In video, books removed from a Florida middle school were old, not censored

An employee at a Florida middle school pulled out her phone to document waist-high boxes of books in the school’s hallway. She said these were books banned by the state of Florida.

"I just want to show you something, because the state just came last week and decided what books were appropriate or inappropriate," the technology specialist said.

She and two security guards picked up several books, including the titles "Hate Groups" and "Black Eagles: African Americans in Aviation." 

"These are boxes of books waiting to go out," the woman said. 

The video was posted across Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. The Instagram video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) 

The video gained attention as Florida school districts are adjusting to a new law that gives parents more power to challenge books available in schools. Exact numbers are hard to pin down, but the state said at least 175 books were removed from schools in 2022. PEN America, which tracks and opposes book bans, has a higher count that factors in challenges and temporary removals.

But what was captured at McNicol Middle School in Hollywood, Florida, was not related.

Officials from Broward County Public Schools and the Broward Teachers Union told PolitiFact that the books in the video were not being banned or challenged. Rather, they were taken out because they are outdated, a process the American Library Association calls "weeding." 

"The books in question were not removed at the direction of the state," said John Sullivan, chief communications and legislative affairs officer for Broward County Public Schools. 

Sullivan said that 89% of the books at McNicol were removed because they were more than 15 years old and out of compliance with an agreement the school board made in 2000 to provide each student with equal access to the current curriculum. The average publication year of the books at McNicol was 1997, Sullivan said. 

This year’s "weeding" coincides with the renovation of the media center.

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stated on March 4, 2020 in a Facebook post

“The State of Florida has announced measures that all workplaces with 10 employees or more are to have paid mandatory leave to avoid the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus starting on March 6, 2020. All schools are to close for 2 weeks also from March 6th.”

Anna Fusco, the Broward Teachers Union’s president, told PolitiFact that the school worker who filmed the video was mistaken about the pulled books. 

Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. was not happy about the original video. He tweeted, "Another example of the book ban hoax! Broward County has confirmed to me that this is simply an end-of-year book inventory. It has nothing to do with vetting any books. This video is completely false and a sad attempt to disrupt our educational environment." 

Although the books at McNicol aren’t banned, that doesn’t mean censorship-related book removals are not happening in other Florida schools. Recently, a school in Miami-Dade County moved "The Hill We Climb," written by poet Amanda Gorman, from the elementary student section to middle school shelves after one parent complained, limiting its access to younger kids. 

Social media posts said a video showed boxes of books that were being banned by the DeSantis administration. 

School district and state officials said the video showed books that were being "weeded out" at McNicol Middle School in Hollywood, Florida — a common library practice to ensure material is current. 

The video made inaccurate claims about why the books were being taken out of the library. We rate this claim False.

RELATED: Ron DeSantis said that not ‘a single book’ was banned in Florida. Districts have removed dozens.