She fought GOP board on censorship, then took oath on stack of banned books as new president

While most of the newly sworn in members to the Central Bucks school board chose to swear their oaths on a bible, incumbent Karen Smith brought a stack of books to Monday's meeting.

Smith stood out at the Dec. 4 reorganization meeting as she took her oath of office with her hand placed on top of six frequently banned and challenged books. Smith, who would be named president of the board, and the other Democrats on the board have long cried foul as the former GOP-majority forged ahead with controversial library policy that critics said was a defacto book ban.

Here's a breakdown of each book and why Smith said she chose them.

An “obvious choice”

Smith said “Night” by Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winning author Elie Wiesel, which sat at the top of her stack, was probably the most “obvious choice” given the book’s involvement in a February controversy.

As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, a Central Bucks South High School librarian’s ninth grader sent him a quote from Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

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“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented,” said Wiesel.

The librarian included the quote along with a copy of Night in a library display; however, this was shortly after the former school board passed a “neutrality” policy that barred classroom displays advocating politics or social policy unless related to a lesson.

School officials ordered the librarian to remove the display, though that order was rescinded the next day and the posters allowed. The incident went viral on social media generating a flood of criticism for the district, which later apologized and said it regretted the decision to remove the posters.

That neutrality policy, Policy 321, was one of four policies placed on a freeze by the new board when they took office on Monday.

A challenged classic

Toni Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye” was second on Smith’s swearing-in materials, a literary classic set during the Great Depression and follows main character 9-year-old Pecola Breedlove, who was sexually abused by her father.

Like a few other books in Smith's pile, Morrison’s book was among the first targeted by a group called Woke PA, formerly Woke At Bucks County, late in 2021. The local group targeting “sexually explicit” books were an early driving force behind the former board’s decision to revamp its library policy in 2022.

As one of the books that a group of residents read excerpts from at a March meeting two years ago, Smith said “The Bluest Eye” has stood out to her as a classic work that should be read and not challenged.

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“I think it just stuck out to me as something we don't want restricted from our kids, our older students,” Smith said Tuesday. “We want them to have these types of stories available.”

Smith added that the book’s graphic depictions of sexual abuse, while objective to some, have been called a valuable resource for children recovering from that same abuse.

“It is about sexual abuse, but we do have some students who have been sexually abused and they need to see that that it happens and know that there are resources available to them and that they're not alone,” Smith said.

First LGBTQ books challenged in Central Bucks

Smith brought along three other titles she was prompted to read when they first appeared on the Woke PA list.

Donna Gephart’s “Lily and Dunkin,” a copy Smith borrowed from Holicong Middle School for Monday, follows the story of the friendship between two eighth graders, a transgender girl and a boy with bipolar disorder.

“Lily and Dunkin” was said to contain “strong sexual content” by Woke PA and some parents who complained to the district, a claim Smith said gave her pause.

“I read all the way through the book and there's nothing. There's not even a kiss,” Smith said.

The only reason Smith could figure for the “sexual content” warning was the fact that one of its main characters was transgender.

“Just the existence of a transgender student in the book was enough for some folks who want to challenge it, and it's a beautiful story,” Smith added.

George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue” was another in Smith’s stack, a collection of the queer Black author’s childhood.

Among those stories are Johnson’s own recalling of being sexually assaulted, being the victim of bullying and his own first sexual experience with another man.

“I thought the author is very courageous about what he chooses to reveal,” Smith said.

At the bottom of Smith’s stack was “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” by Susan Kuklin.

That book is a collection of actual interviews with LGTBQ teens whose stories of their own experiences drew outrage locally for its allegedly “strong sexually explicit content.”

“I was just struck by their bravery and honesty and willingness to share their stories to help other teens who may have questions,” Smith said.

A (challenged) book worth noting

“Flamer” by Mike Curato, a semi-autobiographical graphic novel, is the only book on Smith’s list she hadn’t read yet.

Curato’s novel about self-discovery one summer between middle and high school was one of the most challenged books across the country in 2023, according to the American Library Association.

It was also one of the 61 titles first challenged in Central Bucks when the district’s library policy, passed in July 2022, was finally put into practice in January.

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The book made its mark on Smith during an October panel discussion in Tampa, Florida, hosted by the American Association of School Librarians.

On the panel discussion with Smith was Cameron Samuels, a student from the Katy Independent School District, in Texas, which has been a frequent hotbed of library censorship for the past few years.

“During our presentation, (Samuels) said that 'Flamer' saved his life. So, at the time, I remember kind of being … I almost lost it on the stage hearing him say that. So, it seemed like something worth noting.”

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Karen Smith sworn in to Central Bucks on stack of banned books