Our View: How Central Bucks School Board can make library policy work

Unmoved by protests from parents and students; opposition from The Education Law Center, the PA School Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship; and a threat of legal action from the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Central Bucks School Board majority last month adopted a policy that allows parents to challenge the inclusion of specific books in district school libraries.

Those who don't like the decision can — and should — go to their calendars and circle Nov. 7, 2023 — the date of the next school board general election.

That said, our purpose today is to offer those who voted for the policy and the administrators who supported it six recommendations for how to implement it, suggestions that we believe will limit abuse, prioritize transparency and ensure the sort of fair, unbiased execution that will quiet its critics, particularly those in the LGBTQ community.

We offer these recommendations not just to the Central Bucks but to any other local school system (looking at you, Pennridge School District) that may follow in its footsteps.

Build a great committee

Though the five-page Policy 109.2 includes only one passing reference to a "reconsideration committee," Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh sought on the day of the vote to stress the importance of developing a "committee comprised of educators who make up multiple viewpoints" to judge challenged books "in a manner that is not subjective."

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Lucabaugh should take the time needed to put together a diverse, cooperative and — dare we say it — apolitical group of well-meaning, reasonable members. Then their names and credentials should be listed on the district website.

Narrow the criteria and define the process

Incredibly, the policy's only listing in the "Definitions" section is "Library materials." The district should also define and give examples of what the policy means by "implied nudity," "implied written descriptions of sexual acts" and "visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts."

Doing so would give the committee the backup it needs to make calls based on a concrete set of criteria rather than a tougher-to-defend smell test.

The district should also specifically outline the committee's reconsideration process.

Doing both would mitigate the perception that the district is using purposefully vague language and ill-defined methodology to remove whatever it wants from the library.

Share the stats

The reconsideration committee should, on a quarterly basis, publish to its website a list of books that were challenged and characterize each title as "accepted," "rejected," or "under review." This would showcase the committee's faithful adherence to the criteria and spotlight any biases that crop up against certain types of titles.

It should share the number of hours each challenge consumes as well as the number of times the title was borrowed in the last 12 months. Doing so would help interested observers form an educated opinion regarding whether the committee's time is well spent.

If the committee performs a review and decides to keep a challenged book on the shelves, the policy allows the parent to appeal the outcome to the school board. Whenever the school board bucks the committee to remove a book, the district should report that development on its website.

Let the committee work

The district should allow a questioned book to remain on the shelves while the committee's review is being carried out. This would guard against a coordinated effort by residents to bury the committee under an avalanche of challenges as a means of getting all the books in question pulled for as long as it takes the committee to dig itself out.

Conversely, the district should give the committee a reasonable timeframe for resolving challenges to avoid the appearance that it's employing a do-nothing strategy to keep the books on the shelves.

Empower parents only

In a recent guest opinion, Lucabaugh and board president Dana Hunter stressed that the policy is "about creating processes for acquiring new books and for giving parents an avenue to challenge a book..." and the measure itself notes that "parents hold an essential role in the education of their children and have the right to guide what their children read..."

If the district wants to characterize the policy as empowering parents to play a more active role in their children's education, then why would it allow all district residents — whether they have kids in the schools or not — to challenge books?

The district should instruct the committee to only vet challenges that come from Central Bucks parents or guardians. Doing so would somewhat allay concerns that objections to library books are coming from crusading zealots with little connection to the schools.

If this requires the policy to be amended, then so be it.

Protect important literary works

We appreciate that Lucabaugh and Hunter specifically stated in their guest opinion that "The Bluest Eye," Toni Morrison's harrowing novel that grapples with racism, incest and child molestation, and "The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale of adultery, shame and legalism set in 17th century Puritan Boston, belong "in our school libraries at an age-appropriate level."

If they know of other classics and titles of strong literary value that include content some might object to, they should preemptively list them, making it clear that challenging these books would be a waste of everyone's time. Offering such assurances would ease some of the community's angst over a policy that, for better or worse, is here to stay.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Our View: How Central Bucks School District can make library policy work