SC education board’s first book hearing to include ‘1984,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

COLUMBIA — For the first time since enacting a statewide book-ban policy three months ago, the State Board of Education is poised to review whether certain titles should be removed from the shelves of every public school in the state.

Three titles — George Orwell’s “1984,” William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” — should be retained, according to reports posted Oct. 24 by department staff. Another eight titles, all published since 2004, should be removed, the reports said.

A board subcommittee will meet online Thursday, Oct. 31, to discuss those staff reports, which include excerpts from most of the books. After that hearing, they will make recommendations on the books to the full board, which will be able to vote on their fates at their next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 5.

The review, generated by department staff and not from parent book challenges, stems from the creation this summer of a state-mandated instructional materials policy that specifically targets sexually explicit books for removal.

“These decisions will help clarify stated concerns over how to apply the Regulation, reduce the burden on local boards, and will begin to establish consistent, common-sense guidelines on what is and is not violative of the Regulation,” education department spokesman Jason Raven wrote in an email to the newspaper.

Parent opinions this week were split about the hearing: Some welcomed it as a first step toward clarifying which titles are acceptable in South Carolina schools while others criticized the lack of transparency in how these books were chosen from among thousands of potential titles.

“We don’t know where these complaints came from,” said Mary Foster, an early childhood educator in Beaufort County and member of Families Against Book Bans.

Carly Carter, head of the conservative Moms for Liberty chapter in Anderson County, said she hopes the state board’s actions will reduce misleading information that has circulated online about which books have been challenged and removed. Parents appreciate the state board creating a “safe space” for their children at school, she said.

“I think it’s great that they are setting the tone,” Carter said. 

‘Blatantly violative’

The state board is preemptively reviewing these books because they were mentioned as potential offenders during the debate over the regulation’s passage, Raven said.

While some of the books “appear blatantly violative” of the regulation, claims of some classics potentially violating the regulation have “generated fear and uncertainty surrounding materials erroneously dragged into this discussion,” Raven said.

Since the regulation went into effect Aug. 1, all public-school educators, including teachers and librarians, have had to follow procedures that prevent schools from providing students with instructional materials that are not “age and developmentally appropriate,” though the definition of that phrase remains vague.

Sexual content, the regulation says, is not allowed for students of any age, and any parent of a child attending a public school can submit a form challenging any title.

Avoiding problems is difficult, however, because the regulation provides educators with little guidance on what is “age appropriate” and what constitutes “sexual content,” said Karen Gareis, a school librarian at Bluffton High School.

“Is it actual sexual conduct? Or it just exists in the realm of, you know, arousal? Or, you know, not necessarily active description on the page but it’s behind the scenes or behind closed doors? You know, does that count? I don’t know,” Gareis said.

If the regulation had been more precise, the board would not need to hold a preemptive review of titles to set a precedent on what kinds of books are acceptable, said Patrick Kelly, director of government relations for the Palmetto State Teachers Association, though he noted that such a precedent could be helpful for teachers.

He said he hopes a mere reference to sexual activity — definitely present in “Romeo and Juliet” — doesn’t run afoul of the rule.

“If we enter a zone where ‘Romeo and Juliet’ isn’t appropriate in a high school English setting, then I think we’ve entered a zone where we are severely undercutting the caliber of the educational experience of public school students in South Carolina,” Kelly said.

BOOKS UNDER REVIEW

Process criticized

The department staff’s recommendation that the three classic books be retained is evidence that they are being faithful to the stated intent of the regulation, which is to keep sexually explicit content out of schools, Kelly said.

Still, some took issue with how the Oct. 31 hearing is being handled.

Families Against Book Bans is submitting a records request to find out who specifically designated these books for review and who wrote up the department staff reports and chose which excerpts violate the regulation, Foster said. These department staff singled out excerpts that violate the regulation but didn’t look at the whole book, Gregory said.

Public comments during the Oct. 31 hearing will be limited to six minutes for each title — three minutes for people who support a given book and three minutes for people who want it removed. 

“That is not seriously trying to consider parental input,” Gregory said.

Carter, who said she keeps a copy of “1984” on her night stand, applauded the state for at least trying to keep harmful content from children.

Foster agreed that all parents want to protect their kids but said her approach is different.

“We protect kids by talking to them about hard things, and we protect them by teaching them to be empathetic and teaching them to be brave when something happens that’s not OK,” Foster said. “And one of the ways we can do that is by giving them access to literature.”