Miami elementary school BANS students read poem Amanda Gorman at Biden’s inauguration after parent complained it was spreading “hate messages” and mistook poet for OPRAH
- Several books in a Miami school were identified as more appropriate for a high school audience than for elementary school students
- Among those books was Amanda Gorman’s poetry book containing the poem she wrote and read at Joe Biden’s inauguration.
- The parent who complained about Gorman’s poem falsely identified the work’s author as Oprah Winfrey
A Miami elementary school banned students from reading a poem that was famously read at Biden’s inauguration — with the parent complaining that he mistook the young black author for Oprah Winfrey.
The Miami announces reported that a parent from the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes took issue with Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb.
They explained their complaint in a form shared by Gorman, who is 25, writing that the work “is not educational and indirectly contains hate speech.” (sic)
The complainant further adds that the critically acclaimed work ‘could cause confusion and indoctrinate students’.
They also incorrectly identified 69-year-old Oprah Winfrey as the author of the poem, which was famously read by Gorman at Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Winfrey did write a foreword to the work, which may have confused the complainant brought.
It is not clear what exactly offended the parents. The Hill We Climb doesn’t have a bad language. It references Gorman’s slave ancestors and also focuses on Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election to Biden.
A review committee made up of school staff ultimately concluded that four of the five titles were better suited for high school students and will now be placed in the high school section of the library.
Amanda Gorman, then 22, reads her poem The Hill We Climb at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
The parent wrote that the book is not appropriate for any school and that it is intended to “confuse and indoctrinate students.”
The parent who complained about Gorman’s poem falsely identified the work’s author as Oprah Winfrey
The ban only affects the one school where a parent of two students complained that the reading material contained “indirect hate speech” and was part of an attempt to indoctrinate children.
In response to the news that her book had been pulled from elementary school shelves, Gorman posted her a statement Instagram:
‘I’m gutted. Due to a parent’s complaint, my inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, has been banned from an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida.”
She continued that bans on books are on the rise in the US and that “all it takes to remove these works from our libraries and schools is a single objection. And let’s be clear: most banned works are by authors who have battled for generations to get on the bookshelf. Most of these censored works are from queer and non-white voices.”
She wrote that banning her poem is a way of “depriving children of the opportunity to find their voice in literature,” which in turn is “a violation of their right to freedom of thought and expression.”
She added that her publisher, Penguin Random House, has joined a Florida lawsuit challenging book restrictions such as the one at the Bob Graham Education Center.
Gorman responded to the news that her book had been removed from an elementary school library and announced that her publisher has joined a lawsuit in Florida that opposes parents’ rights to dictate whether or not something is inappropriate for their child to read. encounter school.
Elementary school students at the Bob Graham Education Center are not allowed to read Amanda Gorman’s poem
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has tried to prevent children from reading material he deems inappropriate, but denies that he has banned books.
The legislature — which launches its 2024 presidential bid on Wednesday evening — tried to target books on gender and sexuality, but there are complaints about other tomes as well.
It is not clear exactly which part of Gorman’s poem the parent disagreed with. The work contains lines that refer to an “unfinished” nation, but also to a “force” that could “destroy” democracy.
Somehow we endured and saw / A nation not broken, / But simply unfinished. / We, the successors of a country and a time / Where a skinny black girl / Descendants of slaves and raised by a single mother / Can dream of being president / Only to find her reciting for one,” reads a stanza by Gormans poem.
It continues, “We have seen a force that would destroy / rather than divide our nation. / Would destroy our country if it slowed down democracy. / And this attempt almost succeeded. / But though democracy may be periodically postponed, / it can never be defeated permanently.’
The Harvard-educated Gorman’s lecture at the inauguration was critically acclaimed and launched her career as a writer and model.