School Board

Clay County Admits It Wrongly Listed a Holocaust Novel

Board member Carissa Bergosh says one phone call undid part of a 4-0 vote taken without discussion. An Escambia mother says that shows how flawed the process is.

The Devil’s Arithmetic will return to Escambia County school libraries. School Board member Carissa Bergosh said so in an Oct. 22 email to a constituent, two days after the board voted 4-0 to remove the Holocaust novel along with 255 other books.

• As I reported on Oct. 21, the board approved the removals without a word of discussion. Teacher Leigh Anne Eubanks had warned members that the district owns 203 copies, that the book is a recommended part of Florida’s Holocaust curriculum, and that the state list out of Clay County gave no reason for banning it.

The Answer to Who Reviewed It: Nobody in Escambia

Bergosh’s email answers a question I raised in that post. The board did not vet the novel itself. She wrote that district policy requires Escambia to follow another Florida district’s decision when it finds a book inappropriate, so staff would not duplicate a review.

• According to Bergosh, the morning after the meeting, a constituent called her cell phone and explained that the book is an account of the Holocaust, not what its title suggests. She then contacted Clay County’s director of academics.

Escambia’s Fix

Bergosh then called Denny Wilson, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. She wrote that he reviewed the book with his staff and agreed it should be “available to our middle and high school students.” She said she is working with the superintendent to get it back on shelves “as soon as possible.”

Her defense. Bergosh said she had resolved the issue before she saw the constituent’s message. She also wrote that school libraries must contain “safe” books, which she defined as free of pornographic, sexual, rape, suicide or other inappropriate content.

Parent: One Fix Exposes the Flaw

The constituent was Lauren Anzaldo, EdD, LCSW, CAP, an Escambia mother and military spouse who lives in Bergosh’s District 4. She had written Bergosh to protest the vote, asking why 256 titles were removed without public discussion. She replied to Bergosh’s answer on Oct. 23, thanking her for responding but saying the explanation “hardly improves upon the matter.”

“If you, as one board member, can overturn the entire process with a few phone calls, then is the School Board really running this process, or is it all subject to the whim of one member?”

• Access: Bergosh acted after a constituent with her cell number called, Anzaldo wrote, while members of the public who spoke at the meeting got no response.
• Error Rate: If one book was listed by mistake, how many of the other 255 were, and who will call about them?
• The Policy: The board adopted the follow-other-districts rule and can change it. She said “just following orders” is not a valid excuse.
• Cost: She called the episode wasteful, from the staff time spent buying and processing books to the time spent reviewing and replacing one. She also wrote that the district “has thrown away hundreds of books.”

Still Unanswered

• Will the full board vote to reinstate the novel, or does a staff review override a 4-0 decision?
• How many of the other titles have been removed only because another district listed them?
• Will staff re-review the whole list, and will the public be told what comes back?
• Will the board revisit the policy that produced the mass removal?

Clay County has said it made a mistake. Escambia has not publicly admitted its mistake.

Bergosh Email

From: “Bergosh, Carissa”
Date: October 22, 2026 at 9:44:59?PM CDT
To: Lauren Anzaldo
Subject: Re: [Caution – External] Your vote to ban books & block kids from learning about the Holocaust

Lauren,

I am sorry you think so poorly of me. Like you stated, I would like to think we have much in common as mothers and as military spouses who have lived around the world and endured the stress of combat deployments of our husbands. I would also like to think we are rational, compassionate educators who have a common counseling background. Maybe I am wrong. As a counselor, I understand that base human emotions can overwhelm some.

Our school district policy states that if another Florida School District finds a book inappropriate for students, our district will follow their decision. This policy ensures we are not wasting precious student instruction time pulling educators to duplicate a vetting process. Of course, that system is not perfect. Obviously, we solicit input from all stakeholders on this process.

The morning after the School Board meeting, a constituent stakeholder called my cell phone and calmly and rationally explained that the book “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” while having a provocative title, was an account of the Nazi German government committing the Holocaust. I researched the book, and contacted Clay County Director of Academics for their district’s reasons for finding the book inappropriate for students. She stated the book was rereviewed in that county and found to be appropriate for middle and high school students, but not appropriate for elementary students due to its mature subject matter. She explained the book was inadvertently placed on their removed vetted list, which she is going to correct.

