Librarians Warn Of Threat To Intellectual Freedom In VA Schools

VIRGINIA — Actions by school systems across Virginia to pull certain books from the shelves of their libraries — and calls in at least one school district to burn books — have set off alarm bells among librarians and anti-censorship groups.

The Virginia Library Association and the Virginia Association of School Librarians are partnering with the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom to address books being pulled from shelves.

“As supporters of the intellectual freedom of all people — including students — we are surprised at the vitriol pointed at these titles by some members of your board,” the Virginia Library Association wrote in a letter sent Friday to the Spotsylvania County School Board and the school division’s superintendent, S. Scott Baker.

The Virginia Library Association expressed particular concern with the statements by two Spotsylvania County School Board members that books they disapprove of should be burned, "a statement more in keeping with the 1940s than the 2020s,” the group wrote in the letter.

Removing books from the shelves of school libraries without proper consideration is a violation of a student’s First Amendment rights, the association wrote. It cited a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that found the First Amendment “imposes limitations upon a local school board’s exercise of its discretion to remove books from high school and junior high school libraries.”

ALSO READ: Book Burning Urged By Spotsylvania School Board Members

The Supreme Court ruled that while a school board has power over the local curriculum, this power does not extend to the “regime of voluntary inquiry” represented by the library.

For decades, parents and members of the public have challenged certain books in school and public libraries. But the current wave of calls for books to be removed is reaching new heights.

"They're coming at us at an unprecedented rate now," Virginia Library Association Executive Director Lisa Varga told Patch about the level of book removals. "We're here to protect the First Amendment rights of students and the public."

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For the Virginia Library Association, one of its primary goals is to get school districts to follow their own guidelines when a book is challenged.

Margaret Baker, executive director of the Virginia Association of School Librarians, said her group's intellectual freedom committee has noticed that several school districts across the state failed to follow their own guidelines before ordering the removal of a book.

Furthermore, school librarians across the state have been increasingly reaching out to the Virginia Association of School Librarians for guidance on how to handle the growing number of challenges to books and calls by school board members for books to be removed, Baker said.

The Spotsylvania County School Board voted unanimously last Monday for school libraries to remove “sexually explicit” books and books with violence-related content from their shelves. After the school board voted 6-0 to remove the books, board member Rabih Abuismail said, “I think we should throw those books in a fire.”

Another, Kirk Twigg, said he wanted to “see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff.”

The board took the vote after a parent expressed concern over “33 Snowfish,” a book about three homeless teenagers escaping sexual abuse, prostitution and addiction.

Twigg and Abuismail did not respond to a request from Patch for comment. In an interview with The Washington Post, Abuismail told the newspaper that he is “devoutly Christian," but he also apologized for his comments at the Nov. 8 school board meeting.

Abuismail told the Post that he does not want to burn books with sexually explicit content. But he does want the books removed from Spotsylvania school libraries and donated to a “local community library.” Public school libraries should stock texts that focus on basic subjects such as math, history and science, he told the Post.

Residents Oppose 'Censored Education'

Some in Spotsylvania County are protesting the efforts by the county school board to ban certain books in school libraries. A petition on Change.org has received nearly 5,000 signatures, calling on the school to reverse its decision to remove books from school library shelves.

The Spotsylvania County School Board criteria "might take half or more of all our books off shelves in our libraries," the petition reads, including classics such as "Romeo and Juliet," "No Exit" and works by Margaret Atwood.

"My grandmother emigrated from Nazi Germany to America to get away from a censored education, so that her and her grandchildren could have an honest, real, UNCENSORED education," a student at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County was quoted as saying in the petition.

"We are not wanting to repeat history as the nazis burned books, or wanting to create a dystopian world, both shunned and rejected by society. We have been brought up hating nazis, rightly so, let us not fall back and follow in their footsteps," the petition reads.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) told the Texas Education Agency on Wednesday to investigate criminal activity related to "the availability of pornography" in public schools, saying that the agency should refer such instances "for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law."

Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) said he plans to ban the teaching of critical race theory on Jan. 15, 2022, his first day in office. Critical race theory is an academic discipline usually taught at the university level. The theory's central idea is that racism is not something restricted to individuals, but that bias is something embedded in policies and legal systems.

Youngkin's campaign has not indicated whether he would pursue investigations into public school libraries upon being sworn in as governor next month.

SEE ALSO: LGBTQ+ Group Decries Efforts To Ban 2 Books From School Libraries

During the Virginia gubernatorial race, Youngkin's campaign amplified the voices of parents who support removing books from school libraries.

After a Sept. 23 Fairfax County School Board meeting, Youngkin's campaign produced a political advertisement that included footage of community members at the meeting calling for the removal of books from high school libraries in the county.

