The Pennridge school board in September rolled back the prior Republican-led board’s policy banning “sexualized content” in library books. But that hasn’t put an end to books being pulled from library shelves.
Under the new policy, the district has removed seven books and graphic novel series, deeming them “age-inappropriate.” That’s on top of 18 books and graphic novel series that the district disclosed this fall were removed based on the old policy, or whose status was challenged during its existence.
Some community members have accused the board, which is now run by Democrats, of enabling book banning. The board’s president says the district’s librarian and other staff have recommended the removals.
“There are some books that shouldn’t be in a high school library,” said the board president, Ron Wurz. “I don’t call that banning, I call that age-appropriateness.”
Here’s a breakdown of the actions the district has taken on books, and the continued community divide around what should be allowed in the district’s libraries:
Which books have been removed?
At a policy committee meeting in August, the district’s superintendent, Angelo Berrios, said the district was in the process of reviewing 22 books that were pulled in the 2022-23 school year. Those books were not formally challenged but were checked out for prolonged periods by staff members that school year, after Republican board members warned of “pornographic filth” in the libraries. A parent took the district to court over the issue, and won an open records case last year, with a Bucks County judge ruling that Pennridge had “effectuated a cover-up” of book removals.
The committee in August directed the administration to pause reviewing the books until it passed a new policy. “We’ll ask the librarians if repurchasing these books is appropriate,” Leah Foster Rash, a Democrat who chairs the committee, said.
But according to a presentation Pennridge administrators gave the committee in October, the high school librarian decided that 14 of those books shouldn’t go back in the library.
“This was her professional opinion,” Berrios told the committee, adding that the librarian was evaluating the books as if they were new books to add to the library, rather than existing books being challenged. “We weren’t coercing, fearmongering, or anything else.”
Among the books the librarian ruled out: Gender Queer, the frequently challenged graphic novel about a young person grappling with gender identity that includes depictions of oral sex; The Haters, a coming-of-age book about aspiring musicians taking a road trip; and Push, a novel about a girl sexually abused by her father that became the basis of the movie Precious.
But the district also issued decisions on a series of additional books challenged since last year. It removed 11 books and graphic novel series that were reviewed by a reconsideration committee of staff members. Some had themes of revenge and the occult or were “excessively violent,” with graphic sexual content.
Other books included American Psycho and Sex is a Funny Word — the latter of which Assistant Superintendent Kathy Scheid said was meant to be used by adults with students, as a resource book. “It’s not a book that’s even written for kids to take out of the library,” Scheid said.
» READ MORE: Central Bucks released the reports on books it’s banned and kept. Here’s what they show.
Which books have been kept?
Some books that have been reviewed have been maintained by the district. Pennridge decided to return to library shelves six of the 22 books that disappeared in the 2022-23 school year, including the popular young-adult novel Looking for Alaska and Beloved, by Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison.
It also kept some of the books that were formally challenged by community members — though it will require parental consent for students to check them out. That group includes Identical, about twin sisters who struggle with a father’s sexual abuse and addiction, and A Stolen Life, a memoir about a girl’s kidnapping.
Pennridge’s high school librarian also referred to the district’s reconsideration committee two titles that disappeared from library shelves in 2022-23: The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Cirque Du Freak. Their review status was unclear this week.
What are community members debating?
Some Democrats on the board expressed frustration that books popular with teenagers have been removed — including several in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas, and It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover.
“I feel like we’re missing an opportunity to engage children in voluntary reading,” Rash said at the October policy committee meeting. She said she had checked the online libraries of the 10 highest-ranked school districts in Pennsylvania and found they carried many of the books Pennridge was excluding.
“Districts performing way better than us, what are their best practices? Did they kick these books out, too?” she said. (Scheid noted that Pennridge promotes independent reading, “from kindergarten on.”)
Meanwhile, Republican board and community members questioned the district’s process for evaluating books, voicing concern that the district would consider recommendations from the American Library Association, in light of a former ALA president’s post on Twitter identifying herself as a Marxist. Some objected to new rules that parents read an entire book before challenging it.
Ricki Chaikin, a Republican on the board, said during October’s policy committee meeting she wouldn’t want her daughter reading some of the books that were removed from library shelves in 2022 that the Pennridge librarian had decided to reinstate.
“If you want the committee to review a book, you would follow the same process,” Scheid said, telling Chaikin she could submit a reconsideration form.
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