Video does not show censored books removed from Florida school

"A Florida public school staff member, risking her job, documented a glimpse of what’s currently happening at her school," says a May 22, 2023 tweet sharing the TikTok video. "The state has come in and removed hundreds of thousands of books from their school library deeming the books 'inappropriate.'"

The clip shows large boxes of books lining a hallway. Allison Ronis, an information technology specialist at McNicol Middle School in Hollywood, Florida, claims the titles were removed because state officials banned them.

"The state just came last week and decided what books were appropriate or inappropriate," she says in the video.

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Screenshot of a tweet taken May 26, 2023

The footage also spread on Facebook and Instagram.

The claims come as Florida schools grapple with regulations that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed in 2022. Some laws specifically limit instruction on gender, sexuality and race, while another requires media specialists to approve books in public schools.

Public complaints have led to the removal of certain titles in Florida schools -- including in Broward County, where Hollywood is located. But the TikTok post does not show such action.

"The allegations in this video are completely false," Cassandra Palelis, press secretary at the Florida Department of Education, told AFP in an email.

John Sullivan, chief communications and legislative affairs officer at Broward County Public Schools, also refuted the claims in a May 22 tweet (archived here).

"This video is not accurate and is simply a false representation," he said. "The school shown in the video was updating/refreshing its book inventory."

The school board's official Twitter account shared the same statement in a separate tweet (archived here).

Ronis later deleted her TikTok video, saying in a follow-up post (archived here) on May 24 that the books were "not banned but outdated."

"The only information I can get is that they are being taken away because they're outdated," she says in the clip. "I don't know what that means or if they're getting replaced."

However other social media users continued to share the claims even after Ronis corrected her post.

During his May 24 presidential campaign announcement, DeSantis dismissed concerns about book removals in Florida as a "hoax." However, 13 school districts banned 357 titles between July and December 2022 to comply with the state's new laws, according to the advocacy group PEN America.