KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Book challenges became a heated topic just a few years ago, and while school districts say many of those challenges have largely subsided, efforts to push back on them continue.
Two former Osceola County librarians have opened a bookstore in downtown Kissimmee that includes books that have been removed from shelves at Osceola County schools.
A love for reading is something Erin Decker and Tania Galiñanes trace back to their childhoods.
“I started reading by myself at a very young age,” Decker said. “My mom always joked I would figure out a way to make money with books.”
“My love for reading came from my parents, especially my dad,” Galiñanes said.
So, as librarians, they wanted to make sure children had access to a wide variety of books.
“I was always very passionate about getting kids to read and finding things that they like to read, and making sure they had books they can relate to and books they were excited about,” Decker said.
So when some books from their school libraries were challenged, and then removed, they said they felt their mission as educators was compromised.
“When I saw that books were being taken away from them — I literally had to take them away from students — that hurt,” Decker said.
“I’m a woman of color. You’re telling me that books written by people of color — you want to take them away just because of that, that you want to erase a whole group of people. I take that personally,” Galiñanes said.
They eventually both decided to leave their jobs at Osceola County schools, and together, they opened the bookstore.
“It was a little scary to go from having a steady income, benefits, to owning your own business and not knowing on a day-to-day basis if you’re going to make rent, or if you’re going to be able to pay yourself or have health insurance,” Decker said.
Galiñanes had originally planned to retire from the school district, but she said the stress of book bans was too much.
“My eye was twitching, just because I wasn’t sleeping," Galiñanes said. "It was bad because, like I said, I do take it personally. I take it personally when we cut access to books and to knowledge to our students.”
Their store, White Rose Books and More, includes books no longer in public schools, and those books are highlighted with caution tape.
“It’s kind of a play on the whole banned book thing, like, ‘Caution, you shouldn’t read these books,’ but we believe every book should be read,” Decker said.
For now, book challenges appear to have subsided. Osceola County Public Schools administrators said five books were removed from district shelves three years ago. The school year after that, only one — a book series — was removed, and they said no books were challenged in the last school year.
But Decker said the damage has already been done.
“In the meantime, all these books have already been banned," Decker said. "They’re not going to be available in school, so we need to make sure they’re available in other spaces for people who need them or want them.”
She said she will support candidates who won’t push laws she believes restrict the educational materials to which young people have access.
“Are they going to defend all aspects of freedom of speech?" Decker said. "And that includes access to literature and books, but it also includes other aspects of freedom to speech, and allowing people to share their stories in whatever manner they can.”
Several organizations connected to previous challenges to books in schools did not respond to requests for comment.
However, an Osceola County representative of Citizens Defending Freedom argued that the books aren’t “banned.”
“Citizens Defending Freedom's priority is to ensure that the materials available in school are age appropriate. We believe it is important to protect children from exposure to content that includes explicit violence or sexual themes without parental consent,” Chris Fontenot, of Citizens Defending Freedom, said in a statement.