Roughly 300 books were removed from school libraries in Florida last year and a South Florida teen started a club to read and discuss those books.
Iris Mogul is a high school junior in a dual enrollment program at Florida International University. She created the "Banned Books Club" after Florida's Education Department removed roughly 300 books from shelves across the state's school districts last year.
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She said she wanted to create a safe space for people of all ages to discuss the books.
"This was a perfect way to create a community and a way to resist censorship,” Mogul said. "I believe in teaching anything with context."
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Nearly two dozen people joined Mogul Thursday night at Books & Books in Coral Gables to join her in a discussion.
"If kids don’t have access to these books, then they don’t learn about important things such as LGBT issues, racism,” Caroline Bellot said. "It’s important to bring awareness to these books because they're important for kids to read to learn about these things.”
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Broward was the only South Florida school district that removed books from its shelves after a parent or resident made an objection. No books were removed in Miami-Dade County.
"I can connect like the importance of history and young people to pay attention to what’s happened in the past so that it does, or doesn’t happen in the future,” Mogul said.
Oct. 1 is the start of Banned Books Week. The Freedom Coalition has organized a walk starting at noon on Oct. 1 from Coral Gables Congregational Church (3010 De Soto Boulevard, Coral Gables 33134) to Books & Books (265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables 33134).
