Parents are challenging books found in Fox C-6 School District libraries at a rate not seen in years.
District officials said they received 14 forms requesting that library materials be reconsidered this school year, challenging a total of 12 books.
The officials said the district typically does not have any library books challenged in a given school year.
The books that were challenged this school year include “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky; “The Babysitters Club: Boy Crazy Stacey” by Ann M. Martin; “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie; “Fences,” a play written by August Wilson; “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi; “The Testaments” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood; “Living Dead Girl” by Elizabeth Scott; “19 Minutes” by Jodi Picoult; “The Haters” by Jesse Andrews; “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson; and “Something Happened in Our Town” by Marianne Celano and Donald Moses.
District officials said some of the book challenges were for materials available at more than one school library, leading to more than one challenge for the same title.
The officials said no books had been removed as a result of the challenges, but some of the material was still being reviewed as of Monday, April 11.
Fox Superintendent Paul Fregeau said school districts all over the state of Missouri have been seeing more books challenged.
“These book challenges have been traveling through districts,” he said. “It is part of the climate we are currently in.”
On April 4, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom announced it tracked 729 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual challenges or removals. Most targeted books were by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons, the organization said on its website, ala.org.
“The 729 challenges tracked by ALA represent the highest number of attempted book bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago,” ALA president Patricia “Patty” Wong said. “We support individual parents’ choices concerning their child’s reading and believe that parents should not have those choices dictated by others. Young people need to have access to a variety of books from which they can learn about different perspectives.
“So, despite this organized effort to ban books, libraries remain ready to do what we always have: make knowledge and ideas available so people are free to choose what to read.”
Fregeau said he does not know why parents across the country, including those in the Fox district, are challenging books.
“I know there is a big push for parental involvement in public education, and maybe it is from that,” he said. “I don’t have an answer why there is a list of books (being challenged) and why now.”
During the March 15 Fox Board of Education meeting, Jennifer McKenzie, a speech teacher at Seckman Middle School, spoke about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion and how those three words are important when reviewing books found in the district’s libraries.
“It is important to allow access to material that is relatable to all students,” she said. “Banning books is not the answer.”
Also at the March 15 meeting, Fox district resident Dan McCarthy complained about the book called “Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany D. Jackson, which focuses on a girl’s disappearance and her best friend’s struggle to find out what happened to her. The book is recommended for those 13 through 17 by amazon.com.
Later in the meeting, the board agreed to purchase the book for the Seckman High School library. The book was one of 147 the district already was scheduled to purchase at that meeting.
“The book is full of sexual content and vulgar language. I thought about asking you to think about your children or grandchildren as I read off parts of this book, but I decided against it,” he said. “It makes me no better than people bringing this filth into our schools.”
During the meeting, Fregeau described how books are selected for libraries and what materials are available to students.
“We are looking at our policies and procedures,” he said. “We are working on a policy where if a patron, parent or community member raises a concern about a book we will retain it with a restriction that it can only be released with parent permission.”
Fregeau said he and Tammy Cardona, assistant superintendent for secondary education, met with a group of the district’s librarians to discuss how the district can use its library software to flag books that may have mature content and require either parent permission or an age limit for the book to be checked out by a student.
“We are trying to figure out if there is a way we can mark the books as needing parent permission or to have a mature rating,” he said. “Right now, it doesn’t appear we can, but they are testing some things.”
Fregeau said most of the books that have been challenged are available in libraries and not assigned to students to read as part of the curriculum.
However, he said some of the books could be part of a students’ course work if the student is assigned a topic to study and decides to check out one of the books.
“You could have six sets of five or six books,” Fregeau said.
“You could be doing an (English Language Arts) unit with suggested readings tied to a topic, and there could be five books of this title, five books of (another) title, etc., for kids to utilize as it relates to a specific topic.”
Challenging material
When a book is challenged, the principal of the school where the book is available forms a review committee consisting of the principal, librarian, teacher, the patron of the district and, if necessary, a district administrator, according to district policy KLB-AP(1).
The committee reviews the book and submits a report to the principal with a recommendation to either keep the book without restrictions, keep the book with restrictions or remove it. If the person who challenged the material is not satisfied with the committee’s decision, the complainant may appeal the decision in writing to the superintendent.
The superintendent then informs the Board of Education about the appeal and presents the review committee’s recommendation, and board members make the final decision about the book.
Fregeau said district staff is reviewing the policy to make language clearer about what actions can be taken after a book is challenged.
“I think people wonder about the three categories – retain, retain with restrictions or remove,” he said. “If we could clarify the options under that, it would probably help. Retain with restrictions is such a generic statement. If people could understand the variety of things we could do, that would help.”
Fregeau said he does not know when Fox will adjust how books are checked out of libraries and how the challenge process will change.
“We want to do it right, not quick,” Fregeau said. “There are people who don’t want any limitations on any titles. There are people who want a lot of limitations on a variety of titles and everything in between. We are considering all viewpoints on this and doing our best to vet this issue with all viewpoints considered.”