Teacher's Pest

Ron DeSantis has unleashed his culture wars on Florida educators

- By Isabela Dias. Photography by Octavio Jones

Marvin Dunn, 82, is a professor emeritus an vocal critic of Gov. DeSantis' moves to render "education meaningless."

On the morning of January 23, Jean Faulk opened her inbox to find an email labeled "urgent" from her principal at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, Florida. "Based on clarifications from the state in December, teacher-created classroom libraries fall under what the state is defining as library material," Wendell Butler Jr. wrote to his staff of 75 or so teachers. Faulk and her colleagues suddenly were expected to cross-check their books against an online catalog of district-approved titles. If a book wasn't in the system, it would have to be inspected by a librarian. The email instructed Bayshore's faculty to "remove or cover" classroom libraries until the materials had been reviewed.

As Faulk, a 65-year-old world history teacher and former journalist who oversees the school's student newspaper, read the guidance, her anger and incredulity grew. She had carefully curated her classroom library over the years, and the task of combing through several hundred volumes seemed insurmountable. So later that day she stripped her shelves of books like Amistad, The Hunger Games, and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Only dictionaries and encyclopedias remained. When she read the email, Florida was celebrating its annual Literacy Week.