In the political advertisement, Youngkin included footage of Stacy Langton, a parent of a Fairfax High School student, and Adrienne Henzel, a former Fairfax County Public Schools teacher, speaking out against LGBTQ-oriented books at the Sept. 23 school board meeting.

In September, Fairfax County Public Schools suspended circulation of two books in the libraries of high schools after community members complained about the sexual content of the books. Speakers told school board members the books describe pedophilia, although a review of the works shows no such content.

The two books, "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe and "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison, will be reviewed by the school system in response to the complaints.

The National Coalition Against Censorship, a nonprofit group that fights for First Amendment rights, said it was deeply concerned by the removal of the books from Fairfax County school libraries before a review could be completed.

"We are particularly concerned that, under current regulations, a challenge can take 120 working days to be adjudicated if the person who files the challenge takes advantage of all appeals permitted by the District’s regulations," the NCAC said in an Oct. 14 letter to the Fairfax County School Board. "Thus, under current district regulations, a parent who objects to the political views of a book can prevent its use for most of the school year, thereby effectively accomplishing the very outcome which the Supreme Court has condemned."

In 2016, a measure also known as the "Beloved" bill passed the Virginia General Assembly but was vetoed by Terry McAuliffe (D) when he was governor. The bill, HB516, would have required schools to notify parents when books with explicit content were assigned.

Youngkin's campaign ran a political advertisement that featured Laura Murphy, who objected in 2013 to the inclusion of “Beloved” by Toni Morrison as required reading for her son’s senior-year Advanced Placement English class.

Librarians Alarmed By Removal Of Books

Last month, the Virginia Library Association's executive committee sent a letter to the school board of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, expressing surprise to the vitriol expressed by its members to certain books on the shelves on school libraries in the city.

The Virginia Beach school system received complaints about several books with stories about people of color, civil rights and the LGBTQ community. The school system has removed several books, including such award-winning books as "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines, "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison and "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison from school libraries pending the outcome of an official challenge.

"The public statements from members of your board suggesting disciplinary action for librarians are troublesome and do not correspond with your own policies," the Virginia Library Association said in its Oct. 20 letter to the school board in Virginia Beach.

The state library association also noted that librarians who track intellectual freedom challenges across the United States often see a bump in challenges following the American Library Association's Annual Banned Books Week, which ran from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 this year.

"Ironically, a week that is set aside to emphasize the dangers of banning books can be manipulated by some into showcasing the exact behaviors we are trying not to model for our students," the Virginia Library Association said.

The association also said it will address a move by the superintendent of Harrisonburg City Public Schools to pull a book from shelves this week without receiving a formal challenge.

Harrisonburg City Public Schools Superintendent Michael Richards removed "Gender Queer: A Memoir" from the high school’s library this week, The Citizen reported.

The superintendent has created a committee to review his decision to pull “Gender Queer” from the shelves of Harrisonburg High School. The committee will be composed of parents, students, a librarian and school system staff.

Richards told Patch that he expects the committee will come back with its own findings on whether the high school should include “Gender Queer” in its collection in a matter of weeks.

The images in “Gender Queer,” not the text, convinced him to remove the book from the high school library.

The Harrisonburg City Public Schools system is dedicated to diversity and providing students with access to LGBTQ-related books, Richards said. His decision to remove the book had nothing to do with its LGBTQ themes. It was solely related to the images in the book, he said.

Sexually explicit images in the book — two showing oral sex and another showing a scene from Ancient Greece of a naked man with what appears to be a naked teenage boy — concerned Richards, especially if they were to be viewed by younger children.

Richards said he was surprised that the publisher listed “Gender Queer” as appropriate for ages 16 and older.

By suggesting that books like “Gender Queer” are appropriate for high school libraries, the publisher gave ammunition to people who want to ban other types books that do not contain sexually explicit images but might touch upon these topics in a narrative format, he maintained.

As for other books in Harrisonburg High School that may include text that is sexual in nature, Richard said he has no plans to begin a review of them. “I don’t see this as a slippery slope” to removing other books, he said.

The NCAC contends that removing books from circulation before they have been reviewed makes teachers "reluctant to assign any but the most innocuous and unchallenging books."

"Removing books before they have been reviewed also gives the personal opinions of those who challenged them at least a temporary veto over the judgment of the education professionals who selected the books for the library or the classroom," the group said.

The Virginia Library Association said Friday that libraries have procedures and policies in place for users to submit challenges.

"We are seeing a pattern of those procedures not being followed," the association said. "We will speak up, as an association, any time we see book banning, censorship or (in the case of Spotsylvania) threats to burn books."

RELATED:

• Banning Books In Schools Becomes Rallying Cry For VA Republicans
• LGBTQ-Themed Books Removed From Fairfax County HS Libraries