With that information, I contacted our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Denny Wilson, who immediately reviewed the book with his staff and agreed with me that the book should be available to our middle and high school students. Therefore, the book will be placed back into our libraries. I am working with the Superintendent and his staff to make sure that this happens as soon as possible.

Please understand that before I received your message about this book, I had already resolved the issue. Please also know that I believe that literature is essential to education: however, we as leaders have a responsibility to ensure that our school libraries contain “safe” books. This means that books in our schools must not contain any pornographic, sexual, rape, suicide, or other inappropriate content.

Again, I do thank you for your input. I hope you understand that all my decisions are guided by the mission of educating all children safely while being fiscally responsible with taxpayer funds.

Serving as a School Board Member now compared to my service 23-years ago, I am struck by how divided our country is by politics and vitriol. While I truly believe most of us in the United States of America agree on 90 plus percent of the issues, if there is any disagreement, logic and human compassion seem to disappear. It truly breaks my heart.

Very Respectfully,

Carissa Bergosh
School Board Member, District 4
Escambia County Public Schools

Anzaldo’s Reply

From: Lauren Anzaldo
Subject: Re: Your vote to ban books & block kids from learning about the Holocaust
Date: October 23, 2026 at 11:18:24?PM CDT

Carissa,
I do appreciate that you took the time to write me back. The others I have written to didn’t have the same courtesy. However, your explanation hardly improves upon the matter.

For instance, my letter was about all of the books that were banned without public discussion, but you focused only on one book, “The Devil’s Arithmetic.” You could tell some kind of feel-good story about that one book. This story is about how you heard from a constituent with an inside track to reach you (as opposed to members of the public who spoke openly about this matter during the public School Board meeting). You then favored this one constituent’s input over others, investigated the matter, made a call, and then somehow as one board member was able to override a vote of the entire board. This situation you described actually calls into question the whole book-banning process that the board is engaged in.

If a “mistake” was made with that one book, how many other “mistakes” have been made that trample parent rights and student rights where the Escambia School Board incorrectly removed other books that did not also get a fair chance at being discovered and reclaimed. And if you, as one board member, can overturn the entire process with a few phone calls, then is the School Board really running this process, or is it all subject to the whim of one member who takes it upon herself to overturn Board decisions?

The process seems very capricious and corrupt to me if weighty matters like our school materials can be added or removed in such an error-prone fashion. A person who values eduction and cares about literature would demand a better process for our schools and our students.

Furthermore, you indicate that the School Board had to vote to remove all the books because of policy that says a book challenged anywhere in the state must ergo be banned from Escambia County. But that policy that you cited was instituted by the very leadership that is carrying it out. If leaders have the ability to pass such a policy, clearly you also have the ability to modify or strike the policy. Members of the Nazi military also claimed to be “just following orders.” It is not a valid excuse.

Meanwhile, you write that the Board wishes not to waste precious resources and must be fiscally responsible with taxpayer funds. But making this level of “mistake” and then having to hunt it down, review, and replace the book is an enormous waste of time and taxpayer funds. Additionally, the compensated time that staff spent reviewing, selecting, purchasing, processing, and maintaining school district collections is now wasted since those books are in the trash — and the district has thrown away hundreds of books that you spent my tax dollars to purchase. This is alll extremely wasteful and not fiscally responsible. The words can be said, and they sound nice, but they hold no water.

My respect for and affiliation with fellow residents is not based upon empty promises or nice-sounding words but upon the fruits of their labors — what you actually do, not just what you claim to believe in.

You write that our community is divided. Yes, we are. We’re divided between people who willingly ban books and people who believe in the importance of literature and education that is representative and historically accurate. That means that education does not only cover “safe,” easy topics like the weather and one’s favorite flavor of ice cream. Grappling with hard topics — math. science, literature, art, and history — is how students learn and become functioning members of a complex, diverse democratic society. This has nothing to do with pornography. The allegations against most of the books removed this week is not that they were pornographic, only that someone didn’t like them.

I am only thankful that my own two bright, curious, and gifted children graduated from this public school system at a time mostly when books were still respected and championed, when Sunshine State Readers books were encouraged and my kids gleefully read them all and competed in events like Battle of the Books and were recognized and congratulated in front of our very School Board for their achievements in literacy. Those days are long gone, and, to quote you, “it truly breaks my heart.”

Lauren Anzaldo, EdD, LCSW, CAP