Inaugural Poem by Amanda Gorman Banned After Single Complaint

A K-8 school in Florida has banned Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” for its elementary students. In March, the Miami Lakes school received a complaint from a parent of children at the school, Daily Salinas, about the poem as well as four other books.

In the complaint, which Gorman tweeted below, Salinas claims the poem means to “indoctrinate students” and “is not educational.” She also incorrectly lists Oprah Winfrey as the poem’s author, doesn’t specify the parts of the poem that are the source of her complaints, and doesn’t list any alternatives. Additionally, the other materials she challenged — The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids, Love to Langston, and Countries in the News Cuba — all had to do with Black or Latine culture.