ACLU and Spotsylvania Co. schools face off over removed library books
The political dust storm over 14 books removed from high school libraries in Spotsylvania County continues as the American Civil Liberties Union labels the action unlawful and unconstitutional. The group is now petitioning the Virginia state board to intercede.
In March, 14 books were removed from high school libraries after a parent complained they were sexually explicit. Among those books were “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Sold” by Patricia McCormick, and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison.
More books have been reportedly added to the list since the initial order.
Though a book committee of over 70 parents and educators within Spotsylvania County Public Schools system reviewed the books and deemed them appropriate for high school age students, Superintendent Mark Taylor made the decision to remove them anyway.
In recent years, a large wave of conservative activists around the U.S. have made efforts to remove books from public school systems that include materials they consider offensive, inappropriate for students, or contrary to a more conservative point of view.
In Spotsylvania County, the removed books, mostly award-winning and internationally recognized, share stories delving into issues of race, the legacy of slavery in the U.S., sexual abuse and gender identity.
In justifying his decision to ignore the committee’s decision and ban the books unilaterally, Taylor cited a recent Virginia law requiring schools to notify parents whenever instructional materials contain explicit content. He claimed that having to notify parents about every book with sexual content in the library would overwhelm both the library and the school staff, so it would be more appropriate to remove them entirely.
The ACLU, in an April 21 letter to the county school board, said Taylor’s removal is not just unconstitutional — he’s not even interpreting state law correctly.
“Superintendent Taylor has manufactured a crisis by reading the term ‘instructional material’ to include all books even passively available to students in the library rather than, as its plain meaning would suggest, material presented to students during their instruction in class,” the letter read.
“Contrary to the representations made in the Memo, the removal of these 14 books and adoption of the proposed policy is neither required by nor consistent with the stated intent of Virginia Code section 22.1-16.8.,” it continued.
In that March 29 memo by Taylor, he said he made the unilateral decision after meeting with the parent who had complained about the 14 books.
“I find that none of the 14 books listed above truly needs to be included in any SCPS school library … having met with the complainant, it is my decision and direction on our further course of action as a division that all 14 of the books listed above are to be excluded from our SCPS school libraries.”
The ACLU said, “the actual reason for these books’ removal is more likely to be found in Superintendent Taylor’s concession that he does not personally believe that the books in question
“truly need to be in the library.”
In regards to allowing the viewpoint of a single parent or interest group to determine whether a book should be banned from the school library, the ACLU said:
“By outsourcing the decisions about which books to remove from the library to the general public, SCPS has guaranteed unpopular books are more likely to be removed than other books. Where a school institutes a system that privileges majority views over minority views, the school violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on viewpoint discrimination.”
In response to the ACLU’s letter, Taylor said, “I am a big proponent of civil liberties. I am particularly concerned about the civil liberties of parents and their right to choose whether or not their children are exposed to sexually explicit materials in contravention of Virginia law.”
Here is the current list of the books removed from Spotsylvania County high schools:
- All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George Johnson
- Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
- Dime by E.R. Frank
- Sold by Patricia McCormick
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- America by E.R. Frank
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
- Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton
- More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult