DeSantis defends Florida against book ban claims over Anne Frank diary

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back against claims on Monday that the state banned Anne Frank’s famous World War II-era diary, noting it’s actually on the state’s recommended reading list.

DeSantis responded to a Democratic California state lawmaker who claimed that “The Diary of Anne Frank” was banned in the state.

“This is not the first time a leftist has accused Florida of ‘banning’ a book that is on the state’s recommended reading list,” DeSantis wrote on X. “Another lie debunked.”

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DeSantis was responding to California Democratic state senator, Scott Wiener, who posted an article published by The Guardian that stated that the Sunshine State “had the highest rate of book bans nationwide” in 2025. The outlet claimed the “Diary of Anne Frank” was pulled from school’s library shelves. 

“Florida banning the Diary of Anne Frank tells you everything you need to know about the MAGA movement,” Wiener posted on X, while sharing the article. 

The post was flagged by community notes on X, which noted that the book is “part of the 8th-grade curriculum of the Florida Department of Education.”

Wiener’s office countered that he was referring to when a graphic version of the book was pulled from shelves in Florida.

“Senator Wiener’s tweet refers to the well-documented incident of the Hillsborough School District removing the Diary of Anne Frank, along with over 600 other titles, from library shelves in response to an aggressive crackdown from the state Department of Education. At least 9 school districts in Florida have removed books like the Diary of Anne Frank from bookshelves because the state is empowering far-right activists like Moms For Liberty to go after any schools that don’t go along with their extremist MAGA agenda,” Wiener’s office told Fox News Digital.

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Hillsborough County School District was reportedly threatened with legal action by the Florida State Board of Education in May if Hillsborough officials did not remove “pornographic” titles from their library, resulting in more than 600 books being pulled.

Among the books that were taken off the school shelves were”The Diary of Anne Frank” and “What Girls Are Made of” by Elana K Arnold.

“None of them were under formal review by the district, and they hadn’t been flagged by local parents as potentially inappropriate. Parents with children in the school system even had the opportunity to opt their children out of a particular reading, without removing them from the class for everyone,” the Guardian reported.

DeSantis’ “Parental Rights in Education Act,” which is dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibited school employees or third parties from giving classroom instruction on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” to K-12 students.

DeSantis’ office and Hillsborough County School District officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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