of HB 1557, The Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed by many as Don’t Say Gay.
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“The school district made no attempt to disguise the reason for its decision,” the lawsuit states. “It restricted students below the fourth grade from reading Tango because of H.B. 1557, as well as the content and viewpoint expressed in the book. It cited no legitimate pedagogical reason for its decision—nor could it: Tango was a library book, not part of the school curriculum; the book is factually ac-curate, non-vulgar, and non-obscene; Tango had previously stood on school library shelves; and Tango was restricted for illegitimate, narrowly partisan and political reasons.”
This lawsuit comes amid a nationwide movement to restrict children’s access to some books that some parents may deem inappropriate.
All Central Florida school districts have procedures and policies in place for parents to challenge books in school libraries, and each book is evaluated as a result.
News 6 contacted Lake County Schools for a comment on the lawsuit, and spokeswoman Sherri Owens said they do not comment on pending litigation.
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