'Much ado,' but few books removed: One year after PENNCREST library policy changes
Jan. 12—One year after PENNCREST School Board approved a library policy change that prohibited books containing "explicit written depictions of sexual acts," bookshelves in PENNCREST School District are missing a few volumes but remain largely the same as they were before the controversial change.
As a result of the new policy, 25 books were yanked from district libraries, according to a list provided by acting Superintendent Ken Newman. Due to budgetary restrictions, the district has not purchased any new books to add to the shelves since the change, Newman said, although several have been added through donations.
Among the purged publications are classics such as Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Color Purple" and bestsellers such as multiple volumes in the "My Hero Academia" manga series and the "A Court of Thorns and Roses" fantasy series. Also absent are several works from a more scholarly perspective, including two from the "Opposing Viewpoints" series — "Sex" and "Human Sexuality" — and "The Truth about Sexual Behavior and Unplanned Pregnancy."
The path to the policy change resulted in a series of raucous standing-room-only board meetings, accusations of secret meetings between board members, a lawsuit against the district that was later dismissed, the resignation of the district's lawyer — and hard feelings among board members that were still evident this week.
Despite those challenges and the seemingly small impact in terms of books removed, supporters of the change were happy with the results.
"I think it was definitely worth it," Vice President David Valesky said after the board's meeting Monday. "I think we showed we care about the children most of all and that we care what our tax dollars pay for. I have no regrets about it at all."
Board President Bob Johnston expressed similar satisfaction with the results of the policy change, which applied not only to explicit written descriptions but also to "visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts" and "visual depictions of nudity — not including materials with diagrams about anatomy for science or content relating to classical works of art."
"To me it wasn't even short of pornographic," Johnston said of the affected books. "There's no educational value. That has no business in our library."
But for Johnston, the removal of any particular books was less significant than the change in how books are added to the libraries in the first place.
Under the revised policy, books go through multiple levels of review before they can be added to district libraries. The district's three librarians first submit a list of books to be ordered to their building principals for review before the end of April. The list then goes to the district's central office for further review and finally is brought to the board for approval in July.
"Before, that wasn't happening and that's how some of these books got put in the library," Johnston said Monday. "It was the librarian him- or herself, but now all of that has to come through the board per the policy."
Among the books
For the past five years, Michael Brenneman has spent Mondays and Fridays as the librarian at Saegertown Junior-Senior High, moving to the elementary school for the middle of each week. Before the days-long shutdown of district libraries that followed the policy change, Brenneman was concerned the change would have "catastrophic" effects. Ultimately, however, "it did not have a profound effect."
Many of the expurgated books had only rarely been removed from the shelves by students over the years, he said, pointing to Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" as an example. The students who did seek out were upperclassmen, typically someone taking a college-level English class.
"Most high school students aren't reading Toni Morrison — and especially not seventh graders reading it for titillation," Brenneman said after school Wednesday. "That was the fear that was brought up at the board meeting."
Like Johnston, Brenneman agreed that the more significant change was the additional layers added to the process of purchasing new books. In the past, if a student requested a book that the district didn't own, Brenneman could order it and have it on the shelf within a few weeks. Similarly, if a book were damaged, he could easily replace it. Depending on student and teacher needs and the available budget, he would submit two or three orders each year, he said.
Now, if students were to request that a book be added, they would have to wait until the following school year to check it out, assuming funds are available to make the purchase.
On the shelves
The changes to PENNCREST's library materials policy were approved one year ago but the districts' libraries were first put under a spotlight in May 2021, when a district resident posted a photo of a Pride month book display at Maplewood Junior-Senior High to Facebook.
Valesky soon shared the post and added a comment that circulated widely on social media and drew extensive coverage by the press.
"Besides the point of being totally evil, this is not what we need to be teaching kids," he wrote. "They aren't at school to be brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is okay. Its [sic] actually being promoted to the point where it's even 'cool.'"
The six books that are clearly visible in the photo Valesky commented on include one that is no longer available in PENNCREST libraries: "Beyond Magenta," a frequently targeted and widely acclaimed 2014 book that profiles six transgender teens. The two copies owned by the district would have been removed after the policy change, Brenneman noted, but had previously been reported lost.
The other five books remain on the shelf, as do numerous others that fit the profile of works frequently challenged in recent years: books containing sex scenes, books that treat LGBTQ-related topics, books focused on racism, books that contain detailed treatments of suicide, and more.
A year after the policy change, PENNCREST students can check out such frequently challenged books as "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Thirteen Reasons Why." They can also pick up lesser known works like "Taking Responsibility: A Teen's Guide to Contraception and Pregnancy," "Suicide: Opposing Viewpoints," "Coming Out as Transgender," or "This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work."
While supporters framed the policy change as a shift from a parent-driven "opt out" approach to a district driven review that relieved parents of the burden, the removal of potentially problematic books remains largely complaint-driven.
"We believe everything that was brought to our attention, we were able to address it," said Newman, who led the review last year. "We didn't read the thousands of books in all the libraries, but everything that was brought to our attention, I believe we had enough time to review and to see if they violated the policy."
Parents still have the option to request that volumes be reviewed, Newman noted, or to "opt out" on certain books for their own children. Forms for both procedures can be found on the district's website at penncrest.org.
'Much ado about nothing'
Board member Theresa Lugo knew there were books in the PENNCREST libraries that she didn't want her two high school-age children to read.
In fact, following the district's old library materials policy, she submitted about a half-dozen requests for review just before the board voted to change the policy. In doing so, she became the first person to submit such a request since at least 2018.
But she still voted against the policy change.
"I'm not for banning books. That's not the right approach," Lugo said this week, rejecting the argument that books removed from district shelves have not really been banned since they are widely available elsewhere even, in some cases, in the public libraries located within the district.
The right approach, Lugo argued, would have been to keep the old policy in place. The former policy allowed for the removal of inappropriate books but was not being used, she said.
"I don't agree with some of the content, but that's my personal opinion," Lugo explained, arguing that individual parents should set boundaries for their own children when necessary rather than the board imposing its views on the entire district. "We can have policies in place to protect our kids, but as a parent, I think it's very important that I do that."
Rather than spending several meetings on library policies, shutting down the libraries themselves and requiring staff to conduct a content review, the board "could have been working on bigger and better things," Lugo said, such as much-needed and much-delayed renovations at the Cambridge Springs schools. She saw the detour into book reviews not as an effort to protect kids but as political grandstanding by the board's more conservative majority.
"We could have been working on things that would actually make a difference," she said. "In the end, it was almost like a 'much ado about nothing.'"
Books removed from circulation in PENNCREST School District libraries since the library materials policy was changed one year ago:
"L8r, g8r" by Lauren Myracle
"Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult
"Looking for Alaska" by John Green
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker
"Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson
"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson" by Louise Rennison
"Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants: Even Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson" by Louise Rennison
"Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson" by Louise Rennison
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas
"A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
"A Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas
"A Court of Frost and Starlight" by Sarah J. Maas
"Sex" by Tamara L. Roleff
"My Hero Academia" (vol. 2, 4, 5) by Anri Yoshi
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
"Hold Still" by Sally Mann
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
"The Truth About Sexual Behavior and Unplanned Pregnancy" by Mark J. Kittleson
"Human Sexuality: Opposing Viewpoints" by Brenda Stalcup
Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.
