Here’s what the recent approval of Utah’s banning book process means for Southern Utah schools

ST. GEORGE — It was almost unanimous. Overall the board was pleased. However, one trustee clearly designated her frustrations during the meeting to the rest of the board and at a later time to her supporters on social media.

The controversial issue of recent, contrasting books and what literature will be allowed on the shelves of Utah school libraries came to guidelines being approved by the Utah State Board of Education on July 26.

After months of deliberation, the Board of Trustees approved the Library Materials Model Policy by a vote of all but one in favor of it. Board of Trustees of District 11, Trustee Natalie Cline was in opposition to the policy.

Washington County School District Role

The controversial issue of “banning books” started out in Washington County School District in late October of 2021, when a parent posted on Facebook as well as sent a letter to the school district challenging the fact that two certain books were available, for elementary and intermediate aged children for one book and intermediate-high school-aged children for the other, to check-out of school libraries.

“The Hate U Give” was the first book removed from school libraries and banned by WCSD, St. George, Utah, August 2, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

The two books were both award-winning books, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez.

At about the same time, an activist group known as Utah Parents United also brought up concerns about the sensitivity of literature in multiple school districts in northern Utah, mainly Alpine School District and Granite School District, among others.

They have been aggressively pursuing the removal of sexually explicit material from school libraries for the past year and even played a huge role in the passing of HB 374.

Washington County School District put together a review board consisting of parents, staff, librarians and administration, which found “The Hate U Give” to be improper for children of eighth grade or younger. “Out of Darkness,” on the other hand, was a tied vote to keep it or ban it, resulting in Superintendent Larry Bergeson casting the deciding vote in December of 2021. With this, “Out of Darkness” was added to the “banned books” list.

Two other books have been added to the local school district’s list of banned books; “George” by Alex Gino and “Suddenly, One Summer” by Julie James. The book by Alex Gino has since been renamed “Melissa” in April of 2022.

The state board approved the policy in response to HB 374: Sensitive Materials in Schools and board rule R277-628: School Libraries. Districts and charter schools must now develop “a systematic process and timeframe for reviewing all school library materials using a sensitive materials rubric to ensure compliance with Utah law,” according to the media release from the state board of trustees.

The following are some specifics of the Library Materials Model Policy:

  • Guidelines for who may file a sensitive materials review request and an example request form.
  • Guidelines for how a review committee is formed and when they must reach a determination.
  • The process for appealing a review committee decision.
  • An outline of the steps the state board will take if it is determined a district or charter school did not follow their outlined library policy and/or Utah law during the review process.

Pursuit to a suitable book review process

Washington County School District has already started forming a policy for the creation of a review committee and the procedure they must follow for reviewing a book of sensitive speculation. During their last school board meeting on July 20, they started laying out the proposed guidelines they have prepared.

Jeremy Cox, technology director for the district, presented the start of the state requirements of having a full-fledged system of reviewing and banning sensitive material and literature in school libraries during the last school board meeting on July 20.

The proposal of the review process will be made according to a color code.

“All books with a yellow Post-it will be put back on the shelf, while pink Post-its are the books that are under question,” Cox said. “There will be a smaller pink tag that will mark the page where the highlighted area on the page will be under scrutiny for being ‘inappropriate’ and could be removed.”

The school district review board will consist of selected parents, staff, administration, and librarians. In the end, the majority of the decision will come from trained librarians.

Steven Dunham, district communications director, said there will be no special certification, but rather “just a training on the new state law and our new policy to ensure we are in compliance with the law.”

Though the process was outlined, there still are many aspects that must be covered and agreed upon before the state board’s deadline of Sept. 1 for formal approval of a system of review. The official policy regarding the library review process, 4211-Media Center Library Materials, was voted on and passed unanimously by the Board of Education on May 24.

The plan for Washington County’s school board is to finalize their review procedure, adding “the stitching” at the next board meeting on Tuesday, so they may abide by the deadline of Sept. 1.

Judgment 

The books brought forth to the review boards will be decided upon and judged to be in one of three categories.

  1. Retained: the determination to maintain access in a school setting to the challenged material for all students.
  2. Restricted: the determination to restrict access in a school setting to the challenged material for certain students as determined by the Review Committee
  3. Removed: the determination to prohibit access in a school setting to the challenged material for all students.

The following are the requirements that must be reviewed by trained librarians when reviewing books:

  • Purpose and educational significance
  • The legality of “issues” within the literature
  • Age appropriateness and developmental level
  • Dependability, reliability and timeliness
  • Readability for the targeted audience
  • Artistic and literary style
  • Reputation of author, publisher, etc.
  • Format variety with the purpose of new and innovative technological purposes
  • Quality and value compared to the overall cost
  • All requests of review must be made by a parent of a student within the school, a student that attends the school or a staff of that school.

The opposition by the lone trustee

Utah State Board Trustee Natalie Cline’s biggest opposition to the approved Library Materials Model Policy was the fact that it did not “require to do a single thing to stop porn.”

USBE Trustee Natalie Cline of District 11 was the only one who opposed the Library Materials Model Policy approved by a vote of 14-1 in July, Bluffdale, Utah, date unspecified | Photo from Utah State Board of Education

Cline had almost 500 people write letters that encouraged the review of the literature to stop what the letter writers considered “pornographic” material in school libraries. Spearheaded by the Utah Parent Alliance, a majority of the letters were from followers or supporters of the activist group.

