The Escambia County school board and the authors of the children’s book “And Tango Makes Three” are both urging a federal district judge to grant summary judgment in their favor in a lawsuit challenging a new Florida law that restricts school books with “sexual content.”

The two sides in the lawsuit being litigated in the Northern District of Florida filed their motions for summary judgment – that is, calls for Judge Allen Winsor to rule on the merits of the case after the discovery phase – on Nov. 22. A trial in the lawsuit, which challenges the legality of House Bill 1557, has been scheduled for March of next year.

HB 1557 was passed in 2022 and bars classroom instruction on issues regarding gender identity and sexual orientation in grades kindergarten through three. The law also allows parties to challenge the display of certain books in school libraries. Among the books that were removed from school library shelves in Escambia County was the Tango story, authored by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. The picture book describes the raising of a penguin chick by two male penguins.