On Nov. 13, Assistant Superintendent Amy Dudley gave details to the CCS school board about a new policy involving censorship in media centers across the district. This policy, labeled Policy 5522, is to be implemented on Jan. 1, 2024 after the approval of the school board. Dudley said the new policy was enacted by state legislators, with emphasis on removing library materials deemed as “obscene” or “harmful to minors”. This policy will also alter the removal process for library materials that are deemed inappropriate. 

“Policy 5522 is the new proposed policy and is specific to the selection review and the removal of school library materials,” Dudley said. “Materials that are housed in our media centers might include books, movies, magazines and anything else that we have in our catalog. This policy is very similar to our existing policy, but the changes are to include two things that were already not in our policy, including looking into the matter of ‘obscene performance’ as defined by Indiana code, as well as the matter of ‘performance harmful to minors’ as it is defined by Indiana code.”

Dudley also said Policy 5522 will alter the removal process for library materials, requiring any book deemed inappropriate to be analyzed by a committee made up of media specialists and the superintendent. 

“If we have parents, students or community members that live within CCS boundaries and they have a concern about materials that are housed in our media center, then there is a whole new process in the policy that they can follow,” she said. “They first start with the media center specialists in the buildings and share their concerns there. If there is no resolution then we have a form that they can fill out and they can share their concerns specific to what they believe is obscene or performance that is harmful to minors. After the form is filled out, Dr. (Michael) Beresford would convene a committee that would come together and review those materials and then make a recommendation to the board for them to act on.”

School board member Greg Brown said the board should take book censorship more seriously in light of the new policy.

“The way I had read the new legislation, I viewed it as just trying to really make an emphasis that (book censorship) is to be taken more seriously and I know we’ve had some books in the past that were brought to the attention of the board,” Brown said. “Some were removed and some were not, but I have personally gone through the books that are on some national sites that are of concern and we still have quite a number of (those books) out there. The legislators have really tried to make this a point that we implement this differently than in the past. So my question is, what will we do once we approve the policies? What would be the next step?”

Secretary Jennifer Nelson-Williams said she disagreed with Brown’s view on the motivations of the legislators in enacting the policy.

“The law is not changing,” she said. “It is just making the word choice more specific. So the law, to my understanding, is that a book must be shown to lack serious literary or artistic value. So it’s not saying that all of a sudden there are lots of obscene books.”

Nelson-Williams also said Brown is “cherry-picking” passages from books to claim that they are inappropriate for students.

“I know in the past, you have brought out that you have several books that you would like to proactively remove from the library: Wide Awake, Breathless, Jesus Land, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Kite Runner, Monday’s Not Coming, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” she said. “You mentioned you looked at a national database for these books. Did you read them? Cherry-picking passages does not rise to the level of what the law states that the entire book must lack serious literary or artistic value.”

Brown, in response to the comment, said he is disappointed at the school board for allowing inappropriate books to circulate in the school libraries. 

He said, “If there are a few pages or a few paragraphs in a book that has sexually explicit scenes between teens, as long as the rest of the book has some redeeming value, we find that okay? Are you okay with that, Jennifer? I guess I am disappointed that you folks are all fine with the fact that we have pornographic content in books at our (school libraries) and they are in there today. I’ve got five in my hand that I quickly picked and they are quite astonishing.”

Louise Jackson, vice president of the school board, said the policy must first be approved and discussions about specific books can come later.

“The challenge with this situation is that there is subjectivity around what is appropriate and what is not,” she said. “That cannot be removed from the situation. I think we are at an impasse in terms of being aligned right now. So, I think we should focus on the fact that we have a policy now, and we can see how the policy does or how evaluating the books will go. I encourage parents who have content that they have questions about to submit your request, and know they can also reach out to the board as well. So with that, I do invite parents to communicate and we as a team will figure out the next steps.”

Dudley said parents can go to the Destiny library catalog where they have access to all books across the media centers. Parents can see if there is a book that they believe is inappropriate and they can choose to follow through with the removal process.