Carroll County’s public school system announced that it has removed five more books from school libraries, bringing the county’s banned book total to 26.
“A Clash of Kings,” by George R.R. Martin, “House of Sky and Breath,” by Sarah J. Maas, “Tricks,” by Ellen Hopkins, “Let’s Talk About It,” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, and “Storm and Fury,” by Jennifer Armentrout were removed from Carroll County school library shelves after the most recent round of evaluations by the system’s Reconsideration Committee, according to an email Wednesday from school officials.
The Meridian 1974 version of “The Holy Bible,” “Oryx and Crake,” by Margaret Atwood, “Lighter than my Shadow,” by Katie Green, “A Stolen Life,” by Jaycee Dugard, “All The Things We Do In The Dark,” by Saundra Mitchell, “The Haters,” by Jesse Andrews and “Sold,” by Patricia McCormick, were retained.
The committee retained “Lucky,” by Alice Sebold, but students will need parental permission to check out the book, after an appeal to the superintendent.
The committee has been evaluating 61 requests for removal since last August. Public schools communications coordinator Brenda Bowers said on average two books per year were directed to the Reconsideration Committee for review in the past. Most of the current removal requests have come from the Carroll County chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty.
The system’s Reconsideration Committee is tasked with making book-removal decisions. It includes a nonvoting chair, 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.
Books banned or retained by the Carroll County reconsideration process cannot 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 can be appealed to the superintendent within 10 days of receiving a decision.
Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Nicholas Shockney acts as Superintendent Cynthia 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.
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