MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- The Miami-Dade County School District voted Tuesday to press ahead with its effort to remove a children's book on life in Cuba from its school libraries.
The board voted 5-2 to appeal a federal judge's temporary order barring the district from removing the children's book, along with 23 others in the series.
The district wants to remove "Vamos a Cuba" ("A Visit to Cuba") following a parent's complaint that it failed to accurately depict the reality of life under Cuba's communist government.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida sued to keep the books on the shelf, arguing that they were generally factual, and that the board should add books to its collection, rather than removing those it disagreed with.
U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold ruled in July in favor of the ACLU, granting a preliminary injunction and writing that efforts to remove the books "goes to the heart of the First Amendment issue."
After Tuesday's vote, ACLU spokesman Brandon Hensler said the board was "deciding to continue its senseless litigation and to waste taxpayer dollars that could be used to buy new books."
Board member Frank Bolanos, who has championed removal of the books, called the vote "the right move and the courageous move."