NEW: Headlines claimed that Amanda Gorman's poem, 'The Hill We Climb,' had been 'banned' by a Florida school. However, Snopes obtained a copy of the minutes from the school's committee meeting that occurred in April. They tell a different story. 1/
In late May 2023, readers asked Snopes if reports were true that a Florida school had banned National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's poem,"The Hill We Climb." The claim had been widely repeated by the news media. For example, The Associated Press published an article on May 24 headlined,"Amanda Gorman's poem for Biden's inauguration banned by Florida school."
We contacted media relations representatives with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to ask several questions. That correspondence is detailed later in this story, as is relevant information in the minutes from a committee meeting. According to those minutes, the truth about this story was quite different than what had been reported in some news venues.On March 29, 2023, a parent filed written complaints with the school regarding five different books in its library.
According to the Times, the other four books Salinas challenged were,"The ABCs of Black History" by Rio Cortez,"Cuban Kids" by George Ancona,"Love to Langston" by Tony Medina, and"Countries in the News: Cuba," by Kieran Walsh.On April 5, the School Materials Review Committee met at 11:10 a.m. for a total of two hours and 18 minutes to discuss Salinas' complaints.
In order to make its decisions, the committee focused on a school board rule that laid out various criteria. Thesse criteria included fostering"respect for diverse roles" in society, as well as nurturing"cultural appreciation" and representing"the many religious, racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups in our society and reflect[ing] their contributions to the heritage and culture of our civilization.
Nowhere in the minutes did it say that Gorman's book would be"banned" or that elementary students would be forbidden from reading her poem in the library.
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