Central Bucks’ Proposed Library Book Policy: What's Next

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The Central Bucks School District Board of Directors will consider adopting policies for library books that civil rights advocates call "legally problematic" at its next meeting.

The proposed policies set content standards for classroom and library materials, establish rules for how new books are selected, and give parents a path to challenge books they feel are inappropriate.

A particular section on "sexualized content" is a sticking point for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Legal director Witold Walczak told the Bucks County Courier Times that even with some changes, the policies would not hold up in court.

Read more: Central Bucks Library Policy Would Remove Books With Sexual Content

Board President Dana Hunter said that the process of writing these policies began several months ago, when a Central Bucks parent had a concern about a library book.

"We did not have a policy in place to deal with any challenge or issue with a book," Hunter said at a special meeting last week.

“The intention was to give parents a process. That is how we ended up here.”

There is a growing movement in the U.S. to ban certain books from school library shelves. A grassroots group called Woke Pennsylvania is encouraging parents to contact their local school boards. The group says it is "working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas."

Woke PA has a Central Bucks section on their website with books they say are inappropriate because of sexual content, including scenes of rape and violence, but also topics like masturbation, drug use, child prostitution, and incest. Some of the books, they say, also deal with racism and transphobia.

These books include “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “Lucky” by Alice Sebold,”Beyond Magenta” by Susan Kuklin, and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson. A number of other districts across the country are looking to cull these books and others with similar themes from school shelves.

In March, at least seven community members stood up at a board meeting and read sexually explicit passages aloud from Morrison, Kobabe, Johnson, and Kuklin’s books. The books were available in various Central Bucks middle and high school libraries.

From March: CB Students, Teachers Speak Against Book Banning Efforts

"I'm trying to raise morally sound children," Jeanine Cubernot of Doylestown said at the meeting. "I'm trying to teach my daughter not to go out and have sex with all these different boys. My son as well. So how do you raise morally sound children when they're able to get books like this out of the library?"

So, the board presented policies guiding library book selection and a challenge process for parents. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said those proposed policies “will almost certainly result in unconstitutional censorship” if applied in the district.

A first draft of proposed library policy 109.2 says that books in any library, from elementary to high school, cannot contain "visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts, or explicit written descriptions of sexual acts."

Under the proposed policy, there are additional restrictions on books in elementary and middle school building libraries.

In addition, this proposed policy said all new material recommended for school libraries "shall have been read and reviewed by the District-level library supervisor or individual(s) designated by that supervisor.” The board agreed to change this section after Central Bucks West librarian Colleen Graney told them how many books the libraries get every year.

“It's impossible in practice for any one person to read the hundreds of books that are routinely added to school library collections,” Graney told the board at the May 19 meeting.

The board also agreed to take out a line that said, "the legal responsibility for the inclusion and review of library materials is vested in the Board."

At the May 19 meeting, the policy committee voted to send three of the proposed guidelines on to the full Board of Directors, with amendments: Policies 119, 109, and 109.2. The board will see these items at the next meeting on June 14. The district has not made copies of the amended policies available to the public yet.

Board Member Karen Smith told Patch the changes the board made "were really not enough."

"I still have concerns about the policy even though we made a couple of edits," she said. "I'm concerned about the inappropriate material section because that applies a narrow filter on our books."

Smith also said she thinks other board members are putting too much emphasis on sexual content.

"Isn't there some other inappropriate content we should be looking for?" she asked. "Violence, or drug use, or murder?"

Smith said she was concerned about the makeup of a book "challenge committee," which the policy mentions as a possible avenue for parents challenging a book.

"I would like a lot more detail about who is on the challenge committee so we can make sure it's balanced," she said.

The fourth proposed new policy is 109.1, which covers age-appropriate standards for both textbooks and resource materials. This policy says the superintendent shall not recommend textbooks or research materials with "visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts."

The policy allows for visual depictions of nudity for science and health instruction, sexual education for middle-high school students, education about how to avoid and report molestation, or content related to classic art.

Policy 109.1 limits explicit written descriptions of sexual acts at all grade levels, "except for the purposes of teaching students to avoid and report molestation." There are additional restrictions on written sexual content for elementary and middle school students.

The policy committee will discuss this one again at its June 15 meeting.

Related coverage:

• Columns Criticize Central Bucks' LGBT Policies, Proposed Library Rules
• Book Criteria Criticized In Proposed Central Bucks Library Policy
• Central Bucks Library Policy Would Remove Books With Sexual Content
• 'Chaos,' Death Threat To Lenape Middle School Principal: CBSD Official