Amanda Gorman Poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ Restricted in Miami-Dade School – NBC 6 South Florida
Amanda Gorman spoke out Tuesday after access to the poem she recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration was restricted at a school in Miami-Dade.
At Bob Graham Educational Center, a K-8 school in Miami Lakes, one parent objected to four books in the school library, as well as the poem “The Hill We Climb,” read by Gorman at Biden’s inauguration.
The school ultimately decided to restrict access to the poem among elementary-age students by moving the book to the middle school area of the media center.
Gorman, the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, tweeted Tuesday that she was “gutted” by the news that her poem was “banned.”
A few hours later, Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement on Twitter, clarifying that the book was not “banned” or “removed” from the school.
However, access to the book was restricted to students of certain ages, and MDCPS says middle-school-age students will still have access to the titles in the school’s media center.
“What we’re doing is just moving books to areas in which they’re appropriate for students,” said Miami-Dade School Board member Robert Alonso, whose district includes the school at the center of the controversy. “We’re never removing any books unless it has content which is really not appropriate for any of our kids in the school system.”
Daily Salinas, the parent who filed the initial complaint, claims the titles contained “inappropriate content,” listing the topics of “gender ideology, CRT, and communism.”
In her formal complaint for “The Hill I Climb,” Salinas wrote that it was “not educational,” contains “hate messages,” and that its function is to “cause confusion” and “indoctrinate students.”
According to the nonprofit free-speech organization PEN America, 175 books have been removed so far in Florida’s public schools since the law took effect.
Just last week, Gorman’s publisher, Penguin Random House, joined PEN America in filing a lawsuit that challenges the “unconstitutional book bans.”
PEN America and Penguin Random House sued the Escambia County School District over its removal of 10 books about race and LGBTQ+ identities, alleging that the district and its school board are violating the First Amendment.
