“There’s some raunchiness”: Florida crackdown on books comes for Shakespeare

School district officials in Hillsborough County, Fla., have implemented a newly designed curriculum guide for English teachers that will see students reading only selections from William Shakespeare plays, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

The change comes as a result of amended state teaching standards and new state exams endorsed and inked by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Parental Rights in Education Act. DeSantis, who has decried anything deemed to be sexual in nature, has taken his culture war crusades to schools with various book bans and curriculum revisions. Now, rather than read titles like “Romeo and Juliet” or “Macbeth” in full, students will be assigned excerpts from the works. District officials stated that students seeking to read the classics in full may do so if they obtain copies; however, teachers have been cautioned to heed the excerpt-only guidelines, as they could face parent complaints or disciplinary action for going against them.

The decision was made “in consideration of the law,” according to school district spokeswoman Tanya Arja. “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time,” said Joseph Cool, a reading teacher at Gaither High School. “I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing us,” he added. “Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.” When asked by the Tampa Bay Times if he felt students could glean the same experience from reading play excerpts as one might from the full works, Cool replied, “absolutely not.”