A parent challenged 444 books in Elkhorn. Here's how the district responded.

In November, a parent took a small Southeast Wisconsin school district by surprise when she called for 444 books to be removed from schools there.

Before that day, Elkhorn Area School District Superintendent Jason Tadlock had seen only two books successfully challenged in his 11 years with the district. Turning to district policy, administrators removed all the titles from their shelves while they determined their fate.

After three months of consideration, students pleading for the books to be kept, and a local pastor reminding board members that they are "servants of God," the district has emerged from the process.

Most books are back on the shelves. Some books — including Toni Morrison's "Beloved," John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" — are gone from the middle school. Over 100 are on a "restricted" list, requiring parental permission. And, with lessons learned, Tadlock said the district is preparing to change its procedure going forward.

School districts across the country are navigating similar requests from parents. PEN America, a nonprofit that has done the most comprehensive tracking of book bans, counted 3,362 instances of book titles being banned in schools across the country last year, including 43 in Wisconsin.

More: These books have been banned from school libraries in Wisconsin in 2023

Where did the Elkhorn book ban request come from?

On Nov. 29, Elkhorn parent Melissa Bollinger emailed the principals of the local middle school and high school. She asked them to review the list of books she found had content "harmful to minors" and recommended removal.

For each book, Bollinger included a "Request for Materials Reconsideration" form with the district's logo on it, which Tadlock said was not a district form, and excerpts from the books. She sent 656 pages to the middle school principal and 1,201 pages to the high school principal.

Many of the excerpts were pulled, as Bollinger noted, from BookLooks.org. It's a website launched by a former Moms for Liberty member that helps parents find books that include content related to sexual activity, commentary on racism and LGBTQ+ characters.

More: What's behind the national surge in book bans? A low-tech website tied to Moms for Liberty

Chapters of Moms for Liberty, a group designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist antigovernment organization, have pushed school districts to remove books in Wisconsin and across the country. Tadlock said he wasn't aware of Bollinger representing any group.

Bollinger didn't respond to an interview request from the Journal Sentinel. At a December school board meeting, she identified herself as a parent and "not an outside organization." She said she was raising objections about "violent and pornographic books."

"We, as a community, need to protect our children from things that we know are harmful," Bollinger said.

Did the Elkhorn Area School District ban books?

At the middle school, principal Ryan McBurney decided to remove 24 books from the school, out of the 163 he reviewed. Those books were moved to the high school. Another 64 are on a "restricted list," available only to eighth graders or younger students who get parental permission.

At the high school, principal Dan Kiel didn't remove any of the 281 books he reviewed, but he put 47 books on a restricted list. Restricted books include: Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and "The Bluest Eye"; Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes"; Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner."

To access books on the restricted lists, parents can fill out an online form to grant students access to all restricted books or certain titles. Tadlock shared the form with families on Tuesday. As of Friday, he said 94 parents had already filled out the form to grant full access. He expected the "vast majority" of parents would do so.

How did Elkhorn administrators decide whether to remove books?

Tadlock said principals used three sources to determine whether books were age-appropriate: Common Sense Media, Barnes and Noble and Amazon reviews.

They turned to the same sources in 2021 when the district received the only other challenge Tadlock has experienced. A parent, Kristin Hovestol, asked the middle school to remove "Burn Baby Burn" by Meg Medina and "Everybody Sees the Ants" by A.S. King — books Tadlock said were part of a middle school reading kit compiled by Scholastic.

In an email to Hovestol, Tadlock said he turned to Common Sense Media for recommended age levels for the books, because Amazon and Barnes and Noble seemed to identify age ranges based on reading difficulty rather than content. Tadlock's email was provided to the Journal Sentinel by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which requested records about the district's decision-making process.

Common Sense Media has condemned book banning and said its ratings should "never be used to limit content in libraries or schools," according to a September post by Mandie Caroll, the organization's senior editor of book reviews. Common Sense Media has encouraged reading frequently banned books, a list that includes books that Elkhorn administrators restricted.

