Shakespeare and penguin book get caught in Florida's school curriculum guides

A copy of the book 'And Tango Makes Three' is photographed on a bookstore shelf in Chicago. Photo: AP

Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state's "Don't Say Gay" laws.

The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools' curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement recently.