1. This high school English teacher is trying to ban 150 books from school libraries in Florida
I talked to her to find out why
Buckle up
This one gets a bit wild
🧵
Conversation
2. One book challenged by the teacher, Vicki Baggett, is When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball
The book is about the childhood of Rudolph, a sprinter who won three gold medals
It covers how she overcame physical limitations and racial prejudice in the 40s to become a champion
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3. In the challenge form submitted Baggett on August 24, she claims that the purpose of the book is "race-baiting" and it is not appropriate for any age group.
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4. In an interview, Baggett said the book "trashes and puts down those who are not black." She describes the book, which is a true story of Rudolph's experience, as "very anti-white."
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5. Baggett didn't dispute the book was an accurate portrayal of life in the American South in the 40s (separate water fountains etc) but insisted it would make white students "feel uncomfortable" because "they are being white-shamed."
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6. Baggett says When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball is inappropriate because "not all whites treated blacks like this."
Baggett added that "not all blacks do drug crimes, like a lot of people say."
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7. Baggett said she challenged the book because she believed it violated the DeSantis' Stop WOKE Act.
The bill prohibits instructing students that they "must feel guilt, anguish… because of actions... committed in the past by other members of the same race"
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8. Pressed on whether her interpretation of the Stop WOKE Act would allow any instruction about historical prejudice, Baggett suggested that the book might be appropriate for children starting in fourth grade.
This directly contradicts what she wrote on the form
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9. Baggett's social media accounts raise more questions about her approach to racial issues.
In 2015, Baggett posted a picture of the Confederate Flag on her Facebook page.
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10. Baggett said she posted the flag because "everyone in my clan fought in the Civil War" and she was not "ashamed of that."
Baggett added that she was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which has been designated as part of the Neo-Confederate movement.
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11. As recently as 2018, the Daughters of the Confederacy website stated: "Slaves, for the most part, were faithful and devoted. Most slaves were usually ready and willing to serve their masters."
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12. Baggett said she did not believe the photo of the Confederate Flag she posted on Facebook could make her students uncomfortable. She said her students "know me very well" and "my best friend is a black woman."
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13. The Escambia County School District is dealing with a flood of book challenges, and nearly all of them were filed by Baggett.
Baggett is responsible for 148 of the 150 book challenges in Escambia this year.
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15. Baggett's challenges are not limited to books she believes handle racial issues inappropriately. She has also challenged numerous books for allegedly violating the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" law.
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16. Among the books challenged by Baggett is And Tango Makes Three.
The book is the true story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in the Central Park Zoo. The pair build a nest together, and — after the zookeeper provides them w/an egg — raise an adopted child, Tango
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17. In her form challenging the book, Baggett alleged it promoted the "LGBTQ agenda using penguins." On the form, Baggett said she believes the purpose of the book is "indoctrination."
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18. In an interview, Baggett said she objected to And Tango Makes Three because it exposes students to "alternate sexual ideologies."
She noted that, at one point in the story, the zookeeper says, "these two penguins must be in love."
That, she says, is sexual "innuendo."
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19. Baggett explained her objections in more detail: "I think what would happen is a second grader would read this book, and that idea would pop into the second grader's mind… that these are two people of the same sex that love each other."
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20. She said she challenged the book because she believed it violated the law.
Baggett did say she supports the Parental Rights in Education Act because she believes that "kids need to be kids."
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21. These kind of challenges to books, and academic freedom in general, are happening across the country.
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22. Baggett has also challenged dozens of books for high school students, primarily objecting to sexual content.
Books Baggett has challenged on this basis include Perks of Being a Wallflower, Beloved, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Water for Elephants.
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23. According to Baggett, "[i]f I could not walk up to you and start saying to you in a conversational tone" anything written in the book "and know that I'm not going to be in trouble," then that book is pornographic and should be removed from the library.
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24. Baggett's test, however, does not comport with Florida or federal law. Florida's law prohibits books in school libraries that both contain "explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct" AND are "harmful to minors."
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25. Florida law and Supreme Court precedent affirm that not every book with explicit sexual content is harmful to minors.
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26. The Miller test defines obscenity as work that appeals to "purient interests," depicts sexual conduct in a "patently offensive way," AND "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
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27. The Miller test means people like Baggett cannot "take a single image or paragraph and say the book is obscene or harmful to minors."
The law requires an evaluation of the book as a whole.
Context matters.
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28. Under Baggett's test, how could a school offer sex education? A teacher could not, in a casual hallway conversation, describe to a student the mechanics of oral sex. But that does occur in sexual education classes.
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29. Baggett said that the high school where she teaches does not offer a sex ed class.
Baggett said that she believed it "is not the school's place" to offer sex ed.
She said that people who support sex education in schools "assume that the teacher knows what they are doing"
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30. While Baggett's views may not be widely shared her efforts have already restricted dozens of books from Escambia students. Every book that Baggett labels as "pornography" is immediately placed in a "restricted" section of the library.
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31. 125 books are currently under restrictions as a result of Baggett's challenges.
They will remain in restricted status until the challenge process is complete.
Although Baggett began filing challenges in August, thus far, only one book has made it through the process.
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