Polk schools superintendent defends library book policy as activist threatens to file police reports

Paul Nutcher, The Ledger
·8 min read
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Some Polk teachers and media specialists say confusion, and often fear, is dictating what books they can offer in their classrooms and libraries.

The controversy over 16 challenged books in Polk County public school libraries continued at Tuesday's School Board meeting as the superintendent delivered a defense of the district's opt-out policy, a school board member said her family is being harassed, and a community activist threatened to file police reports against "anyone distributing the materials in question."

The meeting came one day before the district's opt-out window was set to close for the fall term. Under a policy announced Aug. 3, parents could opt out of allowing their students access to any books they deemed objectionable until Aug. 17. The second window is between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15.

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But that was a change from a policy announced earlier in the summer by Polk Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid. Under that "opt-in, opt-out" policy, parents would be required to opt in to allow their students to read one of the 16 books challenged by a conservative group late last year. And parents could opt out of any other books they deemed objectionable.

PCPS spokesperson Kyle Kennedy told The Ledger last week that the "opt-in and opt-out process" was "not supported by a majority of Polk County School Board members."

READ MORE ABOUT THE POLK SCHOOL BOOK CONTROVERSY:

'They exist in very small numbers'

The controversy started last year when a group called County Citizens Defending Freedom demanded that 16 books be removed from Polk public school libraries because of passages the group said were "pornographic" or otherwise inappropriate for school-age kids.

The books in question were initially pulled from shelves while two committees of teachers, parents, child development professionals and even high school students, reviewed them throughout the spring. The committees included some members of CCDF.

The committees recommended that all the titles be allowed to stay on library shelves, although with grade-level restrictions on some of them.

The books in question include:

  • "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

  • "The Bluest Eye" also by Toni Morrison.

  • "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan.

  • "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

  • "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer.

  • "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher.

  • "The Vincent Boys" by Abbi Glines.

  • "It’s Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley.

  • "Real Live Boyfriends" by E. Lockhart.

  • "Melissa" (formerly titled "George") by Alex Gino.

  • "I am Jazz" by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings.

  • "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier.

  • "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult.

  • "More Happy Than Not" by Adam Silvera.

  • "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins.

  • "Almost Perfect" by Brian Katcher.

At Tuesday's board meeting, Heid read a letter his staff had prepared with statistics about the books' usage throughout the school system and parent involvement.

The letter said only 42 parents, in a district of more than 110,000 students, had opted out of allowing their students to check out the books as of Tuesday.

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Heid said the CCDF representation on the review panels and the others all agreed to retain four of the books. Of the remaining 12 books, most are not on the shelves of Polk County school libraries.

"They exist in very small numbers across the entire district," Heid said.

"The Kite Runner" and "Beloved" were recommended readings for an advanced placement English course, he said. But parents of students in that course can request alternative readings covering similar themes that students will be tested on in the AP exams.

Five books have never been checked out in the past three to four years, Heid said. Nine books exist in fewer than seven Polk schools; three of the books exist in only one campus.

Heid said complaints were filed with the Polk school district, but no challenge was made about the books in private, parochial and charter schools, which do stock the books because the district’s catalogue shows them available via the online system.

"I was told that was coming soon and here we are 10 months later" and none of those non-public schools' books are under review, Heid added. He said he understood the CCDF also met with the Florida Department of Education and they also did not recommend the books be removed.

"Our school district does not adopt a curriculum for human growth and development independent from the direction of the Florida Department of Education," Heid said.

While it's possible some parents might not have known about the opt-out program, Heid said it has been running since Aug. 3 and communicated four times to parents. The library materials have not been in circulation during the review period or during the opt-out period, which ended Wednesday.

He concluded that Polk schools are a year ahead of the state requirement for maintaining a list of parents who have opted to keep certain books away from their kids.

'The backtracking was unfortunate'

During public comments Tuesday, Robert Goodman of Lakeland said a large group of parents and citizens are disappointed with the books remaining on the district's library shelves.

He said it was "suspect" that the "opt-in and opt-out" policy, which was supported by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, changed to the "opt-out only" policy while three of the board members are up for re-election.

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He called the placement of the books back in schools an "irresponsible move" and a "blatant" violation of the law. "It's not what people feel, it's the law."

Florida statutes forbid knowingly selling, renting, or loaning for money any obscene material that could be harmful to children, including:

  • “Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors; or,

  • "Any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter however reproduced, or sound recording that contains any matter (that is) explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct and that is harmful to minors.”

  • "In addition, adults may not knowingly distribute to a minor on school property, or post on school property, any material that is harmful to children."

But the statute makes exemptions for certain school-related material. Florida statutes also say that in order to be classified as obscene, material must lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

"The backtracking was unfortunate, and we are going to be filing police reports against the board, the superintendent and anyone that is distributing the materials in question because it violates the law," Goodman said.

'Parents have been harassed at home'

Before Heid's presentation, School Board member Lisa Miller told other board members she has been harassed at home over the district's book policy.

“Some disinformation is going around about this book review that we have had, and it’s been so significant that my 76-year-old parents have been harassed at home,” said Miller, who represents District 7 and is running for re-election. Miller's two opponents have each been endorsed by the county's major political parties — Jill Sessions by the Republicans and Dell Quary by the Democrats.

“I have been harassed in public by a member of the group,” she said, referring to CCDF.

READ MORE ABOUT POLK COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS:

Miller said the book review policy is in place and parents who object to a book can go to their local school and request a book be reviewed by a committee.

“We have a policy,” Miller said. “If you are interested in books that belong to your children's school, you go to the school and ask for a committee meeting hearing.

“It’s always been the policy, and I always follow the law,” Miller said.

Miller suggested that if parents want to change the law, a national rating system similar to the ratings for movies and music. A ratings system does not currently exist for books.

“I think that’s a phenomenal idea,” she said.

“When you start banning books, you will ban all the books,” she said. “The Bible in all its forms are in our libraries,” she said. “Watch them come for that because you want to make a political statement.”

Information from Ledger archives was used in this report. Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland activist threatens police reports over Polk library books