One parent’s complaint led to a Miami-Dade County school removing Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” book and speech from an elementary’s library.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project revealed the parent’s name as Daily Salinas, whose two children attend the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes.
Miami-Dade met in April to review 5 books: THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY, CUBAN KIDS, COUNTRIES IN THE NEWS: CUBA, THE HILL WE CLIMB, and LOVE TO LANGSTON
All books were challenged for CRT or “gender theory” by the same person in March 2023. pic.twitter.com/QrvmN5Slqo
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) May 19, 2023
Salinas filed the complaint about Gorman’s book on March 29, 2023, claiming it wasn’t educational and had “hate messages” on pages 12 and 13.
The complaint form asked if she reviewed all of the material, to which she replied, “Yes,” which was a lie since she put Oprah Winfrey as the author. Winfrey forwarded the book but didn’t write it.
For the function of the material part, she alleged that the book caused “confusion and indoctrinated students,” leading her to request the book’s removal from the “total environment.”
The review of all five books resulted in four of the five being retained for the middle school level, with THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY clearly being moved out of its intended age group.
You can see the book in full at the read aloud below.https://t.co/H0HXTRiRdB pic.twitter.com/sJDsLiiv7T
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) May 19, 2023
“The Hill We Climb” was originally Gorman’s poem she read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. In September 2021, Viking Books for Young Readers released “The Hill We Climb” as a book.
Bob Graham Education Center’s move with Gorman’s novel angered her, and she took to Twitter and Instagram to address it.
“I’m gutted,” she began. “Because of one parent’s complaint, my inaugural poem, ‘The Hill We Climb,’ has been banned from an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida.”
She added, “I wrote ‘The Hill We Climb’ so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. Ever since, I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by the ‘The Hill We Clim’ to write their own poems. Robbing children of the change to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and speech.”
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Miami-Dade County Public Schools District released a statement to clarify the matter, stating it “never banned or removed” the book from its schools, but pushed it to the middle grades collection.
In order to ensure accurate information, @MDCPS is compelled to clarify that the book titled, “The Hill We Climb” by @TheAmandaGorman was never banned or removed from one of our schools. The book is available in the media center as part of the middle grades collection.
— Miami-Dade Schools (@MDCPS) May 24, 2023
The school district clearly doesn’t see the book removal as censoring. Yet, they took one parent’s complaint and decided to remove it without logical reasons after the School Materials Review Committee (SMRC) meeting on April 5.
Furthermore, the Miami Herald reported the committee failed to provide examples of what reviewers deemed inappropriate for elementary students, and school staff weren’t included in the review process.
But Gorman’s book is the only one Salinas complained about. She filed a complaint against Tony Medina’s “Love to Langston” on the same date as her complaint against Gorman because it allegedly contained Critical Race Theory (CRT) and labeled the function indoctrination. She included “The ABCs of Black History,” despite it being written for ages 5 and up.
Salinas also filed complaints against Kieran Walsh’s “Countries in the News: Cuba” and “Cuban Kids” by Georga Ancona.
Despite partially getting her way, Salinas didn’t like that the school district made some of the books she complained about available to middle schoolers instead of completely eliminating them.
But she admitted to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she hadn’t read any of the books.
“They have to read for me because I’m not an expert,” she said. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signing HB 1467 into effect allowed Salinas’ efforts. He contended the bill requires school districts to be transparent about the student’s education, from instruction materials to reading materials.
DeSantis also enacted the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibiting teachers from teaching gender identity and sexual orientation. He also defunded DEI programs on public college campuses. And the racist has spoken against CRT being taught in the classrooms to protect white supremacists.
DeSantis’ butt-kisser, Salinas, is no different. The JTA reported that a group called Miami Against Fascism brought attention to a Facebook account Salinas created, which contained anti-semitic content and included a video of her with the Proud Boys.
She apologized for the anti-semitic content, but no one was buying it.
