Walker school officials: Library books that parent wanted removed from schools will stay
Walker County resident and mother of three young children Jenn Smeiles has been fighting a battle against what she refers to as vulgar and obscene books in many Walker County schools.
Smeiles has communicated with Superintendent Damon Raines and with school board members, and has spoken twice at school board meetings.
Smeiles has been informed by school representatives that the school library books in question have been reviewed and deemed age- and content-appropriate. Parents, she was told, can have books flagged so their children cannot check them out or must receive parental permission to check them out.
Smeiles spoke at the Jan. 16 school board meeting. Four other community members also appeared before the board, speaking and reading aloud excerpts from books being challenged.
The books, says Smeiles, depict a range of inappropriate material, from explicit sex scenes to vulgar language, scenes indicating approval of underage drinking, drug use, smoking and other behavior generally considered negative. Other topics depicted as positive in the books, including puberty rape, child rape, child abuse, murder, suicide and extreme violence, are all described to one degree or another (often graphically) in some of the books, she says.
“I am here as a parent and a taxpayer,” Smeiles told the board, “and represent my friends and neighbors who do not want extremely harmful books in our schools’ media centers. We don’t want our hardearned money to be used to harm children in our county.
“I did not think that I would have to stand before you again regarding this same topic,” Smeiles continued. “I thought that one person, letting you know that some obscene materials had slipped through the cracks and was available to our children, would be enough. I thought that it was obvious that exposing children to these vulgar materials is not a good idea.”
Smeiles said she thought she could get honest answers from the school system but that she found that was not true. She told board members that she had been marginalized and lied to during her efforts to get information about the availability of the contested books in school libraries. Superintendent Damon Raines says he has cooperated with Smeiles since June of last year.
“The books I have brought to your attention,” Smeiles told the board, “celebrate, detail and normalize behaviors and choices that lead to physical and sexual abuse, sterilization, drug and alcohol addiction, poverty, broken families, suicide, and a list of other horrible outcomes. If we ignore this and try to justify it, the harm will be real and the consequences will be lifelong for our children.”
At a previous meeting Smeiles had given board members information and links regarding studies that, she said, show connections between early exposure to pornographic material and eventual addiction to pornography and the damage it does to relationships and other areas of life.
“What would have happened if Dr. Ben Carson’s imagination had been awakened by some of this detailed nudity, drug addiction and extreme violence instead of the fantastic literature that was available to him?” Smeiles asked the board. “How many hundreds or even thousands of children would not have been helped by Dr. Carson’s medical interventions if he thought any of these examples are how a man is supposed to act? How many Abraham Lincolns, Amelia Earharts, Dr. Mildred Fay Jeffersons or Dr. Ben Carsons are walking through Walker County schools this year? What books will ignite their imaginations and spark their life pursuits? I can only pray that they somehow miss these life-destroying bombs.” Smeiles said no school board member responded to her or those with her during the meeting. She said it’s her understanding that they are not permitted to respond during a meeting. She said she has spoken with one member between meetings.
But the response from the system and the board, as communicated by Superintendent Damon Raines, has been to maintain that the school system is within its legal rights to carry the books.
“The Superintendent and members of the Board of Education appreciate the comments and concerns of our stakeholders, especially our parents. The Board has been involved in this process since June of last year and continues to support the investigation of any allegation of harmful materials in our schools,” Raines said in an email.
“The Board unanimously approved Policy IKBC — “Materials Harmful to Minors Complaint Resolution Process” — in December in compliance with state law,” wrote Raines. “Complaints alleging that material
that is harmful to minors has been provided or is currently available must be submitted by the parents of a student enrolled in the school.”
Smeiles removed her children from the school system last year. According to the new policy, only a parent or permanent guardian of a student has the right to file an actionable complaint about materials.
Smeiles says she identified 97 books she was concerned about and wanted to bring those books to the attention of the board, hoping they would be appalled enough to take action for the good of students. She says that turned out not to be the case.
Under the “IKBC Policy — Material Harmful to Minors Complaint Resolution Process” developed by the state and adopted by schools last year, the term “harmful to minors” when referring to library materials is defined as “that quality of description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse, when it: 1. Taken as a whole, predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of minors; 2. Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and 3.
Is, when taken as a whole, lacking in serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
“Taken as a whole” seems to be the key in evaluating books in question. Smeiles says what she sees as obvious, many in the school system choose to interpret in other ways. For instance, a detailed passage about two teens disrobing and engaging in sex can be acceptable if the larger story is about something else.
So, says Smeiles, it’s left up to parents to find out about the objectionable books, to formally file a complaint about them or to find ways to keep their children from them. It’s not something, she says, that the board of education, the superintendent of schools or most others within the school system are going to initiate.
The Walker County Messenger emailed all members of the Walker County Board of Education for comments but no one responded. Superintendent Raines concurred that the burden to keep the books Smeiles objects to out of the hands of students lays on parents.