It is an outrageous affront to education that even a single person can force the removal of books from classrooms and school libraries. The challenger does not need any special qualifications, may not even like to read and may even be associated with rightwing extremists and anti-Semites.

In Pinellas County, “The Bluest Eye,” the first novel by Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison – Toni Morrison — published in 1970 was banned from elementary schools after one parent complained about a rape scene in the novel. It is now limited to students in grades 9-12, The Tampa Bay Times reported. The Martin County School District banned more than 80 books from both middle and high schools in February, TCPalm reported.

The writers’ group PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House sued the Escambia County School District and school board for “violating the equal protection clause of the Constitution for disproportionately targeting books that address topics such as race, racism, gender and sexuality,” as The Miami Herald put it.

As of March, 175 books had been banned in Florida schools, PEN America reported. Since PEN started tracking the book-ban trend nationally in July 2021, it found more than 4,000 instances of public school book bans, including 1,477 affecting 874 titles during the first half of the current school year.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools faced two “informal challenges” which were resolved “between the principal and the parent without the need to escalate to a formal challenge,” The Herald reported.

Enter Daily Salinas, parent of two students at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes. She filed a challenge on March 29 to five books, including three African American-related texts. One of them, published in 2020, was “The ABCs of Black History,” which Rio Cortez wrote especially for children 5 and older.

“The ABCs of Black History” uses the alphabet to celebrate African Americans, such as “B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright,” “P is for Power,” “S is for Science and Soul,” “G is for Great Migration,” “H is for Zora Neale Hurston” and “X is for Malcom X.”

Another book Salinas challenged was Tony Medina’s “Love to Langston Hughes,” an anthology of 14 poems that “offer young readers an exciting glimpse into the life of Langston Hughes, one of America’s most beloved poets,” according to the promotion material. The poems explore “an important theme in Hughes’ life -his lonely childhood, his love of language and travel, his dream of writing poetry.” Missouri-born James Mercer Langston Hughes was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright and columnist who promoted equality, denounced racism and injustice and whose works celebrate African American culture.

And then there was “The Hill We Climb,” the inaugural poem which Amanda Gorman recited at the inauguration of President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. on Jan. 20, 2021. One question on the challenge form asked, “Did you review all the material?” Salinas wrote “Yes.” But she named Oprah Winfrey as the author.

Question: “Why do you object to this material?”

Answer: “Is not educational and have indirect hate messages” Question: “What do you believe is the function of this material?” Answer: “Cause indoctrination and indoctrinate students”

Question: “Are you aware of professional reviews of this material?” Answer: “I don’t need it” Question: “For what age group do you recommend this material?” Answer: “Not for schools” On the question “What would you like to do with this material?” Salinas checked off: “Remove the challenged item from the total environment.”

Astonishingly, that was enough for the school materials review committee to swing into action and deem the three African American-themed texts and one related to Cuba “better suited” or “more appropriate” for the middle school and remove them from the elementary school.

Gorman understandably responded that she felt “gutted.” She wrote on social media, “So they ban my book from young readers, confuse me with Oprah, fail to specify what parts of my poetry they object to, refuse to read any reviews, and offer no alternatives … Unnecessary book bans like these are on the rise and we must fight back. … Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.” Gorman wrote “The Hill We Climb,” she said, “so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment,” adding that she has received “countless letters and videos from children who were inspired to write their own poems.”

Salinas challenged “The Hill We Climb,” The Herald reported, because of indirect “hate messages” especially on two pages. One is: “We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, And the norms and notions of what ‘just is’ Isn’t always justice.”

The other is: “And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow, we do it. Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”

There is more. Several media outlets reported that Salinas has a history of associating with rightwing extremists, including being photographed with Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys whom a jury has convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and has attended Proud Boys rallies.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) said it reviewed a Facebook account that appeared to be Salinas’ and found a post about the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which The Guardian has described as “a fabricated Russian anti-Semitic text originally published in 1903 about a purported Jewish plan to dominate the world.”

Salinas, in a statement to JTA, acknowledged making the post and apologized. She said she had not read “Protocols” beyond the word “communism,” adding, “I see the word ‘communism’ and I think it’s something about communism, didn’t read the words.” That is not surprising. Salinas has indicated that she read only “snippets” of the books she challenged. “They have to read for me,” she told JTA without identifying who did the reading, “because I’m not an expert.

I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person.”

The Grenada-born calypsonian Francisco Slinger — Mighty Sparrow – in 1968 ridiculed the British colonial education system with “Dan is the Man.” He sang about schools that were then teaching children to “grow up with true ambition and respect from one and all.” However. in his days in school, they “teach me like a fool/The things they teach me/I should be a block-headed mule.” But the intent was not to create “a block/headed mule.” It was to reinforce British culture, similar to what today’s book bans are intended to do: brainwash children into accepting a fake European American version of history.

Gov. Ron DeSantis commented Friday on the censoring of “The Hill We Climb,” saying, “This is some book of poems, I never heard of it, I had nothing to do with any of this, that was in an elementary school library and the school or the school district determined that was more appropriate to be in the middle school library. So they moved it.”

But DeSantis had everything to do with it, having signed legislation which made it possible. As usual, he blamed “legacy media outlets” which are “trying to create a political narrative that is totally divorced from the facts and if they’re going to do something like this ridiculous poem hoax and actually put that out there and think that you’re going to believe it, they’re insulting your intelligence and our country.”

This dystopian collusion among authoritarian politicians, spineless school authorities and culture warriors is working only because not enough people of good will are rising up in outrage to say enough is enough.