"We know that some parents and caregivers could use our ratings to make decisions for their families that could shield or prohibit kids and teens from being exposed to certain types of content," Caroll wrote. "But our hope is that, instead, families will use all types of media as teaching tools to start conversations and address big issues head-on."

How is Elkhorn changing its process for reviewing book ban requests?

Under Elkhorn's standing policy, the district removed challenged books until they could be reviewed. Tadlock said this was "disruptive to the learning environment," especially because some of the books were on the reading list for an Advanced Placement course.

School board members are considering a new draft policy that would keep books on shelves during a review process. Also under the new draft, a review will only be triggered if at least five people request the review.

After the books on Bollinger's list were first removed for review, Tadlock said most people he heard from wanted the books to stay.

"People's dander got up because this was an individual saying, I don't want any kid to have access to these 444 books, rather than just saying, I don't want my own kid to have access to it," Tadlock said. "A lot of parents were like, you can do what you want with your kids but don't tell me how to raise my kids. That's probably the predominant theme that went on."

At a Dec. 10 school board meeting, several students and staff spoke against the idea of removing books. Koda Rebernak, a sophomore, said it felt "disrespectful" that students could have driver's licenses and work jobs but not be allowed access to young-adult fiction.

"This has felt even more disrespectful when many of my peers were able to find that this list of books under review had a pattern of relating to the experiences of minorities and genuine elements in many parts of our lives," Rebernak said.

Some parents spoke in support of Bollinger at the meeting. Crystal Andraska said while some books on the list were "benign" and had literary value, others had "extremely graphic scenes."

"Eroticism has no place in the school library, and neither does books that contain X-rated street lifestyles expressed in a graphic nature involving drug dealing, drug use, prostitution and extreme violence," Andraska said.

A local pastor, Paul Vawter of Emmanuel Baptist, read Scripture at the meeting and told board members that beyond the authority granted to them through democracy, there is a "more fundamental source" to their authority.

"I encourage you to be mindful of where your authority comes from and the real source of it because you are a servant of God," he said, adding: "I am a pastor, and I know that means that I will give account to Him for my service, and I want to encourage you to think of that as well when you think about what you do on the school board."

What books were removed from Elkhorn Area Middle School?

The following 24 books were removed and transferred to the high school, according to district records:

• Six books by Ellen Hopkins: "Burned," "Crank," "Glass," "Identical," "Impulse" and "Smoke"

• Seven books by Sarah J. Maas: "Empire of Storms," "Heir of Fire," "Kingdom of Ash," "Queen of Shadows," "The Assassin's Blade," "Throne of Glass" and "Tower of Dawn"

• "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

• "Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver

• "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

• "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

• "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak"

• "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

• "Lips Touch Three Times" by Laini Taylor

• "Pretty Little Liars" by Sara Shepard

• "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

• "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

• "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara

What is considered a book ban and when is it allowed?

PEN America counts a ban whenever an objection to the content of a book results in removal or restricted access, overriding initial decisions by librarians or educators who had selected the materials.

Organizations that have pushed for removals have disagreed with that definition, arguing that there's no "ban" if a book is still available in other libraries or bookstores. But in court cases involving materials removed from school libraries, judges have rejected such arguments. A federal judge in New Hampshire noted: "Restraint on expression may not generally be justified by the fact that there may be other times, places, or circumstances available for such expression."

Judges have ruled that while school officials have some authority to remove books from libraries, they can't remove books just because they disagree with ideas presented in the books. That could violate students' freedom of speech under the First Amendment. On the other hand, judges have found that officials can remove books for more limited reasons, including "educational suitability" and "pervasive vulgarity."

More: Are Wisconsin schools banning books? Here's what we know.

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane. 

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A parent challenged 444 books in Elkhorn. Here are the results.