100+ 'questionable' books placed in restricted section while Escambia schools review them

Escambia County Public Schools libraries will now have a restricted section containing books that are under appeal for "questionable content."

Students will be required to present an "opt-in" form signed by a parent in order to read books from this section. The new system will allow students to check out the books in question while school officials determine whether they are able to remain in school media centers and classrooms.

The new policy was announced after an Escambia County teacher raised concerns that she had read more than 100 books with "inappropriate" content, some of which she described as containing pornography and child sexual abuse.

"The issue that we were faced with, was that there were a lot of books," Superintendent Tim Smith told the News Journal. "One person put forth a lot of book titles, and so then it became, 'Well, this process is not a fast process. So, what do we do with a book that's been challenged?'"

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Smith said a district book needs to go before several different boards before being completely banned, such as the School Materials Review Committee, District Materials Review Committee and eventually, the school board. Each book is read by each member of each committee. The book is then analyzed for its literary value, as well as how successfully it complies with state law, before being given the green light to be placed back on the shelf.

One of the primary goals of the reviewal process is to ensure that all content is "age appropriate" for the students. Smith noted that definition can vary from person-to-person. In the meantime, while the books in question are being deliberated, the restricted system will grant parents the ultimate say as to what is deemed "appropriate" for their own child.

"We don't want books to stay in our schools if they are not appropriate," Smith said. "The wrestle is: what's 'appropriate?'"

Smith said the new policy "protects the parents' rights because they're the ones who are deciding if they want students to read or not to read a book that's being challenged," Smith added.

Veteran Escambia County language arts teacher Vicki Baggett said although a restricted access section is a step in the right direction, there are plenty of books on the list with content that should be grounds for immediate removal.

Baggett was the driving force behind the book investigation, which began with her reading "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" in May of last year. Baggett said she has read about 150 books circulated in the district since then, finding about 116 of them to be disturbing. She said some of the books detailed accounts of adults molesting their children.

She found some of the books that made the list, such as poet Rupi Kaur's "Milk & Honey," to portray heavy sexual messaging. But most problematic to Baggett, some of the poems in the collection were companied by hand-drawn sketches that could be considered pornographic.

These should not only be alarming to parents, Baggett said, but should be grounds for immediate removal from the district for violating Florida law in exposing students to pornography.

"I started profusely reading books. I actually went into a dark place and it was because I had been exposed to pornography, to put it bluntly," Baggett said.

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Baggett said if she, a teacher of 22 years in the district, had been losing sleep over what she had been reading, she can only imagine the toll it would take on the minds of students.

She is confident these books should never be a read by a minor, and is encouraging parents and teachers alike to take a closer look at what exactly their children are reading.

"This is not about banning, this is about making sure that our books, even at the library level, are age-appropriate and content-appropriate. That's it in a nutshell," she said.

However, some would argue that reading is an opportunity for students to empathize with the experiences of others without having to live the experience themselves.

Kevin Scott, the English department chair at the University of West Florida, said taking away opportunities for students to read stories about people who are not like them is "closing them off" and making them less-prepared for the professional world and the people they will encounter.

"We are making their world smaller," Scott said.

Through a story, the reader is able to connect with a narrator who may have different gender, sexual preferences or values than themselves, translating into the way they connect and relate to people in the real world.

"One of the fundamental purposes of literature is accomplished in the form of fiction," he said. "Fiction, of any sort, requires that we connect to the lives of others. It's an inherently humanizing process ... reading about such characters in literature expands our understanding and encourages us to see the humanity in others."

Escambia County Public Schools will host a special workshop on Oct. 10 at 8 a.m. to discuss educational media materials related to the restricted section.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County banned books: Over 100 books to be reviewed for ban