About a third of books submitted to Carroll County Public Schools’ reconsideration committee have been banned as of Wednesday, according to a chart obtained by The Carroll County Times.
The 61 books, mostly requested for review by the Carroll chapter of conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, include at least 16 with LGBTQ+ characters and content, according to a review of the book list. A majority of the ‘ authors identify as female or nonbinary.
All of the books submitted by Moms for Liberty members were determined from a review of booklooks.org, a website that rates books on a scale of 0 to 5 for content appropriateness, according to chapter vice chair Jessica Garland.
Booklooks.org, which is independent of Moms for Liberty or any other groups, represents a rating of 0 as content appropriate for all ages. Ratings from 1 to 3 recommend different levels of age appropriateness, with 4 and 5 representing adult content. A book with a rating of 4 has “explicit sexual nudity” or “obscene references to sexual activities,” while one with a 5 has “aberrant sexual activities,” according to its rating system.
Any books pending review will remain in the school system’s libraries, Steve Wernick, the curriculum and instruction director, wrote in a Wednesday email. “The Holy Bible” does not have a rating and “Juliet Takes a Breath” is not in Carroll County Public Schools, so will not be reviewed, according to Wernick.
Here is a list of all of the books in review, including those banned, kept in schools and some that now need parental permission for checkout. This graphic will be updated as more information becomes available.
The Reconsideration Committee, a superintendent-appointed group of two school media specialists, two school-based administrators, one teacher, and three parents, is tasked with reviewing books and deciding on their removal. The committee includes three high school students when it reviews books previously decided to be appropriate in high school libraries. Two books are typically reconsidered a year, according to Carey Gaddis, the school system’s communications officer.
The most recent round of banned books comes nearly a month after the Carroll County Board of Education voted, 3-2, to exclude “The Family Book” by Todd Parr and Mary Hoffman’s “The Great Big Book of Families” from pre-kindergarten and kindergarten curricula. Wendy Novak, a school system parent, submitted an appeal of the board’s decision and also requested a Title IX investigation into board members Steve Whisler and Donna Sivigny after comments she said labeled same-sex families as “controversial.”
The Maryland State Board of Education also denied an appeal from Jessica Bronson, another school system parent, of Carroll’s updated Policy IIAA, which bans books and instructional material with “sexually explicit” content. In the appeal, the board expressed serious concerns about the policy’s breadth and ability to be abused to violate students’ First Amendment rights.
