Who pulled the 97 books from Beaufort Co. schools, and who will decide whether they stay?
The 97 books that were taken out of Beaufort County schools for potentially inappropriate content will be split up between about 15 review committees to determine whether they belong on library shelves.
The School Board provided this and other updates to their policies on book selection, reconsideration and review procedure at a meeting Tuesday night.
The books were removed from middle and high school libraries after several parents during previous board meetings read sex scenes aloud from them. Before the updates in Tuesday’s meeting over 20 community members objected to the books being removed during public comment.
It was Superintendent Frank Rodriguez’s decision to pull the books from the library, according to Board Member Ingrid Boatright.
“He consulted board members about it, I know for sure. He and I spoke about it. I mentioned that at the board meeting, I agreed with his decision to just pull the 97,” Boatright said. “At the time, we knew we were going to be reviewing all these books and wanted to get these books through the process as quickly as possible.”
District spokesperson Candace Bruder said it was a collaborative decision after considering input from the board, administration and staff.
Apparently not all board members were consulted.
“I was never aware that the board as a whole agreed to that,” Board Member William Smith said. “There was no committee that that topic was discussed in and no vote from the board that I’m aware of.”
REFLECTION FROM THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
The board members also reflected on the past week in the meeting.
“It’s stressful to be called a purveyor of pornography and it’s also stressful to be called a Nazi book burner,” Boatright said at the meeting. “We wanted to get those books pulled not to take them off the shelves personally, but pulled to enter the review process as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Board member Earl Campbell shared concerns about what types of titles would be taken off.
“My concern is that I don’t want a small group of folks in this county doing something that has been done in other states,” he said. “Take books off the shelf just because you don’t like it in Florida and other states. Most of the books that get banned are written by African Americans.”
According to PEN America 40 percent of banned books from July 2021 to June 2022 contain protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color.
Board member Richard Geier spoke out against restricting books for the entire community, and pointed toward parents’ ability to request that their children not have access to certain books.
“Any books, we don’t do that here, we don’t burn books, we don’t ban books,” he said. “And fathers may even be talking about it, because it’s un-American.”
RECONSIDERATION AND REVIEW OF THE 97 TITLES
Bruder said the titles will be split up randomly between the 15 review committees.
Decisions will be based on a majority vote.
“We haven’t put it that it’s 100% consensus, we haven’t,” Chief Instructional Services Officer Mary Stratos said. “If that would be the case on 100% consensus of agreement. I don’t know if we would ever, ever cross the line.”
Bruder didn’t say when the process will start or how long books will be off of shelves until a decision is made.
The superintendent will appoint the committees, which will each consist of:
Teacher with expertise in the content area and grade level
School librarian
School administrator
Parent representing a school family other than the complainant
District-level director or coordinator with expertise in the content area
Member of a School Improvement Council within the district/school
At least one community member
The only change from previous policy is the addition of a community member. For community members to nominate themselves they can submit an online form. The list of members will be made public.
Any community member including those who made public comments can be on the committee. The board doesn’t need to approve the superintendent’s committee nominations.
Even if community members aren’t on the committees the meetings will be public.
During the meetings, members will “read/examine the referenced materials in full, and meet as a group to share and discuss their findings,” according to the policy.
“It is important for us to recognize when reviewing materials every book has to be reviewed as its complete texts, not just segments,” Stratos said at the meeting, referencing that parents at previous school board meetings read sections of books aloud. “You’ve heard over and over that it is important to read the full book that has to be the book in context.”
The committees will use a form to guide their evaluation of the titles. The form breaks the evaluation into four sections: Educational Significance; Quality, Content, Matter of Presentation; Avoidance of Pervasive Vulgarity; and Appropriateness.
For each of the sections there are questions to consider and prompts to provide evidence. Each committee will submit one form per title, and the completed forms will be available to the public.
“Priorities will be placed for teachers who’ve already given me notification ‘I need these books reviewed so that we can follow what the committee outcome is,” Stratos said.
Books under review are also prevented from being taught in classrooms.
The committee can recommend three options for the titles: They can be returned to the schools; returned only for certain age groups, or removed entirely.
If the committee recommends the title be removed, the district must “ensure no other copies exist in school library circulation,” or the school levels recommended for removal.
If the committee recommends the titles are acceptable the district “must immediately place such materials back into circulation,” and titles are unable to be challenged again within five years.
In the meeting Tuesday, the following amendment was added to reconsideration procedure: “Under exigent circumstances, BCSD district administrators reserve the right to institute an Administrative Review Committee to conduct a review.”
Previously the reconsideration form was attached to the district policy manual, but in the coming weeks there will be an online submission added to the district website.
In a scenario where there is only one title being challenged, the review process should take 15 days, according to the policy manual.
INDIVIDUAL OPT OUT POLICY
The board reiterated the right for parents to prevent their own children from reading any materials by submitting a “Request to Opt-Out of School Library Materials Form.”
Once this form has been completed, if a student tries to check out a book their parents requested them not to be able to read then they will be flagged in the library system and unable to do so. This software is already used and exists in Beaufort County school libraries, according to Bruder.
The removal of 97 titles called into question by many community members how books were originally selected.
During the meeting, the district reviewed the material selection process and the amendments they made.
This process is separate from South Carolina’s annual textbook and material review process, where parents can look over material and submit comments.
School librarians at each school are responsible for “identifying, selecting, classifying, and organizing school library materials,” according to district policy.
They must adhere to the South Carolina Department of Education Standards for Library Resource Collections.
The district added that librarians must now “consult reputable, unbiased, and professionally prepared selection aides (such as School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, The Horn Book, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children Books).” There was no mention of this in the June 2022 policy manual.
Then, the school librarian’s list is reviewed by a “school-level library acquisitions committee” composed of school staff. The approved final list is to be submitted to the principal for consideration and approval. There was no mention of this in the June 2022 policy manual.
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 5:20 PM.
