LR5 teachers criticize school board over vote to remove fantasy book series from schools

Several teachers in Lexington-Richland 5 had some pointed comments for the school board after board members recently voted to ban a series of fantasy books from district libraries.

Eight people, most of them teachers in the school district, spoke at Monday’s school board meeting against the board’s Dec. 11 decision to remove books in the novel series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas.

They were upset the board overruled a review committee that had earlier voted 8-1 to keep Maas’ “A Court of Mist and Fury,” the second book in the series, on school shelves after its members read all 640 pages of the book following a parent’s challenge. Teachers are also upset board members went beyond the challenged novel and removed all five books in the series in one fell swoop.

The book had been challenged by a parent over sexually explicit passages, which she read out at the school board meeting in December. The district’s library supervisor said sexual material in the book is a small portion of the overall novel, which meets the district’s guidelines for library materials and is available in other school districts.

In 2022, “Mist and Fury” was one of the country’s most challenged books in libraries and schools, according to the American Library Association.

Teacher Dawn Weathersbee said Monday she was prepared to read from Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, which contains an extended metaphor about a sexually promiscuous woman, to show how selected passages can be taken out of context.

“I’m not going to die on the hill of a high fantasy book,” Weathersbee said. Rather, she objected to the board’s “wholesale rejection of the committee that did read the book in its entirety,” and to the “indiscriminate banning of a series of books that most of you haven’t bothered to read.”

The board voted 5-2 last month to remove the series. Board chairwoman Rebecca Blackburn Hines, who supported the move, told The State that the board followed its policy in hearing an appeal of the review decision and exercised its own judgment, and that state law allows the board to remove inappropriate material regardless of whether a parent has challenged it.

“I did read the book,” Hines said. “I’m familiar with the series. And my belief is that sexually explicit material is separate from all the other conversations we might have about books. That stands alone.”

Of teachers’ comments Monday, “I respect their feelings, I just don’t agree,” Hines said. “The board’s decision was that it contained sexually explicit material and was age-inappropriate for a school library.”

Teacher Lee Bryant told the board that for him, a wide variety of adolescent reading didn’t just inspire a career in education, but also provided him with a rare escape from an abusive childhood. “The next time you consider removing a book, imagine the child who needs that book.”

Grace Abbott, the district’s teacher of the year, said the school board’s decision undercut the review committee — made up of teachers, parents and librarians, some of whom volunteered for the assignment — which had spent a month reading the book and reviewing district library standards.

“Instead of trusting the people who read and analyzed the book, and had knowledge of the students the book would reach, this board’s decision undermines the committee’s authority and professionalism,” Abbott said. “Their talent, energy and time were wasted. It doesn’t reflect well on our district or our values.”

Scott Herring said the board ignored due process in removing the entire series based on a complaint about one book, despite Superintendent Akil Ross stating the district did not have a policy to do that. “Why would a motion to remove books that had not been reviewed even be entertained?” he asked, saying that the board’s vote set a precedent that board members could ignore established procedure and ban an author’s entire body of work based on a selective complaint.

Other teachers read passages from Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” — about a dystopian future where books have been outlawed and are publicly burned — and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” — which a Chapin High teacher was stopped from teaching last year — about the young Black author’s disillusionment with the seemingly irrelevant material his school chose to teach. Hines told The State that the board hasn’t heard a challenge to either book, and has made no decision to remove them.

Tess Pratt, the head of Chapin High School’s English department, said it is a dispiriting time for teachers when they can be accused of exposing children to explicit or inappropriate material. She had learned a school board member had recently requested a review of every book a teacher in her department had purchased in the last three years.

”I was stunned and disheartened by how little you know about what we do,” Pratt told the board.

Dutch Fork High School teacher Katherine Ramp raised concerns about a proposal being considered by the state Board of Education to require state approval for any classroom material.

“We’re not the same as students in Charleston, we’re not the same as students in Greenville,” Ramp said. “That’s why I’m glad we have the ability to choose what’s best for our students, and that’s why I’m concerned about what’s happening at the state level.”