Parents ask school board to pull books from libraries
Others speak in defense of the books despite claims of explicit sexual content
The national argument over what books are appropriate (or not) to be in public school libraries has come to the Methacton School District and in the end, it all boils down to sex and sexual content.
The matter came to a head at the two most recent school board meetings when parents voiced their concerns and, the following week, parents and students showed up to support keeping those books in the libraries.
Public discussion began at the Jan. 17 school board work session when a half-dozen parents spoke out against the district giving access to books they believe are objectionable and things got a little heated.
One speaker, Vince Josaphs of Worcester, became so agitated, security had to escort him out of the meeting as he shouted “You have daughters! I will make sure you go to jail for giving smut to children. They will pass you around like (unintelligible). You’re all pedophiles!”
Prior to that outburst, Lower Providence resident Amy Cirillo kicked off the discussion when she told the board “for the record, I don’t want to ban books.” She said last year she objected to the presence of “One Nation Under Sex” by Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine, and it was removed. “Can any of you tell me how pornography has any educational value? I’d love to know because I think it’s unacceptable and downright sick.”
“Why is there pornography and sex in the library books?” asked Lower Providence resident Amy Hamilton. “I don’t understand why anyone thinks they’re helping someone. To me its hurting someone. It’s hurting kids. I don’t even want to say what’s
in the books, I can't even get myself to say it. There's bestiality, there's anal sex, there's oral sex. Any form of sex, whether heterosexual sex or homosexual sex does not belong in a library book,” Hamilton said.
Peter Schlenker, also of Lower Providence, said “I have not read the book myself, I don't intend to read the book, but I have had portions distributed to me of this book.” He did not name the book.
Schlenker further suggested allowing minors access to books with sexually explicit content could subject the school district and staff to criminal charges, a suggestion which the district's solicitor rebutted at the Jan. 24 when he pointed out Pennsylvania law specifically exempts school districts from the law Schlenker cited.
At the Jan. 24 meeting, Methacton Schools Superintendent David Zerbe announced that since the Jan. 17 meeting, 10 parents followed the district's policy and submitted formal “requests for reconsideration” of eight books, each of which has some kind of sexual content to which the parents object and which they believe is inappropriate for students under 18 to read.
According to the list read by Zerbe, parents have submitted requests for the district to reconsider the following books: “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins; “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini; “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison; “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews; “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson; “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky; “All Boys Aren't Blue” by George M. Johnson; and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez.
According to Methacton's policy, those books will now be reviewed by a committee comprised of a teacher, a librarian and a building administrator to make a recommendation on whether to keep or remove the book. Any parent unhappy with the committee's recommendation can appeal that decision to the superintendent, Zerbe said.
“With that many books I should warn everyone I imagine this will take some time,” said Zerbe.
The discussion continued at the Jan. 24 meeting where Jim Molloch told the board says his litmus test is to, “have each board member to read the (contested) passages at a public meeting.”
But at this meeting, defenders of difficult books also took to the speakers' microphone. Julia Nutley read part of an essay from her daughter which argued that “banning books does not protect children” but limits their worldview. “Books on difficult topics ‘can show people they are not alone,'” her daughter wrote.
“In the long run, people will encounter such things in real life” and books on those subjects prepare them and learn about something “in a safe environment,” Nutley read.
“When children are excessively sheltered, they are not able to feel safe in the real world because they have not been exposed to it in an age-appropriate manner,” said Methacton High School student Abby Drummond. “I've never felt traumatized or over-exposed by these books.”
Erica Svinsky, a parent of two Methacton students, told the board “when students have access to a vast array of books, they can learn about a vast array of things. Saving one child the pain of feeling alone, or unseen, is worth the discomfort of some adults who don't want to learn about it.”
Abby Pfeffier, a Methacton sophomore, told the board she was bullied growing up. “I felt alone and felt like no one around me was going through the same thing.” Reading “Blended” by Sharon Draper “taught me to learn and understand from other perspectives.”