The Utah Parent Alliance has a whole section on its website dedicated to the finding and removal of sexually explicit material from schools, including an online method of reporting such material.

In a released statement on social media, Cline outlined her reasons for opposition to the policy as written. She explained that the policy accepted is a “Master Merged module policy,” and model policies are only a suggestion.

“Model policies don’t have the force of law, only rules do,” Cline wrote.

Cline had proposed a motion in June that would, according to her statement, enforce HB 374 if it had been approved. However, the motion was rejected by the state board of trustees. The approved policy allows the 160-plus local education agencies to be more susceptible to legal suits, she added.

Her argument was to have one rule that all local education agencies would have to align to instead of creating their own system and policies to abide by HB 374.

“The board spent all morning trying to collaborate on amendments that, at the end of the day, don’t make any difference,” she said. “Because once again, it is still a model policy, which means it’s purely optional.”

Cline wrote an emphatic statement outlining her frustrations: “Without a Rule, this whole process has been nothing but political theater.”

For the official statement, click here.

The removal of parental rights? 

The right of parents was discussed as a couple of the motions would basically change the terminology, as well as the review process within the policy, which would negate a parent’s right to allow their child (student) to read a certain book or library material which is at the present moment under review by the sensitive materials review board within each local education agency.

The board discussed the motion proposed by Cline, which was, in general terms, to change the access of books under review from “restricted access by parents only” to “fully removed” (no access at all) until the review process is completed on the book under scrutiny.

The motion would strike lines 85-88 of the policy and be replaced with the following:

“Student access to all copies of the material that is subject to a review request shall be withheld in all schools within the LEA until resolution of the complaint process, at which point the material is either retained or removed from all schools in the LEA.”

USBE Trustee Kristan Norton of District 15 (which includes St. George) did not agree with motions that would remove parental rights during the July board meeting, St. George, Utah, date unspecified | Photo from Utah State Board of Education

While discussing this issue, Trustee Kristan Norton (District 15) asked for a confirmation of understanding of the motion.

“So basically what we’re doing here is we are eliminating the parents’ rights to be able to have their child use that book while it’s undergoing this process,” she said.

Cline restated her stance on the fact that the process as written is actually giving kids access to pornography and violates HB 374. She used a metaphor of the sensitive materials under review, similar to criminal activity.

“Our schools are not allowed to give students access to alcohol or drugs even with parental permission. … Books aren’t like people, where it’s not innocent until proven guilty. We have to prove they are safe before they are put back on the shelves,” Cline said.

In response, Board Trustee Scott Hansen of District 2 emphasized the necessity of parental rights and was against the motion. He said:

I think we are in a situation where we have a lot of parents who have the first responsibility for the education of their child. Those parents don’t all agree on what content is acceptable for their children based on kid’s maturity level, based on religion, based on political ideology, based on many different reasons, which are really as important as the fact parents who don’t think those books are appropriate for their kids. Given that situation, I think we should keep this idea of a restricted area as one of the best tools we have in this model policy … allow parents to take on that parental responsibility and decide while reviewing of those materials if it is appropriate for their kids.

The motion was defeated by a 10-1 vote.

For the rest of the motions for July, click here.

Iron County School District’s current position

FILE – Sign in front of Iron County School District office, Cedar City, Utah, July 29, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Shauna Lund, communications and foundations coordinator for the Iron County School District, released a statement about the district and its status on policy regarding the review of sensitive materials policy, which states that the development of a school library collection is an ongoing process and that the district has a policy in place that library media professionals use in acquiring new resources and materials.

The policy outlines 11 considerations, which include a recognition of the need to provide a wide variety of materials and information that represent different points of view.

Following guidance issued in June from the Attorney General’s Office, “any books found through an internal review process to contain a description or depiction of illicit sex or sexual immorality as described in state code 76-10-1227 will be removed from our school libraries. That process is ongoing,” the statement adds.

The district also recognized parental rights.

“Our policy currently outlines how a parent can restrict access for their child to specific books and materials by submitting in writing that request,” according to the statement.

The district further states that parents who consider a book or other library resource as inappropriate for all children in the school may submit a written challenge. Those challenges will then be reviewed by a reconsideration committee and follow the guidance given in the district’s policy.

“At this time, there is no movement to amend our policy. The policy in place meets what USBE has requested,” adds the statement.

The passing of the torch

The passing of the authority now goes on to the local education agencies to process the newly passed policy and come up with a policy and review system of their own in accordance with HB 374 and all within the given mandated deadline of Sept. 1.

In relation to the passing, the USBE addressed the public through their public release.

The passing of this policy was in regard to the recently passed regulation, H.B. 374. The newly passed regulation was enacted on May 4, 2022, and requires that all schools abide by the criteria of H.B. 374. For this reason, the USBE Board had to work along with the House and the Attorney General’s office to make sure all approved policy was in alignment with the new law.

“The Board continues to work with the Office of the Attorney General to provide the best legal guidance to districts and charter schools on handling sensitive materials in schools,” Utah State Board of Education Chair Mark Huntsman said. “We are also moving expeditiously and judiciously to comply with all aspects of H.B. 374.”

For the videos of the state board meetings, click here.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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