Lawsuit targets Florida school district that removed dictionaries for describing sexual conduct

A school district in Florida’s Panhandle got way too carried away with enforcing state laws backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis banning books describing sexual conduct. So much so, in fact, that it removed five dictionaries, eight encyclopedias, and The Guinness Book of World Records from library shelves pending review.

Among the dictionaries removed by the Escambia County School Board was “Webster’s Dictionary for Students.” Indeed, the dictionary does have this titillating description of sexual conduct: One definition of the word “sex” in “Webster’s Dictionary For Students” is a “sexual union involving penetration of the vagina by the penis.” That’s some racy anatomical stuff there.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg. In enforcing various state laws that were part of DeSantis’ anti-woke agenda, the Escambia County School Board ended up removing more than 1,600 titles from school library shelves pending review, according to PEN America, an advocacy group formed by writers nearly a century ago to oppose censorship and support freedom of expression.