Why was Amanda Gorman’s poem banned in Florida?

A FLORIDA school has banned Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb, which she performed at President Biden’s inauguration, for young children.

But why has the school taken the step and what is the poem about? Here’s everything you need to know.

What was Amanda Gorman’s poem about?

The Hill We Climb was written for the President’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.

Gorman was asked to write a poem under the ceremony’s theme of “America United”, but was otherwise given creative freedom.

The poem was half finished when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6 that year.

She later told CBS News that the riot marked “the day that the poem really came to life”.

The finished piece addresses topics of unity, racial inequality and faith.

It also includes references to the Capitol riots, slavery and the musical Hamilton.

The central theme was hope for the future of America and the resilience of democracy.

Gorman has previously stated that she studied speakers including Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill for inspiration.

Why was Amanda Gorman’s poem banned?

In May 2023, Gorman announced on Instagram that the published version of the poem had been banned for elementary students by officials at a school in Miami Lakes, Florida.

She said that she was “gutted” by the decision and that her publisher, Penguin Random House, and pro-free speech organisation PEN America would be suing the Bob Graham Education Center.

The poet claimed that the book had been banned after one parent raised concerns.

Gorman posted a copy of the complaint on Twitter, which said that the poem was “not educational”, that it contained “hate messages” and that it was designed to “indoctrinate students”.

She captioned the post: “So they ban my book from young readers, fail to specify what parts of my poetry they object to, refuse to read any reviews, and offer no alternatives.

“Unnecessary book bans like these are on the rise, and we must fight back.”

For their part, school officials say the book has not been banned but has simply been moved to the middle school section of their library as it was deemed to be “better suited” to students of that age.

They added that the book remains available in the library.

It comes after Florida governor, and presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis signed a new law in 2022 that requires schools to catalog their books and create a formal complaints process to review the categorisations.

At the time, DeSantis said that the legislation “aims to preserve the rights of parents to make decisions about what materials their children are exposed to in school.”

How old was Amanda Gorman at the inaugural ceremony?

Gorman was just 22 years old when she read her poem at the inauguration.

This makes her the youngest inaugural poet in the history of the ceremony.

She published her first poetry book, entitled The One for Whom Food is Not Enough, in 2015, aged just 17.

She studied at Harvard and became the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017.