CCSD revising book review policy

The Clark County School District tentatively revised its book challenge procedures Thursday.

One significant change will be ensuring books remain available to students, whether in class or on open library shelves, while being reviewed after a challenge unless the principal, teacher-librarian and the rest of the committee that responds to challenges agree to remove the material while the review is underway.

The pending changes also amend language to align with a related policy mandating a certified teacher-librarian lead school libraries, codify the appeal process and generally clarify language.

The changes passed unanimously on their first reading Thursday and will need to be passed again in December before going into effect.

School librarian Glenda Alberti, who has participated in the response to a book challenge, said the regulation needed its wording tightened.

“I know the process first-hand and I promise you, people will exploit weaknesses in the language of the policy,” she said.

Nobody spoke against the changes at the meeting. But attempts to pull books do happen.

CCSD received 13 book challenges in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years combined, according to documents the Sun received in a public records request. Most of the complaints were about books’ mention of sexuality or gay or transgender characters or themes. None of the challenges resulted in a book being pulled.

Over those two years, CCSD received four challenges to “The Bluest Eye” by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and two challenges to “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson. Both books were on the American Library Association’s top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 and the free expression organization PEN America’s most-banned list for the 2023-2024 school year. 

Morrison’s tragic 1970 novel about internalized racism features a scene where a father rapes and impregnates his young daughter. One challenge form, which was duplicated for Southeast Career and Technical Academy, Coronado and Arbor View high schools, highlighted the “pervasively vulgar rape scene” and wanted the book removed because it “distorts the normal child development by sexualizing children at an inappropriately young age.”

Another requester who wanted it yanked from Spring Valley High School wrote that the effect of the book on students is that “they will be groomed by sex offenders, and treat rape as ‘friendly’ and ‘innocent’ actions.” The same person said it should be banned because it addresses incest, child abuse and “CRT,” or critical race theory; the central character is a Black girl who thinks she will have worth if she has light skin and blue eyes.

Johnson’s 2020 memoir looks back on their childhood and adolescence as a queer Black youth. One requester wanted “All Boys Aren’t Blue” removed from Valley High School because “the Clark County Detention Center would not even allow this book in the prisons because of the sexual content.” Another wanted it pulled from Spring Valley because it “is child abuse/sexual assault on their little minds.”

Challenging a book in CCSD can lead to a book being left in place, pulled entirely or, in the case of library books, being limited to students with parental permission.

The process starts with the submission of a form to the individual school with the book. The form asks people who want to have a book restricted or pulled if they are familiar with the full text and to specify what portions they find questionable. The form asks reflective questions as well, such as what effect the requestor thinks the material has on students, what the educational value might be and what the judgment of qualified professionals has been on the matter.

According to district regulation, the principal, librarian and the “school-based library-media center committee” reviews the challenged book and renders a decision. The committee includes three teachers and two parents or guardians in addition to the librarian and the principal or someone designated by the principal. This same group is also involved in the selection process for library books. 

If they decide to remove a book from a library, a “central library-media center committee” will conduct a final review. 

Decisions can be appealed by the original requester, a move that also sends the book to a central content area committee. According to regulation, a decision can only be appealed once, meaning the decision of the central committee at that time is final.