Penncrest board poised to ban some books from school libraries

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct attorney from the Quinn Law Firm who represented the Penncrest School District at its Jan. 9 meeting.

SAEGERTOWN ― A Crawford County school district's plan to pass a sweeping ban on library books that they deem inappropriate or obscene, including books that deal with LGBTQ issues, has once again divided the rural community.

Introduced at its Dec. 8 meeting, the policy would prohibit any material with explicitly written, visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts, as well as visual depictions of nudity with the exception of anatomical diagrams and classical works of art.

Nearly 100 people attended the school board's work session Monday. The meeting had to be moved from the board room to Saegertown Elementary School's cafeteria to accommodate the crowd of ban opponents and supporters. The board meets again at 7 p.m. Thursday, at the school, 18741 State Route 198, Saegertown.

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'Protection of children'

"Your job is to ensure a proper education for these kids, not allowing sexualization or corrupting them," Cambridge Township resident Joel Belovarac, a parent of two students in the Penncrest School District, told the board. "The removal of certain books ha0s nothing to do with a specific group or religion, but has everything to do with protection of all children."

"If you can't get up and read any book in our school library in front of your class, it shouldn't be there," said another resident, Daniel McComas.

McComas began reading an excerpt about sexual intercourse from one of the books in question before a board member interrupted to ask the district solicitor if the reading was appropriate.

Solicitor Art Martinucci seemed to balk at the question: "You're asking me to make a judgment on whether it is or is not pornographic?"

McComas volunteered to stop reading because "I think it's disgusting and gets a lot worse."

Teresa Barickman told the board that she read the books stored in the Maplewood, Saegertown and Cambridge Springs high schools libraries that one board member found obscene, but did not find any instances of "pornography" or "grooming" as some have contended.

'Just want to see ourselves represented'

"What I read were stories about typical adolescents and the things that are happening to them in their daily lives, Barickman said. "These were not how-to manuals for sex or how to become gay or how to become trans."

The books contained words like sex, lesbian, trans and penis — words "our kids already know about and are talking about," Barickman said.

"Being an adolescent is hard and confusing," she continued. "When our kids read these books, they see that they are not alone. Other kids their age are going through the same things. It validates what they are feeling. This is not a bad thing."

Barickman's daughter, Claire Barickman and fellow Saegertown student Camden Gjovik later urged the board to reconsider the proposed policy, saying that it violates students' rights and that parents, under the current policy, are allowed to prohibit the types of books their children check out.

"Some of us just want to see ourselves represented in these books, the same books that you deem inappropriate," Claire Barickman said. "These books cover many crucial topics for students and are representative of many groups throughout the district, covering topics of race, sex, gender identity and diverse backgrounds, which allow students to feel safe and seen."

Another opponent, C.J. Rose, a 2016 Saegertown High School graduate, said the ban disproportionately targets queer literature and LGBTQ students. Rose, who identifies as non-binary and bisexual, talked about the effect that such literature had growing up. Rose called it a "godsend."

Growing up, said Rose, "I wasn't allowed much time with electronics or social media or the internet in general. We didn't even have satellite TV most of my life, but I still knew. I knew as a very young child something was different about me. I knew my attractions were not the same as most, that how I conceive of myself was not considered normal. I lacked the proper words for it then. But with with time, with our society's progress, I learned the right ones."

Rose said some people in the community have painted the LGBTQ community as "some sort of political adversary or worse, a coordinated evil organization out to corrupt the minds and bodies of your children.

"But we are your children," Rose said. "We are your friends and your family and your students, too."

Second proposed change in year

The proposal comes just months after the board amended its library policies in response to one member's objections to books dealing with racism.

School Director and Policy Committee Chairman David Valesky, who in 2021 called a Pride Month display at Maplewood High School "totally evil," is the sponsor of the policy change and has developed a list of 11 books in the Saegertown, Maplewood and Cambridge Springs junior-senior high schools libraries that he finds objectionable.

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Valesky's list, according to the Panther Press, the Saegertown Junior-Senior High School student newspaper, contains titles such as Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes," a story about a school shooting that includes descriptions of sexual acts between two characters and the bullying of a student over his perceived sexual orientation; Susan Kuklin's "Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out," about six transgender and gender neutral young adults and their experience with transitioning; and John Green's "Looking for Alaska", a story about teens dealing with a tragic loss of a friend. It includes sexual content.

In May, the Meadville Tribune reported that Valesky objected to a resource list of several books, including four that Valesky claimed "openly promote" the social justice group Black Lives Matter, which he referred to as a "hate group."

That led to the first revision of the district's library policy, which was unanimously approved in July. Board members added the following to the policy:

"Library materials will reflect and support the district’s educational goals and academic standards. The library resource collection will take into consideration the varied interests, abilities and maturity levels of the students served in each school. Materials will be chosen to stimulate growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values and ethical standards. Materials will be chosen to represent diverse points of view on all topics."

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At the same time, they stripped school librarians of the responsibility of selecting resource material, putting the responsibility in the hands of administrators instead.

'Not the enemy'

Valesky introduced his latest amendment to the library policy late last year. At the Penncrest school board meeting on Dec. 8, board President Luigi Defrancesco, who has previously raised similar concerns about curriculum, including critical race theory, said, without evidence, that district officials could be violating state laws by exposing students to the materials, which he described as "pornography."

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The policy mirrors a ban passed by a 6-3 vote of the Central Books School District's school board in July. That policy is now in effect at the state's third largest district.

In a recent Facebook post, board member Jeff Brooks said the current library policy is stronger without the latest proposed changes.

"I understand the new language suits political purposes, but it is less effective and allows for more interpretation of what (constitutes) sexualized content," Brooks wrote. "There will be more material thrown out that we would like to keep in the libraries.

"All of the policy currently in place directs staff on what material is appropriate and steers them away from inappropriate material," Brooks also said in his post. "We do not need to ban books in order to provide appropriate material for our students. Knowledge is not the enemy."

Valesky could not be reached for comment. Penncrest Superintendent Timothy Glasspool did not return a call for comment.

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com or on Twitter at @ETNRink.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Penncrest board to vote on book ban that some say targets LGBTQ students