TALLHASSEE, Fla. — (TALLHASSEE, Fla.) -- PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting free expression, and Penguin Random House, one of the country's largest book publishers, filed a lawsuit Wednesday targeting a Florida school district for removing certain books from the shelves of public school libraries.
Authors and parents of children affected by the book bans in the Escambia County School District have also joined the federal lawsuit, which is asking for books to be returned to school libraries.
Members of the school board declined ABC News' requests for comment. Local news outlet Pensacola News Journal reported that the district purged their book selection after a teacher challenged more than 100 books for inappropriate content. She continued, “as a former public high school English teacher, I know firsthand how important libraries are. For many young people, if a book isn’t in their school library, it might as well not exist.”
A record-breaking 1,269 demands were made to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since the American Library Association began collecting data over 20 years ago, the association said.
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