‘Diary of Anne Frank,’ ‘1984′ added to lists of ‘explicit’ materials taught in Hampton Roads classrooms

Several Hampton Roads school systems have posted lists of books and instructional materials found to contain “sexually explicit content” as described in Senate Bill 656, which passed the state legislature last year. Each list contains dozens of titles, including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Outsiders.”

Families can expect to receive permission forms prior to any lessons involving these materials. Alternative materials will be available if permission is not given.

So far, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Hampton schools have developed publicly available lists. Other divisions have policies and procedures in place regarding parental input in instructional materials.

Virginia Beach Public School’s Department of Teaching and Learning, along with several teachers, coordinators and instructional specialists, started the “lengthy process” of going through the curriculum and identifying any instructional materials that might contain sexually explicit content as defined in the bill, Chief Academic Officer Kipp Rogers said. This process began last year, and the list was complied prior to Jan. 1, as directed in the bill and division policy.

Rogers said the staff and officials used the definitions provided in the bill to help identify the books on the division’s list.

It references Virginia Code which states sexually explicit “means (i) any description of or (ii) any picture, photograph, drawing, motion picture film, digital image or similar visual representation depicting sexual bestiality, a lewd exhibition of nudity, as nudity is defined in § 18.2-390, sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse, as also defined in § 18.2-390, coprophilia, urophilia, or fetishism.”

“Quite frankly, we were surprised that some of the texts that we’ve been using for years would fall into the category of having potentially sexually explicit content,” Rogers said.

The process to identify these potentially sexually explicit texts was similar in Chesapeake. According to a Chesapeake Public Schools statement, all middle and high school English Language Arts teachers were tasked with going through their materials by grade level “to make a determination” on whether the material may contain sexually explicit content.

Further reviews were done by department chairs and central office administrations before the division’s list was posted online. The final product includes George Orwell’s “1984,” as well as many of Shakespeare’s plays and “Catch-22″ by Joseph Heller.

According to the statement, the list is applicable to the current semester, and an updated list will be available for the upcoming school year.

Similarly, Hampton Public Schools posted a list on its website under its Language Arts page.

Rogers said the idea behind the alternative texts is allowing the student to still master whatever skills on which the original lesson worked. If a lesson is on how to analyze a character, then the alternative text would need to deal with similar themes and characters to still allow the student to meet that standard of learning.

For example, “The Diary of Anne Frank” is taught in Virginia Beach in eighth grade English, according to the division’s list of instructional materials found to contain “some element of sexually explicit content.” Rogers said an alternative text for any lessons involving that title would be “Refugee” by Alan Gratz.

Debate surrounding content available in schools has been ongoing for months and a highlight of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration since he took office. He has been a strong advocate on “parental rights” as they relate to parental involvement in their children’s education.

Though Senate Bill 656 focuses on instructional materials, meaning materials used for classroom instruction, some have said what is available in school libraries also needs to be addressed.

In a recent policy review committee meeting in Virginia Beach, a draft of a new policy relating to library books was presented. The draft included references to the bill and its definition of “sexually explicit.” The draft went on to describe the process for selecting new library materials, prohibiting materials considered sexually explicit in elementary school libraries and creating a public list.

Already, divisions across Hampton Roads have procedures in place for parents and community members to challenge both instructional and library materials they deem inappropriate. Policies and the processes to go through are shared on each division’s website.

“Even before Senate Bill 656, we always partnered with families on helping them to make decisions to best support their students and to continue to encourage them to work very closely with their child’s teacher and our school-based administrators,” Rogers said.

Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com