Council Rock School Board Member: "We Are Not Banning Books"

NEWTOWN, PA — Council Rock School Board member Mike Thorwart made it clear on Thursday night: The Council Rock School Board is not banning books.

Under new business, Thorwart said while at the polls on Tuesday he was repeatedly asked why he was banning books. He was then stopped at two additional polling locations where he was asked the same question.

"As policy director, I looked at these people and said, 'We aren't banning books. We don't do that. People who ban books usually aren't the good guys,'" he said. "I was a little taken aback by it."

The question came up again during public comment on Thursday night, posed by Rachel Christian of Northampton Township just a few minutes before Thorwart spoke.

A few minutes later Thorwart asked the board, "Do we want to have a policy meeting about banning books? Does somebody want to ban books? If so, speak up. I'm not going to support you, but I'll open a policy discussion.

"The fact that it was universal at every poll I was at and heard from people afterward, I'm a little concerned," he continued. "We don't do that. We didn't do that when we were working on policy 109 either. But we had hundreds of people showing up saying that we were. If we need a policy meeting on that I'm happy to entertain it, but you're not going to get my support for it. But I thought I'd throw it out to the board."

After hearing no response from his colleagues, Thorwart responded to Christian's public comment. "Ma'am, we're not banning books."

Policy 109 was the last time residents accused the board of attempting to ban books in the district. That policy is a "nothing policy," he said, encouraging anyone in the district to read it for themselves and make up their own minds.

"Policy 109 doesn't talk about banning books. We tweaked it to have a responsible party who's responsible for resource materials. Before it was every school principal. We made it the superintendent," he said.