#Florida school bans Amanda Gorman's inaugural 'The Hill We Climb' poem
Amanda Gorman slammed officials at an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida, on Tuesday for banning “The Hill We Climb,” the poem she famously recited at President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential inauguration.
In an attempt to fight back, she said her publisher Penguin Random House is joining PEN America and others in a lawsuit “to challenge book restrictions like these.”
“I’m gutted,” the former and first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate wrote on Instagram about the Bob Graham Education Center‘s decision to ban her work from the students it serves. The decision was made after one parent complained, Gorman wrote.
School officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full text: ‘The Hill We Climb’ Amanda Gorman performs powerful poem at inauguration:
“I wrote The Hill We Climb so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by The Hill We Climb to write their own poems,” she wrote. “Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”
The school’s move is the latest in a slew of efforts to remove literature that addresses racial and social justice from classrooms nationwide.
In her post, she called on her followers to donate to PEN America “as they protect literature.”
Book bans are on the rise: What are the most banned books and why?
The Florida teachers union and other groups are suing the Florida education department, saying the way it interpreted a new law about school library books goes further than the law intended, leading to censorship and book bans.
Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @kaylajjimenez.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘The Hill We Climb’: Amanda Gorman poem banned at Florida school
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