Polk school district asks judge to throw out lawsuit over its handling of book challenges

Lawyers for Polk County Public Schools have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the district violated state law and its own policy in handling challenges to library books.

The district filed a motion in late April asking Circuit Judge Michael McDaniel to dismiss the complaint, filed in March by Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom, the group’s leader and two members.

In the motion, lawyers James C. Valenti and Samuel J. Hensel argue that the plaintiffs lack legal standing and have failed to describe any negative consequences they suffered from the district’s actions.

Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom, the founding chapter of an interstate conservative political group, filed the lawsuit in March shortly before holding a media event at Fort Blount Park in Bartow, near the Polk County Courthouse. Anthony Sabatini, a former state legislator and now a Republican candidate for Congress, is the group’s lead attorney.

The 11-page complaint names two books challenged by Polk County residents Erin Fiore and Debra Baublitz, who are Polk County CDF members: “Breathless,” by Jennifer Niven, and “Identical,” by Ellen Hopkins.

The complaint includes passages from both books, which the CDF considers to be pornographic. CDF Executive Director Robert Goodman said that those are among more than 50 books in Polk County school libraries over which CDF has filed complaints.

“Breathless,” marketed as a young adult novel, concerns a woman entering college who is fixated on sex. “Identical,” also a novel, tells the story of 16-year-old identical twin girls, one of them a victim of repeated sexual abuse by their father. The complaint includes two passages from the books, one describing a forced sexual act one of the twin girls endures with her father.

Polk County Public Schools carries “Breathless” and “Identical” in multiple high school libraries, though neither is available in elementary schools or middle schools, a district spokesperson said.

The lawsuit cites a law passed last year by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that established rules for how school districts select and screen materials offered in libraries. The law states that each county’s school boards “must adopt a policy regarding an objection by a parent or a resident of the county to the use of a specific material, which clearly describes a process to handle all objections and provides for resolution.”

In 2022, the Polk County School Board adopted a policy for responding to challenges of books, including instructional texts, library books and assigned reading. The policy set timelines for the handling of citizen petitions, with reviews carried out by hearing officers appointed by the board, and described a process for appealing decisions.

After filing the lawsuit, Sabatini said that the district’s policy is inadequate and that the School Board was violating state law in how it is carried out. He alleged that the district had not adhered to its own guidelines in reviewing appeals of decisions about book challenges.

Citing a Florida court ruling from 2004, the motion says that a party must allege that it has suffered a legal injury.

“The claims brought by County Citizens and Goodman should be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action because both parties have failed to allege an injury in fact and neither, therefore, has standing,” the motion states.

Neither CDF nor Goodman claimed that they had attempted to challenge a book and been denied or had “attempted to exercise a single right under the statute or policy referenced in the complaint,” the motion says.

Both the district policy and the state law apply to county residents and parents of students who attend schools in the county, the motion says. It asserts that CDF — which it calls “an Ohio corporation,” based on its original filing of incorporation — does not meet those criteria and therefore cannot have legal standing to sue.

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Goodman also should be dismissed from the lawsuit because he has not alleged being harmed by the district’s actions or inactions, the motion says.

The CDF lawsuit faulted the school district for how it handles appeals of rulings on book challenges. The complaint says that Fiore and Baublitz challenged “Breathless” and “Identical,” respectively, in 2023 and committees assigned by the School Board voted to keep copies of the books in all schools where they were held.

Fiore and Baublitz appealed the rulings, and the School Board never voted on whether to retain the books, the complaint says.

In the motion, the district’s lawyers argue that neither woman showed having “availed themselves of the processes set forth” in the School Board policy. That means they had not alleged being injured by the district, the motion says.

The motion acknowledges an error in the district policy, which lists both 15 and 30 business days as the deadline to appeal a committee ruling. The lawyers argue that Fiore and Baublitz failed to show they had made appeals within even the longer time period.

The district asks McDaniel to dismiss CDF and Goodman as parties, with Goodman given the chance to amend his participation. It requests that McDaniel dismiss the complaint, with Goodman, Fiore and Baublitz allowed to amend, and seeks “any other relief this court deems necessary.”

McDaniel had not ruled on the motion as of Thursday afternoon.

The lawsuit emerged at a time when school districts across Florida have been fielding objections to library books, mostly because of sexual descriptions or LGBTQ content. The Florida Legislature passed a bill this year limiting challenges to one book per month for citizens who are not parents of students in the school district.

Gary White can be reached at [email protected] or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk school district seeks dismissal of lawsuit over book challenges