And the Banned Plays On

“We need to be teased, questioned, and disrupted. Our minds need to be stirred up.”— Ray Bradbury

Based on the comments and emails I received in regard to last week’s column, I can only assume that the subject of banned books resonated with many of you. It’s a heavy responsibility for parents, teachers, school administrators, and media specialists alike, but it’s also an arena for outside activists to use to try to gain traction in our local school systems and neighborhoods.

While each local school board has some leeway regarding how they handle requests to censor instructional materials, Georgia Senate Bill (S.B.) 226, signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp in April 2022, established clear guidelines on who can object to books and how these citizens can express their objections.

Prior to S.B. 226, any Georgia resident within the county or district could lodge a complaint about a questionable text. Now, however, only parents or “permanent guardians” of students in the local school system can initiate an objection.

Kemp’s restriction effectively shuts down controversial national groups like No Left Turn in Education (NLTE), whose mission is predicated on quashing “the subversion of public education” and “win[ning] back our schools from those who try to poison young minds.”

Coweta County’s Board of Education has been party to local members of the group who have spoken at meetings, reading out-of-context excerpts for shock value. The group’s website features maps of schools in neighboring counties in Georgia (and all over the country) whose libraries contain books they’ve rated “4/ 5” and 5/5” for “obscene” or “aberrant” content.

S.B. 226 also allows for “each local board of education [to] adopt a complaint resolution policy for its local school system” that must include common components such as a written complaint to the principal, a seven-day turnaround period for review and investigation of the text, and an additional three days for conferring the principal’s final decision on the fate of the book to the parent or permanent guardian.

In the Georgia Law Review, Brianna Yates writes that “[f]ollowing this determination, the school board has 30 days to hear any appeals regarding the principal’s decision, and the decision to ban a book should be posted to the school’s website. Thus, S.B. 226 expedites the timeline associated with banning books in Georgia schools, causing concern that this sped-up process will lead to hasty decisions made in response to outspoken parents.”

On the positive side, the accelerated timeline means that parents and guardians will have answers sooner, and the text doesn’t end up suspended in an indefinite limbo.

However, the new guidelines make a significant move in shifting the responsibility for allowing or restricting access to books away from librarians and giving it to principals and their designees.

Teachers have expressed concerns about principals acting as the gatekeepers to controversial materials, not because they don’t trust them; rather they fear that administrators will lack the time, background, and experience to make an informed decision or that they may acquiesce to vocal parent demands in order to keep the peace, as Yates explained in her explanation of the bill.

Maybe S.B. 226 is more of a non-issue for our West Georgia neighborhoods because groups like NLTE haven’t begun to intervene yet as they’ve only targeted surrounding counties like Coweta, Fulton, and Cobb.

Or are we so homogeneous in our political and religious beliefs and so firm in our trust of our local school systems that no one has felt the need to speak out?

In the midst of special interest groups and individuals jockeying for position and power in our students’ lives, we can’t lose sight of the fact that every bill, every objection, every decision must be made with our children’s best interests in mind.

NLTE has determined that public schools and their teachers and administrators attempt at every turn to wrest control away from parents, undermining their influence and authority.

I received one comment from a Carrollton teacher in response to last week’s article that really struck a chord with me: “Parents have put the burden on teachers rather than handle these hard conversations themselves, but they often don’t like what we have to say.”

Do you feel that S.B. 226 provides clearer and more effective guidelines for banning books? Does the process favor parental influence over teacher and school decision-making?

Have you seen examples of attempts to censor books in your local schools? Drop me a comment; I’d love to hear from you.

Leader of the Banned