Pennsylvania school district adopts policy to remove ‘sexualized content’ in libraries
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Board members of the Central Bucks School District this week approved a policy to weed out “inappropriate” content in school libraries.
The policy has been criticized by community members and school district parents who say it only serves to benefit a vocal minority aiming to insert their personal beliefs into the classroom.
The policy is representative of a larger trend, and school districts and state houses across the nation this year have introduced measures to restrict classroom discussions of race, religion and LGBTQ+ identities.
A Pennsylvania school district this week voted to adopt a controversial policy restricting “sexualized content” in libraries, despite fierce opposition from community members and free speech and LGBTQ+ advocates.
In a 6-3 vote during a Tuesday evening meeting, board members of the Central Bucks School District approved a policy that will allow for the removal of library books considered inappropriate for children and teenagers.
A committee of selectors will be appointed by the superintendent and will work cooperatively with library staff, faculty and school administrators to select materials consistent with the policy. The committee’s work will also be posted on the school district’s website to promote “parental engagement.”
According to the policy, selectors for middle and high school libraries will prioritize the selection of materials that do not contain “implied” or explicit written descriptions or visual depictions of sexual acts or nudity. The policy specifies that restrictions on “visual depictions of nudity” do not apply to learning materials with diagrams about human anatomy for science courses or content relating to classical works of art.
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Parents under the new policy are also given greater authority to challenge library books “on the basis of appropriateness,” which is not clearly defined in the policy.
The document does, however, specify that materials may be challenged and removed based on a lack of educational suitability or prevalence of “sexualized content” or “pervasive profanity or vulgarity.”
“It need not rise to the levels of obscene material or material which would violate criminal laws in order to warrant replacing the material with better options,” the policy says.
School board members who voted to adopt the policy on Tuesday said it was developed to protect minors from engaging with inappropriate and sexually explicit content and does not constitute censorship.
Abram Lucabaugh, the district’s superintendent, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the policy was not designed with any specific titles in mind. The intent, he said, is to create a streamlined process for the selection of new materials and create a pathway for parents to challenge “gratuitous, salacious, over-the-top, unnecessary, sexualized content [in library books] that would not be age-appropriate.”
A majority of community members present at the Tuesday meeting disagreed, accusing the policy of being intentionally vague and discriminatory. A petition organized by a Central Bucks school district parent opposing the policy has been signed more than 3,000 times.
In an op-ed published last week in The Intelligencer and Wheeling News Register, Kate Nazemi, the petition’s organizer, wrote that the policy was designed to “sow confusion, uncertainty, and fear, only to appease our resident alarmists.”
According to Nazemi, most of the titles challenged by parents backing the new policy reference LGBTQ+ issues or identities or are written by authors of color.
During a press conference on Tuesday before the school board’s vote, Julie Zaebst, a senior policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania, said the district would be “caving to a small group of vocal parents” if it chose to adopt the policy, which she said will target books that focus on marginalized communities.
“It’s not very hard to connect the dots between this policy and other school district actions that have a clear LGBTQ bias,” Zaebst said. In May, the district instructed staff to remove Pride flags from classrooms.
The school district’s policy – considered one of the most restrictive in the state by the Pennsylvania Library Association, according to the Inquirer – is reflective of a national trend aiming to limit talk of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
Dozens of restrictive curriculum bills have been introduced in states across the country this year, including one in Florida that has been challenged in a number of lawsuits filed by LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, 80 percent of the nation’s youth live in states that considered restrictive curriculum bills last year, with most measures seeking to limit classroom discussions of race, religion and LGBTQ+ issues and people.
Jonathan Friedman, the director of the nonprofit PEN America’s free expression and education program, told Changing America that he expects more education battles to be fought at the district level.
“The Bucks County policy is opening the door to make it easier for censorship to happen,” he said. “After banging on that door for a long time, we’re seeing a lot of activists now shift their tactics toward changing the way that that door can be closed to them.”
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