Carroll’s public school system has decided to remove seven more books from school libraries, bringing the county’s banned book total to 21. Most removal requests come from the Carroll County chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty.
According to a Wednesday email from school officials, “What Girls Are Made Of” by Elena K. Arnold, “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins, “And They Lived” by Steven Salvatore, “Forever for a Year” by B.T Gottfried, “Kingdom of Ash,” “House of Earth and Blood,” and “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas were banned in a recent round of evaluations.
“Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo, “Like a Love Story” by Abdi Nazemian, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire and “Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were retained. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven and “Forever” by Judy Blume were retained in recent decisions, but will not require parental permission.
“Any books that have not been reviewed by the Reconsideration Committee are in circulation until a decision has been made,” Director of Curriculum and Instruction Steve Wernick said in an email Wednesday. Superintendent Cynthia McCabe last September ordered the challenged books removed from Carroll County school library shelves until they went through the reconsideration process.
As of this week, 21 books have been permanently removed from school shelves, 11 have been retained and will be available to students, and 13 titles will now require parental permission for a student to check out from school libraries.
Two books, “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, will be retained in high schools but removed from middle school shelves. “Juliet Takes a Breath: Graphic Novel Version” by Gabby Rivera was also challenged, but is not in school system libraries and was not reviewed.
The committee is tasked with making book removal decisions. It includes nonvoting chair Bruce Lesh, supervisor of elementary education for Carroll County Public Schools, as well as two school media specialists, two school-based administrators, one teacher and three parents. Three high school students are also included when the committee reviews books previously deemed appropriate for high schoolers. All members are appointed by the superintendent.
The system has not shared a timeline for completing the evaluation, and public schools communications coordinator Brenda Bowers said about two books per year were directed to the Reconsideration Committee for review in the past. 48 of the 61 challenged books have been removed so far.
Books banned or retained by the Carroll County reconsideration process may not be re-evaluated for school use for three years after the initial request for reconsideration, according to CCPS policy. Any decision to remove a book is final, but a decision to retain a book may be appealed to the superintendent within 10 days of receiving a decision.
Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Nicholas Shockney acts as McCabe’s designee when reviewing books that were appealed to the superintendent. Shockney said he reads each of those books and renders his decisions in accordance with the school system’s Policy IIAA, which governs the selection, evaluation and adoption of instructional materials, including supplemental instructional materials like library books.
The Carroll County Board of Education unanimously voted Jan. 10 to update Policy IIAA, banning all library books and instructional materials that include “sexually explicit” content from public schools. The updated policy defines sexually explicit content as “unambiguously describing, depicting, showing, or writing about sex or sex acts in a detailed or graphic manner.”
The Maryland State Board of Education on July 23 denied a parent’s appeal of Policy IIAA, but expressed concerns about how the policy could be used to violate the First Amendment rights of students, according to state appeal documents.
Carroll’s school board also voted 3-2 last month to reject Mary Hoffman’s “The Great Big Book of Families” and Todd Parr’s “The Family Book” from inclusion in the state’s family life curriculum. The board-appointed, 31-member Family Life Advisory Committee recommended both books for exclusion in a February meeting, citing concerns that their content is “not appropriate” for prekindergarten and kindergarten students and “may violate some parents’ beliefs.” The Board of Education also received at least 62 public comments about the books, with 58 of those in support of approving them for instructional use.
Since the school library book reconsideration requests were made, parents and librarians have appeared at school board meetings to oppose them.
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