IRISH AUTHOR SALLY Rooney’s Normal People is one of 58 books which has been banned in a county in the US state of Florida.

The move follows the introduction of legislation, signed into law by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, which allows school workers to remove books which they feel are unsuitable for younger readers. 

The new law also requires individuals involved in selecting library materials to complete specified training. The law has also seen certain mathematics textbooks removed from schools that included references to Critical Race Theory and for having other issues that don’t meet their standards.

Critical race theory is an academic theory which states US social institutions ( are laced with racism embedded in laws.

A tweet posted by Candidate for Florida Attorney General Daniel Uhlfelder detailed 58 books which are now banned in Walton County, including Sally Rooney’s Normal People, a story of two Irish teenagers growing up in Sligo. 

Other books such as 50 Shades of Gray have also been banned in the county. 

BREAKING: My home county, Walton County, Florida has moved forward on banning 58 books from Walton County Public School Libraries.

Here is the list: pic.twitter.com/IDjnq0XKNP

— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) April 20, 2022

Many of the banned books also deal with LGBT+ themes.

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, an organisation which champions free speech through literature, said: “Parents and community members deserve a voice in shaping what is taught in our schools; but the embrace of book bans as a weapon to ward off narratives that are seen as threatening represents a troubling retreat from America’s historic commitment to the First Amendment rights of students, and to reacting to speech considered objectionable with more speech, rather than censorious prohibitions.

“By short-circuiting rights-protective review processes, these bans raise serious concerns in terms of constitutionality, and represent an affront to the role of our public schools as vital training grounds for democratic citizenship that instill a commitment to freedom of speech and thought.” 

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