Florida mom behind Amanda Gorman’s book ban linked to Proud Boys: report

The Florida parent behind the ban of Amanda Gorman’s poetry book ban has ties to the Proud Boys and the ultraconservative Moms For Liberty, The Daily Beast reports.

The Bob Graham Education Center restricted access to “The Hill We Climb,” a book adaptation of the poem Gorman recited at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, after Daily Salinas complained that it was inappropriate for children. Salinas inaccurately stated the author was Oprah Winfrey (the book includes a forword by Winfrey).

The Miami Lakes (Miami-Dade County) school also pulled two other books (“The ABCs of Black History” and “Love to Langston”) from its elementary school shelves after Salinas complained about them, as well.

Salinas, who has two children at the school, is the only parent who complained about the books, according to the report. Salinas cited critical race theory, gender ideology, and indoctrination as the reasons she believed the books to be inappropriate.

“Is not educational and have indirectly hate messages,” she wrote in her complaint about “The Hill We Climb.”

Salinas in July 2022 was removed from a Miami-Dade school board meeting the Moms For Liberty disrupted in a protest over two sex education textbooks the board had approved. The board subsequently caved, voting 5-4 to remove the books after parents petitioned for their removal, the report said. The decision left the district without sex education instructional material.

Salinas is described as a staunch supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, working as a volunteer on his August 2022 “Education Agenda Tour.”

Her social media accounts reviewed by The Beast suggest she supports extremists, according to the report, which notes that earlier this year she shared a Facebook post called the “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” that featured anti-Semitic tropes.

Read the full article here.