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have spent a lot of time going to my community, going to, you know, business partner, people that i know personally and asking for books for my classroom and i have -- it's a thankless position that i have put myself in to gather these books and to curate this collection for my students so they can come and have books available to them so they're upset and they're sad and a day hasn't gone by where a student hasn't said to me, can we have books? is the rule fixed yet that we can get our books? have they been approved? and so it hurts my heart. it really does. i've said it a thousand times but every day my heart hurts from this when i have to look into a kid's face and say, i'm sorry, i can't give you a book. >> right. well, i think that that really lays out how this is working, what the policy impact is in the classrooms and people can see where the censorship is. andrea phillips.
times" columnist michelle goldberg. andrea, welcome to you. >> thank you, ari. >> what's happening literally in these classrooms? >> so, what's happening in duvall county classrooms is that our district is struggling and racing to comply with legislature that has been passed. on the surface this appears to be for what's in the best interest of students not having important graphic materials or materials that's not age appropriate for students. there are some other specifics, as well. but when you start to look a bit deeper, it really is causing so much chaos because every district has been told to come up with their own system for vetting these books. the books have to be vetted by a certified media specialist. our district is very short on those. my school, for example, has a part-time person.
she has told me that there is an estimated 4 million books in our district that need to be vetted and that currently they have completed about 1400 of them. so you can see that this is just -- i mean, the task is outrageous and the fact that these media specialists are having to do this is crazy. it's really impacting my classroom. my students don't have books available to read. all of those books that you see in that image, you know, those are personal books that i brought in that i curated this library so they could have a diverse library to read from. >> andrea, so let's dig into that. there's what's on paper in theory and as you mentioned some of those rules might be consistent with past rules where you say, what goes in the fifth grade classroom but there's what's happening. it sounds like in practice it is just taking books out of
and that will wither on the vine. give students the foundation so that they can think for themselves. >> you can hear the orwellian double speak, thinking for yourself while takeing away tears that you might read and review and make up your own mind about. teachers in two counties now have been told to remove or wrap up, that is to say, censure books in classrooms. a third grade teacher speaking out in a column and they have a media monitor to vet thousands of books and the teacher had to wrap them in caution tape. you can see what's going on. this is not a movie. this is not a dystopian novel. this is ron desantis' florida. she's asking, where are our books? the teacher who wrote that very piece, andrea phillips is our special guest on "the beat" and also joined by "the new york
teachers and administrators struggle to comply with what my next guest, a third grade teacher says is quote that laws on the books teachers can and can't have in the classrooms. i'm joined now by andrea phillips. mr., let's thank you so much for being with us. but can you just explain what happened last week when your florida school district decided to remove all books until they could be vetted. >> yes, thank you anderson. last week we had a school meeting and we were shown a video that our district put together from our chief academic officer and our superintendent. and they basically said to us that until they have clearer directives from the state. all classroom libraries and media centers were to be made and available to students. they really wanted to err on the side of caution because of the directives they've been given so far from the state.
breed. it looks like you have in my classroom and my current curriculum books. i am an interventionist and so i use a program, working with students reading below grade level and i see about 60 to 70 students a day. if they have finished their work, what i used to do is have a really expansive library in my classroom that came by donation from my family members, my friends, my community. was running a library out of my classroom as well because i work in a low socioeconomic neighborhood and i wanted to make sure my kids have access to books outside school. now i can tell them that you can read some more in your curriculum. so it is kind of like finishing your job in getting more work to do rather than me being able to instill a love of reading for pleasure. >> andrea phillips, i appreciate what you do. it's a tough job and it seems particularly tough these days. i appreciate it.
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