Florida school banned poet Amanda Gorman’s poem. – Mostly False

1. What actually happened at the Bob Graham K–8 media center

In late March a parent at the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes filed a complaint about five titles, including Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb, prompting a school review that concluded the book was better suited for older students and was moved to the middle‑school section of that school’s library; elementary students can still access it if they meet reading‑level requirements or request it through a media specialist ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

2. How the story ballooned into “banned” headlines

National outlets and social posts ran with language like “banned” or “barred for younger children,” and Amanda Gorman herself tweeted she was “gutted,” framing the move as a book ban; that framing spread widely and led to public outrage even though the Miami‑Dade school district clarified the book was not removed from schools and remained in the media center’s collection ^{[6] [7] [3]}.

3. The district’s clarification and the practical effect on access

Miami‑Dade County Public Schools publicly stated the book was “never banned or removed from one of our schools,” and explained the relocation was to an age‑appropriate section; critics, including the poet and free‑speech advocates, counter that reshelving diminishes accessibility for elementary readers and therefore functions as a form of restriction in practice ^{[8] [2] [9]}.

4. Why definitions matter — “ban” versus “restriction”

Fact‑checkers and commentators highlighted the semantic split: some outlets and local reports used “ban” for dramatic effect while multiple fact‑checks concluded the action was a restriction limited to a single school’s shelving decision rather than a districtwide removal; free‑expression groups and Gorman argue any action that “diminishes” access qualifies as a ban, while some critics call that label misleading when the item remains in the collection ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

5. The political and legal background that shaped reactions

The episode unfolded amid a wave of book challenges nationwide and Florida laws that empower parents to challenge materials, so the incident became a proxy in debates about censorship, parental rights, and Gov. DeSantis’s education agenda; fact‑checkers noted DeSantis did not directly trigger this complaint, but his policies contributed to the broader environment allowing such challenges ^{[10] [11]}.

6. Verdict: Mostly False — the nuance the headlines missed

Accurate reporting shows the poem was not banned or erased from school holdings across Miami‑Dade; it was reshelved within one K–8 school to a middle‑school section after a parent complaint, which restricted casual access for younger students but did not remove the work entirely — hence the claim “banned” is misleading and earns a Mostly False rating because it omits crucial context about scope and procedure ^{[1] [9] [2]}.