The book "Forever" by Judy Blume will only be accessible to Broward County high school students after a board member raised concerns over the work's sexual themes.
A Broward County Public Schools board meeting got heated Tuesday night as board member Brenda Fam objected to Blume's "Forever" and "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk — both of which vividly detail sexual encounters. "Choke" even describes a rape from the point of view of the rapist.
“A boy raping a girl and the description in here is absolutely outrageous," Fam said. "You cannot have age-inappropriate books on the school premises. You cannot have obscene books on the school premises. You cannot have pornographic books on school premises."
But the district said in a statement to NBC6 that "Choke" was never on the shelves at Cypress Bay High School, where Fam claimed the book was available.
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“The book 'Choke' was not part of the collection at Cypress Bay High School," the statement read. "It was listed in the system, but the book was not available in either print or digital. The record has since been removed."
The district also said "Forever" was challenged through its book challenge process.
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"The Superintendent's Review Committee recommended that it be limited to high school access only," the district said.
While the school district described the approval and removal process, it did not comment further on the contents of these books.
The Broward school district received 12 challenges in the 2022-23 school year, up from one the previous year. The challenges resulted in three books being banned for all students and nine books being restricted to specific grade levels.
Roughly 300 books were removed from Florida's public school libraries last year.
