After news broke that Amanda Gorman's historic poem 'The Hill We Climb' was moved to the middle school section of a Miami-Dade school, the poet slammed efforts to restrict or censor books in schools.
She continued, "I wrote The Hill We Climb so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment … Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech."
Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman speaks during the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington, D.C.Documents obtained via a public records request by the activist group Florida Freedom to Read Project found that a complaint by one parent targeted several books concerning Black history -- including "The Hill We Climb," "The ABCs of Black History," and "Love to Langston.
The complaint said the poem "indirectly" contained "hate messages" and believed it could "cause confusion and indoctrinate students." "Critical race theory" and "indoctrination" were cited as reasons behind the complaints of the other books. Two books on Cuba were also targeted by the parent, who cited "indoctrination about socialism" in their complaint.
In a statement, Miami-Dade County said Gorman's poem was not banned or removed from their schools, assuring that the book remains available in the media center as part of the middle grades collection.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images, FILEIn 2022, the American Library Association documented a record-breaking number of reported book ban attempts across the country.
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