'This is really graphic': Indian River County School Board removes dozens of books, at the public's request

VERO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Packed with people and tension, the Indian River County School Board listened and responded to dozens of comments at Monday's meeting.

"'Living Dead Girl' by Elizabeth Scott. Currently in the Sebastian River High School. You know you're supposed to listen when I talk to you? He shoved me to the floor and pulled off my pants," one person said during a public comment.

"We are adults and if there are children out there. I understand that. I understand that. But we don't want to be reading that aloud," Indian River County School Board Chairwoman Dr. Peggy Jones said.

A parental rights organization known as Moms For Liberty gathered parents, guardians, and advocates, hoping to make a statement about the books children could be exposed to in the classroom.

"We were looking at the books in the schools and doing keyword searches like rape, incest, pedophilia, bestiality, and then we were able to find, you know, books in our schools with those," Jennifer Pippin, head of theMoms For Liberty Indian River County chapter, said.

One by one, excerpts seen as obscene were read aloud to the board.

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Under Florida law, an interruption made by the chairperson during a reading calls for the book to be immediately taken off the shelves. And that's what happened every time.

"Even with the first letter, this is really graphic. And we have a rule here. Nothing obscene. We haven't heard the actual words but I think we've heard enough," Indian River County School Board member Jacqueline Rosario said.

Board members unanimously agreed to remove all books read during the meeting, overriding the procedure it has in place.

But some members told CBS12 News it could have been handled more smoothly if they hadn't been caught off guard.

"You could just pick up the phone and call the superintendent and say, 'Hey, here's an excerpt from this book. And let's get it taken care of that way because things have changed,'" Teri Barenborg, Vice Chair of theIndian River County School Board, said.

It's unclear how many books were removed, but we're told it was at least a couple dozen.