Amid a national conversation on school book access, Duval school district officials this year defended a longstanding connection with the Jacksonville Public Library.

Throughout this academic year, a handful of parents have pushed the school district to remove students’ online access to resources provided by the Jacksonville Public Library, which they argued was a way to clandestinely provide access to books they considered inappropriate. Their complaints focused on Libby, a service that includes digitized books, magazines and other resources. 

The parents’ push, in private and at public meetings, was repeatedly rebuffed by the school district, emails shared with Jacksonville Today show.

The partnership between the district and the library is nearly a decade old. It provides each student identification a matching library card that allows digital access to library books through Libby. Elementary school parents are required to sign permission forms to attend school-sponsored field trips to the Jacksonville Public Library.

A self-identified parent, whose name was redacted from the emails in accordance with state privacy laws, pushed restrictions on what’s accessible from students’ district-issued laptops, with a particular eye against LGBTQ+ works and texts that center African Americans.

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In an email to the Duval middle and high school regional superintendents on Sep. 25, 2023, the parent wrote that they’d conducted their own test of the Libby app on their child’s school-supplied laptop.

“All Boys Aren’t Blue is an example of an obscene queer book with pornographic text that was easy to check out on the laptop via Libbyapp.com. It stayed there even when my child went to school. It’s still there as a book checked out with no way to remove it. That’s a problem,” the parent wrote.

“It’s the district’s responsibility to make sure kids are given safe content. Libbyapp constantly markets a variety of literature on its homepage. Kids (and parents) don’t know if they will stumble onto something obscene in the middle of a book,” they continued.

The parent took particular issues with the gender studies, LGBTQ+ and Black categories, which, they asserted, “have books filled with profanity, vulgarity, CRT/white hate, police hate, and LGBT indoctrination. Most likely ALL categories have problems.”

They alleged that because Duval County promotes student access to the Jacksonville Library with the Libby app, the district is “essentially promoting thousands of books/media without parental consent.” 

Kriznar responded on Oct. 26, 2023, that students benefit from the partnership with the Jacksonville Public Library, which she described as compliant with state law and “good educational practice.”

“Access to books for independent reading is important for students to strengthen their reading skill,” Kriznar wrote. “The availability of online libraries and e-books has increased access to literature, which has been a great benefit to our students, teachers, and classrooms. Digital libraries have especially benefited our students who do not necessarily have access to print materials at home.”

Since that time, Kriznar and School Board member Lori Hershey have met with parents concerned about access to books.

That hasn’t quieted the furor.

Over the last four months, the public comment portion of Duval County School Board meetings has consistently included complaints about the district’s relationship with the Jacksonville Public Library and student use of the Libby app.

In January, Jacksonville Beach resident Margaret Yarbrough said the district refuses to protect students.

“There’s a bigger problem with (English Language Arts) teachers instructing kids to use unrestricted virtual libraries like Libby App and Hoopla at school, with taxpayer-funded laptops and networks,” Yarbrough said at a Jan. 8 meeting. “Libraries…bypass challenged materials and lack parental controls.”

Jacksonville Public Library spokesman Chris Boivin tells Jacksonville Today he is not aware of complaints against the partnership before this school year.

“It is important for everybody to have access to information. So that’s what the library is all about,” Boivin says. “We’re trying to connect people with the resources and information they need. We feel that students, adults, everybody everywhere should have access to information. That’s the most important thing.”

Jennifer Cowart is the mother of two students at public schools in Duval County and the co-founder of the Public School Defenders, an advocacy group that pushes for an diversity of perspectives in the classroom.

Cowart equates conversations about “book selection” and “discretion” with a “book ban.”

“I trust teachers and media specialists to go through those books and decide what books would appeal to their students and would be appropriate,” Cowart said. “And I trust individual parents to decide if they feel a certain book is not appropriate for their child. 

“But I think we’re getting to a point where one parent or community member has the ability to challenge a book, and that removes my student’s right to have access to that book. Instead of it being: ‘I have control over what’s happening in my house,’ it’s one person making decisions that impact everyone.”

Tia Bess also believes that parents should take responsibility for the content their children consume. 

Bess is a Clay County mother to three school-aged children and national director of engagement for the conservative parents’ rights organization Moms For Liberty. 

Bess says her fight is inside school libraries, not public libraries.

“Of course, if your parents give you the ability to have a public library card, that falls back on the parent and the things that they are able to do,” Bess tells Jacksonville Today.

Changing policy on book challenges

The ongoing tension in Duval County mirrors the national conversation on school books, as states like Florida have recently instituted restrictions on what can be taught when it comes to topics including race, gender identity, sexual orientation and communism.

However, during an April 16 visit to Jacksonville, state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and Gov. Ron DeSantis decried “bad-faith” challenges to books, as DeSantis signed HB 1285 that restricts non-parents to one book challenge per month in the county where they reside. 

“It’s not that a parent has the right to dictate the curriculum, because they don’t have a right to do that,” DeSantis told reporters. “That’s why we elect people to school boards. That’s why we elect people to state government because we all have a role in setting that.”

Diaz was a public school teacher in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the 1990s before he entered politics. During a March appearance in Jacksonville — after DeSantis signed legislation to ban social media for children under 14 — Diaz said he believes parents should have control and guidance over the information their children access.

Diaz says districts should have an understanding of the websites students are accessing from district-owned devices or district-controlled networks. 

“(We want) to have parents guiding it at home, making sure that (when) they are in school they have restricted access and that it’s not being a free-for-all for students to have this information coming in to them at school,” Diaz said.

As for whether school districts should allow students to access library websites on district devices or networks, Diaz told Jacksonville Today his first concern is ensuring identifying data is protected.

“It’s not the DOE that’s doing this,” he said. “It’s every school board that crafts a policy and has a process in place to make sure students are not accessing inappropriate materials when it comes to a (local) district’s policy.”