Parent Cara Coless, who is also a Lower Providence Township Supervisor, responded to previous comments from the Jan. 17 meeting about not exposing kids to sexual content before 18 by recounting potential instances in which kids actually experience those things long before they reach age 18. She said she issued a questionnaire on the subject and 14 women responded to her questions, and several had “four (inappropriate or unwelcome sexual encounters) happen before age of 18.”
“It's happening now in this district. We cannot shield them from that. Parents have always had the opportunity to limit what their children have access to” but not other people's children, Coless said.
“The same eight books being questioned here also made it onto the (Perkiomen Valley) agenda. So this is not organic,” Coless said. “These are coming from national groups. You can watch them happen in waves across the country.”
That's true, said Diana Skorina, who is Librarian of the College for Ursinus College and who last semester taught a course for education students named “Don't Teach This: Censorship & the Curriculum.”
“I've seen those books on many lists that people get their hands on and get challenged,” Skorina told MediaNews Group Friday.
Five of the books being challenged in Methacton are on The Reader's Digest list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2021 and all eight are on a list of books being challenged in school districts across the country by “Moms for Liberty,” a well-funded nonprofit Florida-based advocacy group whose membership has blossomed in the past three years since it was formed.
There is a chapter in Montgomery County whose members were active in the 2021 masks in schools debate in North Penn School District. Moms for Liberty has a chapter in Berks, Chester, and Delaware counties and throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
Texas leads the nation in removing books from school shelves, followed by Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is exploring a run for president, has made the issue of school books and curriculum a major issue, according to CBS News. Pennsylvania and Tennessee are tied for third in banning the most school books.
In Pennsylvania between 250 and 500 books have been challenged in the 2021-2022 school year, according to data collected by PEN America, a nonprofit group formed in 1922 in New York City that advocates for literary freedom. Some of its founding members include Willa Cather, Eugene O'Neill, and Robert Frost.
“Since PEN America published our initial Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students' First Amendment Rights (April 2022) report, tracking 1,586 book bans during the nine-month period from July 2021 to March 2022, details about 671 additional banned books during that period have come to light. A further 275 more banned books followed from April through June, bringing the total for the 2021-22 school year to 2,532 bans. This book-banning effort is continuing as the 2022— 23 school year begins too, with at least 139 additional bans taking effect since July 2022,” the organization reported.
These book lists, said Skorina, “seem designed to rile people up by just including a package. I am always surprised when people turn out to remove a book and admit they haven't read it. I have genuine respect for a parent who is concerned about something their child is exposed to. I just don't understand why you would go to the school board to remove a book without first reading the book to decide for yourself.”
When teaching her censorship class last semester, Skorina said she contacted Moms for Liberty and invited them to speak to the class and provide their viewpoint, “but they never responded.”
Skorina said “these books are novels with a narrative, often of a character who is going through something difficult that has something to teach kids who may be going through something similar, something they can think through.” The oftendifficult passages to which parents most often object, are usually key pivot points in a novel devoted to how the character overcame the hardships the passage described, she said.
“‘The Bluest Eye' is written by Toni Morrison, one of the nation's most celebrated authors,” said Skorina. “It's a beautiful book. It's a sad book” in which the main character, a young Black girl, deals with racism, incest and child molestation. “Do bad things happen to the main character? Yes, that's the point.”
Many of these bookchallenging efforts “also seemed designed to be in service to efforts to sew distrust in public institutions,” Skorina said. “They're telling you not to trust the professionals, people who have spent years in school, who have to take continuing education credits every year. But people in education are there because they love kids and want to help them.”
One of those people in public education is Andrea Rees, who is not only a Methacton School Board member but a seventhgrade teacher. As the Jan. 24 meeting came to a close, Rees had a confession.
“I used to read ‘Blended' to my students, but I stopped because I was afraid I would get in trouble,” she said.
“That's how censorship works,” said Skorina. “Pretty soon you're censoring yourself without any help, because of fear.”
But after hearing Pfeiffer, the Methacton sophomore, talk about how reading that book helped her, Rees said she plans to start reading the book to her students again. “So thank you for speaking up so bravely here tonight,” she said.