Over Mike Andoscia’s eight years as a social studies teacher at North Fort Myers High School, he’d grown his classroom library to more than 600 books.
The next day, so was he.
Andoscia resigned after the school boxed up his library, placed the books in “administrative lockup” and told him to take them home, Andoscia said in an interview.
“[Principal Debbie Diggs] asked me why I just didn’t keep the books covered, and I said it’s absurd and it’s fascism and I’m just not going to participate in that,” he said.
Andoscia’s resignation is the latest flare-up over HB 1069 – a state law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, that requires school districts to restrict books that are deemed age-inappropriate or describe “sexual conduct.”
Proponents of the bill say the law is intended to protect parental rights, not broadly ban books. But in practice, districts across the state have pre-emptively removed thousands of books to avoid potential criminal liability.
The Lee County School District declined to comment for this story.