Blackhawk School Board drafts policy to allow students, parents to ban books

Garret Roberts, Beaver County Times
·6 min read
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CHIPPEWA TWP. ― After several books recently were removed from the district's shelves, the Blackhawk School Board is considering a policy that would ban certain books and resource materials.

The new school resource policy posted on the district's website Friday morning would allow any student or their parents to challenge the use of literary and resource materials within the Blackhawk School District. Included in the policy are updates to the resource guidelines at the libraries and a new provision prohibiting content that is not "neutral."

The exterior of Blackhawk High School, which serves several Beaver County communities.
The exterior of Blackhawk High School, which serves several Beaver County communities.

Challenges to the library system's resources come after school board member Gwen DeLuca said "pornographic" content was found in the district's libraries. Shortly after raising these concerns in a recorded Sept. 21 video, parents said the superintendent removed the books and new policy discussions began.

“It’s essential for schools to maintain a safe and appropriate learning environment for every student," DeLuca said. "Any type of pornographic content has no place in the Blackhawk School District. “

What are the school board's proposed guidelines?

The Blackhawk School Board's policy seeks to create a way to challenge books in any of the district's libraries through a group they call the "Reconsideration of Resource Material Review Committee."

The committee would consist of two school board members, two district administrators, the building principal who received the complaint, the district's director of curriculum or appointed designee and the "high school library media specialist." The board amended its original policy, which included two district parents on the board, during an Oct. 12 redline meeting.

The new policy would give students or parents "the right to reject the use of resource materials incompatible with their values or fundamental religious beliefs. Classroom assignments involving resource materials shall also provide for alternate choices when necessary. Parents/guardians may also object to the inclusion of resource materials in the district’s library media centers that fail to conform to the material selection criteria set forth in Board Policy 109."

While the language notes any family's values or religious beliefs may be applied to requests, the full policy gives the school-appointed Reconsideration of Resource Material Review Committee final say in what's deemed "appropriate" for schools. If the complaint is unresolved through this process, the decision would fall to a school board vote.

This would give the school board and district superintendent greater influence over what's considered a credible challenge and what the standard of "values" are for the district.

In the resource materials acquisition guidelines, the board also amended the policy to include that materials should have "viewpoint neutrality." If a book is challenged by Board Policy 109.1, those materials would be restricted during the review period, with only parents and students who challenge the material gaining access to these books.

According to policy language, almost any book could be considered objectionable. Families with conservative religious beliefs, for example, can claim any LGBTQ+ content is "obscene." Parents who are not Christian could target religious texts such as the Bible.

Any argumentative pieces of literature and research would also be subject to removal. Topics considered politically "biased," such as climate change research or other scientific studies, could be challenged for not taking a "neutral" stance in delivery.

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What books have already been challenged?

Before proposing the new policy, students and parents at Blackhawk told the Times that several books were removed from the district's libraries.

According to these members of the district, books allegedly included on this list are:

The Times requested a list of books pulled and the justification for each removal, but DeLuca did not provide those materials in her response as of Friday afternoon.

While board members claim taxpayers provide "pornography" for students, none of the removed novels are considered literary erotica. Any "explicit" passages in these books range from awkward teenage experiences to painful descriptions of sexual assault.

"Mrs. Deluca complained about eight books. There are 16,000 books in the high school library alone," Andrew Woods, a student at the district, said in a letter to The Times. "That means that 0.05%, or 1 in every 2,000 books in the high school library have, according to her, explicit material. If you account for all the books in the district, that percentage is even lower. You are more likely to catch a foul ball at a Pittsburgh Pirates game than you are to find a book that allegedly contains explicit material in the Blackhawk High School library."

Banned books are becoming a topic for many school boards as challenges to content in libraries enters politics.
Banned books are becoming a topic for many school boards as challenges to content in libraries enters politics.

Several of the removed books address religion and race in the United States, offering critical analysis of complex issues. "Stamped" by Ibram X. Kendi describes how institutional racism and racist ideology have created stereotypes that have affected African Americans for decades. Ashley Hope Perez's "Out of Darkness" touches on similar issues, showcasing how young Black women were targets of sexual abuse in a society that didn't punish their abusers.

"The books were banned because one parent and one administrator found them explicit or containing critical race theory," said Kelley Vandecovering, a parent at the district with a doctorate in education. "No educator or parent was allowed to weigh in."

Many of the books allegedly removed from shelves are commonly challenged by political groups, with the conservative Moms for Liberty commonly targeting some of these books as ways to make restrictive policies. While framed as a parental choice, the removal of course materials with policies such as Blackhawk School District's would remove the choice for many teachers and parents in the district.

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"I have major issues with a book policy removing the requirement for reading materials to not discriminate against anyone and to not have to prevent all viewpoints on a topic," said Vandecovering. "From a historical lens, if we do not understand the context in which something occurred then we cannot understand how a bias was created, thus we cannot prevent it from occurring again. Are we not taking small steps towards creating another Nazi Germany or Jim Crow South? It sure feels like it."

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This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Blackhawk schools latest district to consider book banning