“Most of the media specialists, from the ones that have spoken to us, just feel pressured and uncomfortable because these parents keep coming after them, threatening lawsuits and whatever.”īecky Calzada, a librarian coordinator for the Leander Independent School District located near Austin, Tex. “It puts the in fear, especially the media specialists and librarians that feel like they’re either going to lose their job or cause a lawsuit,” said Hosey. The legislation also emboldens parents to sue the school district if librarians and other district members don’t comply. The titles then must be made publicly available for parents to review and then must undergo approval from a school board hearing before they can be shelved for student use. But the new state law has backed school librarians (also called media specialists in some districts) into a corner, requiring them to obtain a new certification in order to legally make decisions on whether a book is purchased, donated, or “otherwise made available to students.” In March, Florida signed into law HB1467, a book ban bill that librarians say will make it easier for parents to challenge books and instructional materials they don’t approve of and replace them with books from publishers working with the “Moms for Libraries” campaign. “ has positioned themselves with all these things that have been passing in certain legislatures, and now they feel in control with the power to manipulate what goes into the libraries and what books students can read,” Jabari Hosey, the president of the organization Families for Safe Schools, told Motherboard. The group has also effectively advocated for several pieces of legislation that were signed into law this year, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ester Byrd, a prominent Moms for Liberty member, to Florida’s Board of Education. Some Republican politicians have taken notice and have aligned themselves with the Moms For Liberty. Jenkins partially blamed the harassment on Moms For Liberty and its co-founder Descovich, whom she ousted from her position on the school board. In Florida, a Brevard Public School District school board member claims to have received threats and accusations of child abuse last year over a vote to maintain the mask mandate. Moms For Liberty has been accused of contributing to the harassment of school officials in some states. and has promoted an author who opposes desegregation and claimed that slavery “is not a racial problem.” The group has also tried to ban books about Martin Luther King Jr.
In April, scholar Christopher Rhodes wrote for Al Jazeera that in less than two years, Moms for Liberty has been able to “gain mainstream acceptance in ways that other fringe elements of the Republican Party cannot.”įormed in 2021, Moms for Liberty has offered a $500 bounty for anyone who catches a teacher teaching so-called “critical race theory,” or “CRT,” a collection of scholarship that is often used as an alarmist shorthand for any historical discussions of racist discrimination in American schools. With 195 chapters in 37 states, interest in Moms for Liberty has exploded.