(Pembroke Pines, FL) — Black Lives Matter political views temporarily put a snag in the distribution and sale of yearbooks at one Broward high school.
The Broward County school district last week suspended the distribution of the $90 West Broward High School yearbook over a section that contained photos of students participating in BLM protests.
Administrators at West Broward High School paused sales and distribution of “The Edge” last Friday “while the concerns were carefully reviewed,” according to a statement from Broward County Public Schools.
"It’s censorship." Broward high school told to stop selling yearbook because of BLM spread. https://t.co/8Clhgbz5lt
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) June 9, 2021
Yearbook editors were told that “The pages were not objective because they didn’t include a conversation about Blue Lives Matter, a pro-police countermovement that emerged after Black Lives Matter amid growing criticism of law enforcement.” according to WPLG.
“We just didn’t feel that including anything beyond Black Lives Matter was appropriate because we thought that it took away from the purpose of the page,” David Fleischer, the yearbook teacher at West Broward High School, told WPLG.
Fleischer said school administrators had the opportunity to review the Black Lives Matter spread before publication but chose not to, “thereby tacitly approving its inclusion.”
The suspension was lifted this week, but the yearbook now contains an insert that says “Any political views expressed in the book are not sponsored by the district.”
The student editors wrote on Instagram the BLM page’s inclusion was “Part of their effort to provide students with an accurate depiction of the year.”
Yearbook sales and distribution resumed Monday after Broward County Public Schools completed its review of the controversial pages and agreed to add the discretionary insert. The school district noted that it “supports and encourages students’ freedom of expression.”