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The school board took up books again at its Tuesday meeting, particularly attempting to codify new rules around parent and student book challenges. <\/p>\nThe school board took up books again at its Tuesday meeting, particularly attempting to codify new rules around parent and student book challenges. <\/p>\n
NEW HANOVER COUNTY \u2014\u00a0At Tuesday\u2019s New Hanover County school board meeting, Republican board members Josie Barnhart and Pat Bradford led the charge to have their colleagues consider codifying new rules around parent and student book challenges. That would include school-level requests for book limitations or removals going to a districtwide review, redacting the names of parents who ask for school or district limitations or removals of books, and instituting a book rating system similar to MPAA ratings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Hanover County Schools Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Digital Learning Dawn Brinson was again called to explain to the board how the school and districtwide Media Technology Advisory Committees (MTAC) function. She, along with various district officials, reviewed this process with a past board (including some of the same members) throughout the nine-month evaluation<\/a> of the book \u201cStamped: Antiracism, Racism, and You\u201d written by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds.<\/p>\n Since 2020, the way instructional materials are selected and how book challenges work have been codified in policy 3200 (selection of instructional materials<\/a>) and 3210 (parental inspection of and objection to instructional materials<\/a>). Both these policies have been revised several times since 2022. The makeup of school and district-level review committees was also previously explained during consideration of \u201cStamped\u201d and \u201cBlended.\u201d<\/p>\n Making all parental book challenges district-wide<\/strong><\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s discussion followed restrictions placed on the book \u201cBlended,\u201d a few months ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Board member Josie Barnhart was the parent who challenged that book<\/a>, and said she wants the process to change. She requested that any book challenged at an individual school also be evaluated districtwide.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause if we are finding people removing [books] for pervasively vulgar, inappropriate age, maturity, or grade level of the students, or [because it\u2019s] educationally unsuitable<\/a>, we need to address it as a district,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Currently, Brinson said the process is for books to be first reviewed at the school level, based on varying types and needs of student populations. If parents are unhappy with a decision, however, they can escalate to a district-wide challenge<\/a> \u2013 as Barnhart did with Blended.<\/p>\n She reiterated that book limitations and removals are not considered \u201ccensorship,\u201d but a way to ensure that the district is complying with state law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Barnhart relayed an anecdote about a parent who had come to her upset that one school had a limitation on a book but at another school there were no restrictions (she didn\u2019t name the book).<\/p>\n Responding to Barnhart\u2019s requested change to the book challenge process, board member Judy Justice said this would add more work to staff \u2013 and the board should start treating educators as professionals.<\/p>\n Keep parent names private?<\/strong><\/p>\n Board member Pat Bradford asked Brinson if they could consider a formal policy of redacting parents\u2019 names when they request material be removed from a school or the district at large. Brinson responded she could work to codify that in the district\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n While board attorneys Brian Kromke and Norwood Blanchard have maintained this is considered protected information<\/a> under FERPA, a federal law concerning student privacy, other educational law experts say<\/a> this would not be protected because a parental book complaint is not a part of a student\u2019s educational record.<\/p>\n Notably, the district did not redact the name of the parent<\/a> who requested the removal of Stamped. Like the \u201cStamped\u201d precedent, other districts in North Carolina don\u2019t redact<\/a> the parents\u2019 names when it comes to book challenges.<\/p>\n Board member Tim Merrick said this redaction would be \u201chighly inappropriate\u201d in cases where parents are asking for restrictions that will impact other families \u2013 but reiterated that he understood that parents should have control over what their own student reads.<\/p>\n Bradford sees the redaction as an attempt to protect parents who have the \u201ccourage\u201d to review books and that revealing their names could expose their children to unwanted scrutiny.<\/p>\n She also asked Brinson if the district could start looking at a rating system for library books similar to how movies are rated by the MPAA. Board chair Melissa Mason brought up something similar<\/a> in the past.<\/p>\n The discussion continues over the phrase \u2018book ban\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s misinformation that we\u2019re the book-banning board. I have continued to put the truth out there,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n Bradford asked Brinson if the district had banned any books \u2014 she gave a nuanced answer: there is not a book that is removed from every student from every school; however, Brinson added in her twenty-some years working in her department there were maybe two challenges preceding the \u201cStamped\u201d and \u201cBlended\u201d cases.<\/p>\n These two books are banned or removed for certain uses. \u201cStamped\u201d cannot be used in any high school classrooms, including AP courses, but it\u2019s still accessible in high school libraries. It\u2019s not available in middle or elementary school libraries.<\/p>\n The young-adult novel \u201cBlended\u201d can only be checked out by fourth- and fifth-grade students with parental permission. Students in third grade and under cannot have it. Since there are strict parameters on the book even for libraries, the implication is that fourth or fifth-grade teachers would not be able to discuss it in the classroom either.<\/p>\n Superintendent Christopher Barnes said under a new state law, HB 805<\/a>, parents will have access to online book lists for both classroom and school libraries \u2014 allowing them to flag material they don\u2019t want their children to access.<\/p>\n Brinson added that this is already accessible for class materials at the district level. (WHQR requested this link and hasn\u2019t heard back.) The new bill mandates that each school has this link on their website; Brinson said that they\u2019re working on creating the index for school libraries but said it would take some time to complete.<\/p>\n The district, she said, also has the capability for parents to flag certain books in the school library that their student(s) can\u2019t check out. They can do this through the Destiny system<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the topic of discussion was mainly about book challenges, Barnes wanted to warn of a larger concern for students: smartphones.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are concerned about content that your children have access to, I want you to be aware that their phone has much more access than the libraries do,\u201d he said. The audience applauded after he said this.<\/p>\n