School Board Yanks Three More Books
By Jeremy Morrison
Before getting down to tossing three more titles out of the Escambia County School District, school board members suggested that Superintendent Tim Smith should be busy unilaterally pulling books off the shelves.
Holding up a copy of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson, a title under review during the Feb. 20 special meeting, District 1 school board representative Kevin Adams said Escambia should follow the lead of other districts in the state where the superintendent has taken a more active role.
“I see a lot of other school districts where the superintendents are going — because everybody knows, this book is no stranger to the state of Florida on whether it’s allowed in libraries or not — and the superintendents are doing a lot of this work so that these citizens don’t have to come out here on every book challenge,” Adams said.
Following the passage of state law last year that allows any citizen to challenge any media material in public school systems, Escambia has compiled a list of more than 150 titles — most flagged by Northview High School English teacher Vickie Baggett — that the district must review and determine if they meet new state requirements. As of Monday night, four titles have been reviewed and, ultimately, tossed; notably, each survived a committee assessment process, with Baggett appealing each to the board and members then voting to drop the titles from availability.
“Why don’t we get ahead of this thing and remove everything that we know — because I don’t wanna read another one of these, ok?” Adams huffed, suggesting that the district scuttle its existing process.
Escambia Superintendent Tim Smith countered that he didn’t think he had such authority. “I was under the impression that if I were to make that decision, I would be violating — I wouldn’t be in compliance with the law.”
Ellen Odom, the school district’s general counsel, said that while there was no official way in which districts were supposed to be assessing media material to ensure it complies with the new state law — a process that must be completed by July — she would “be incredibly wary of making unilateral decisions about what books are appropriate.”
“I believe it is the responsibility of the board to make that final decision if the books are already in our library,” Odom said, adding that superintendents, or more commonly media specialists, remove books but that the titles currently being challenged were unique in a broader political and cultural context. “We remove books all the time; I just think we have to be very wary about the reasons we are removing them because I do believe the board opens itself to — and you, as the superintendent — opens itself to legal challenges on the basis that you are removing something based on political expediency, issues of religion that may not be widely shared by other members of the community. I would be very wary about going down that road.”
School board chairman and District 2 representative Paul Fesko added that he had reached out to some other school districts and found few were following a model like Escambia has developed, which entails a challenge, a review, and potentially a final decision by the school board.
“Only one has gone and developed a plan such as ours,” Fesko told Smith. “In the other 16 or 17, I can’t be exact on it, the books that were noted statewide were removed by the superintendents in those districts.”
Pointing to the July deadline to certify that the school district’s media material meets new state law, Adams said it would be more efficient to inverse Escambia’s current process — requiring people to petition to have unilaterally removed titles reinstated.
“Somebody who believes that book should stay can come in and appeal, ok? But we wouldn’t have to go through all these books that we know have obscene and pornographic material — in my opinion,” Adams said.
The titles under review during the school board’s President’s Day special meeting all included themes related to LGBTQ issues and race. While those in favor of removing the books charged that the titles were obscene and amounted to “indoctrination,” critics have alleged the removals were politically motivated and would ultimately harm already marginalized youth.
In addition to “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” the school board also tossed out “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson, and “When Aidan Became a Brother,” by Kyle Lukoff. These titles join “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, the first book pulled from availability by the district last fall.