Brevard school board debates public input on challenged books and effect of new state law

Prompted by concerns that parents may flout the book review process to fast-track getting a book off school library shelves through a loophole created by a new law, Brevard’s school board spent nearly two weeks debating their public comment policy.

In the end, no changes were made to the policy at a Tuesday meeting, but board members discovered that some challenged books had already been banned because of the loophole.

House Bill 1069, which dictates what can and cannot be taught in schools, says that parents must be allowed to read from challenged books. If a school board member stops them because the content is sexually explicit or pornographic, the book must come out of all schools within five days.

That happened back in July, said Katye Campbell at a work session Tuesday afternoon. At a July 27 meeting, three women read from five books — "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews; "Empire of Storms" by Sarah J. Maas; "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson; "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison; and "Sold" by Patricia McCormick.

Board Chair Matt Susin stopped Michelle Beavers from reading her selected excerpt from "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" almost immediately. He also stopped Karen Colby as she read an excerpt from "All Boys Aren’t Blue," but Colby resumed reading after the brief interruption, and was not prevented from continuing. Susin stopped her a second time as she read from "The Bluest Eye" because she had completed her three-minute time limit, not because of the content she was reading.

Greg Ross was also cut off by Susin at an Aug. 8 meeting, when he read the definition of "masturbation" from Webster's Dictionary.

It was not immediately clear how many or which books were pulled from BPS shelves.

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At the time of the July 27 meeting, the part of HB 1069 that requires school districts to remove books if a parent is interrupted while reading wasn’t widely known, with Campbell saying at Tuesday’s work session that the board was unaware of the “consequences of this clause.”

This aspect of the law didn’t draw much attention until Aug. 28, when speakers at an Indian River County school board meeting prompted the removal of 34 books on the grounds that they were sexually explicit or pornographic.

Concerns about this occurring in Brevard, as well as questions about breaking FCC guidelines, prompted the debate about changing BPS’ public comment policy, with the discussion first arising at a Sept. 7 board meeting.

There, Campbell proposed no longer broadcasting public comment, but instead recording it and uploading it online with a content warning. That way, board members could allow parents to read uninterrupted without breaking FCC guidelines about explicit content being broadcast. Not interrupting a parent would prevent them from circumventing the district’s book review policy.

During a Sept. 12 work session, where board members discussed the idea further, they concluded that public comment should be split up by agenda and non-agenda items, and that the non-agenda section would not be broadcasted. All other parts of the meeting would be livestreamed. Though not everyone was in complete agreement, Susin said he would make a motion to change the policy at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The proposed change prompted public outcry from both those against banning books and those in favor of restricting content on school library shelves. Multiple groups put out calls on social media to reach out to board members and attend Tuesday’s school board meeting, with conflicting interpretations of the move by the board. Some said it was an attempt to help make it easier to get books off the shelves, while others considered the update to be censorship.

At Tuesday's work session, the policy was discussed again, with Susin vowing to read all challenged books to familiarize himself with the titles. He challenged other board members to do the same.

“There seems to be not this knowledge of which books are being challenged,” he said. “I’m going to make a request to receive those books, and I’ll start getting started, and I would say that if anybody else would like to, you can at least scan the areas that they may be challenging and look at them so that you’re aware of that.”

At least 31 books have been formally challenged and are yet to be reviewed.

During the discussion, all board members but Campbell were in favor of not splitting public comment into two sections.

“We need to have something in place to just protect the little ears at home from more than just sexually explicit content, because maybe it’s just because of the kind of prude I am, I don’t want to broadcast cuss words,” Campbell said. “I wouldn’t want somebody to stand up and read '(The) Hunger Games' from the podium. But that doesn’t mean that we’re about to … pull those kinds of books off the shelf too.”

Jenkins said she wants to leave the policy alone, but if it’s abused, she would opt to separate public comment into two sections and record the non-agenda items.

“I think that’s where we’re going to end up anyway,” she said.

Susin, Megan Wright and Gene Trent agreed that the board should leave the policy alone for now.

“I’m sure it will be taken care of the way it’s supposed to, from (Susin’s) position, I have all the confidence in that,” Trent said regarding people potentially abusing HB 1069.

The book review committee, which must review formally challenged books to determine whether they can stay on the shelf or not, has been on pause since June pending an update to the book review policy. Tara Harris, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said the policy and a related policy regarding the selection of instructional materials have been in revision and would likely be brought back to a work session on Oct. 1.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Board: Books were pulled from Brevard schools prior to new law concerns