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With the approval of President Nweze and FL NAACP leadership, we have agreed to participate in an amicus brief, which is a court filing that helps to educate the court about the impact or history of the policy or issue before the court. The FL NAACP amicus brief will support the plaintiffs in a case against the Escambia County School Board challenging the removal and restriction of books about Black and LGBTQ+ people from the school library.

Because it's critical to fight back against anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ policies that target and ban inclusive and historically accurate books, we are partnering with Equality Florida to prepare this court filing.

We would like the amicus brief to make clear that Black and LGBTQ+ students experience real harms when stories by or about people like them are removed from the library, especially given the wave of book removal efforts across the state that target our authors and history.

This survey is first intended to help us identify students or parents of students now in Florida K-12 public schools who are interested in including their firsthand accounts of how they are harmed when books about Black and/or LGBTQ+ people are or have been removed from their school libraries. While we ask you to identify yourself in this survey for purposes of connecting you to the lawyers helping us draft the amicus brief, if you prefer, your story can be told anonymously in the brief itself.

In addition, this survey will help us evaluate what other kinds of experiences our members have had as a result of the several recently passed laws and policies that attack diversity, inclusion and the truthful telling of Black history (for example, the Stop W.O.K.E. law, the removal of AP African American History, and the recently published African American History standards). This information, in turn, will inform whether we can bring suit as an organization or can refer individual members to sister civil rights organizations that are investigating additional potential legal challenges to these laws.

For additional students, complete the next section.
Please provide the name or initials, grade, age, district and school name of any additional students.
Are you aware of books or materials about Black history, Black people or Black characters that have been challenged or removed from your child’s media center/library or classrooms?
Are you aware of books or materials about LGBTQ history, LGBTQ people or LGBTQ characters that have been challenged or removed from your child’s media center/library or classrooms?
If so, what books have been removed and how has the removal of these materials affected you and/or your child?
Why is it important to you that your child’s school not ban books or other materials about Black people and/or LGBTQ people?
Does your child’s school adequately and accurately cover Black history and the contributions of Black people in other subject areas? If not, please explain what is missing from your child’s curriculum or what is being taught inaccurately.
Do the syllabuses for your child’s courses include Black history and works by Black authors? If not, in which courses would you expect to see Black history and Black authors? Please list what history, books and authors are being assigned instead.
Do any of the books or materials assigned to your child or class discussions concern you or your child or cause your child to experience discomfort or anguish? If so, please explain.
Do any of the books or materials assigned to your child or class discussions seek to indoctrinate or persuade to a particular viewpoint (for example, that slavery was not that bad and was justified)? If so, please explain.
Are works of Black history or Black stories and narratives treated less favorably or given less instruction time than other histories or narratives? If so, please explain.
Do you know of any teachers, media specialists or administrators who have been disciplined (suspended, removed, terminated or forced out) or prohibited from teaching or discussing any of the topics currently banned or restricted by these laws? If so, who was disciplined and what was the nature of the discipline?
Has the climate of your child’s school become more hostile to your child, other Black children or LGBTQ children since the passage of laws like “Stop WOKE,” “Don’t Say Gay” and the expansion of mechanisms for challenging and banning books, including the removal of any clubs or organizations that have historically supported Black and/or LGBTQ students? If so, how exactly has the climate changed?
Have any of your child’s teachers used or indicated they plan to use videos created by PragerU or other similar entities that seek to distort history or indoctrinate students as PragerU has admitted is its goal? If so, please describe the content shown.
Has your child been prohibited from or suffered any retaliation for introducing materials about Black history or narratives or discussing their history, culture or experiences in their schools? If so, what kind of retaliation did they face, and in response to what?
Is there anything else you want to share about you or your child's experiences at school?