BALDWINSVILLE — By now, you’ve likely heard the national news reports on a Tennessee school board that voted Jan. 10 to remove “Maus,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust, from its eighth-grade curriculum. Another school district north of Seattle struck “To Kill a Mockingbird” from its freshman required reading list. In Mississippi, a mayor has threatened to withhold $110,000 from a public library system over a display of LGBTQ-themed children’s books.
At a recent school board meeting, a group of parents in the Baldwinsville Central School District spoke out against certain books available in the district’s libraries and classrooms. The parents are calling for the removal of books such as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “All American Boys.”
Dubbed REACT (Responsible Education and Common sense Teaching), the group of concerned parents and community members includes Claudine Holtman, who has a 10th-grader at Baker High School.
Holtman told the Messenger she first began looking into the themes and content of available books last school year, when her daughter was assigned Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s “All American Boys.” In the 2015 novel, a white teenager witnesses a white police officer assaulting a Black teenager in a convenience store. The book, which landed at no. 3 on the American Library Association’s 2020 list of the most banned books in the U.S., explores issues such as racism and police brutality.
Holtman said her child’s teacher emailed families a heads up about the book’s controversial topics before students were to read it.
“Getting that email was a red flag for me,” Holtman said.
When Holtman read the book, she counted numerous swear words, thought the text was at a fourth-grade reading level and felt the resources the teacher provided were biased. She opted not to let her daughter read the book and contacted the teacher and school administrators.
“Resources should have been from multiple perspectives in a very unbiased way. The teacher did not follow policy on controversial issues,” Holtman said. “I called the teacher out on that, which led to communication with the principal and the superintendent at the time.”
Since then, Holtman and REACT have been looking into other books that either have been assigned to classes in B’ville or are available in school libraries.
“Our group has come across some books that are board-approved that are being used in the classroom and some that are not board-approved are in the libraries,” Holtman said.
She said they have found multiple texts that are “profane or on the edge.”
“Nothing has been done to protect our kids and our families from this happening,” Holtman said.
During the public comment period of the Jan. 10 BOE meeting, a handful of community members spoke on the topic and even read aloud passages they found objectionable.
“Just because these books have won awards does not mean it’s right,” said Rob Pompo, the father of a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old.
Casey Ostrander, a father of three, objected to descriptions of sex and rape in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel about a totalitarian society that censors books and newspapers and limits the rights of women.
“I was told many years ago it was very dark and I should stay away from it,” Ostrander said. “What is the redeeming value of these books, filled with rape and sexual content? We want these materials removed from our schools.”
Lysander Town Councilor Bob Geraci also spoke at the BOE meeting.
“This is pornography, folks. You’d never bring this into your house,” he said. “There’s Shakespeare, there’s so much good stuff, you don’t need this.”
Holtman echoed Geraci’s sentiments.
“We are able to use the billions and billions of texts throughout the world to teach,” she told the Messenger.
While the Baldwinsville Central School District had not responded to the Messenger’s requests for comment by press time, Baldwinsville Public Library Director Meg Van Patten offered her insights on the issue of book censorship.
“We do have a policy and a process if somebody wants to challenge material,” Van Patten said, adding, “It’s been many, many years [since someone last complained] and the books that people have questioned, nothing has ended up being removed.”
Per BPL policy, anyone who wishes to challenge a book must discuss it with the librarian in charge of the collection. If the issue is still not resolved, the person may file a formal complaint to be reviewed by a committee of librarians, the library director, and two trustees. The full board of trustees ultimately votes on the issue.
In December 2021, the BPL board voted unanimously to adopt the New York Library Association’s Position Statement on the Defense of Intellectual Freedom.
“With the increasing number of challenges, especially for books regarding race and LGBTQ+ communities, New York’s school libraries and librarians are being pressured to censor and restrict access to information. Parents have the right to set restrictions for their own children, but no person or group has the right to deny access to all readers,” the statement reads in part. “In a democratic society, partisan disagreements cannot dictate the decision to remove such materials. Therefore, the New York Library Association stands firmly opposed to the restriction, removal, and/or censorship of books and other library materials in an attempt to limit the freedom to read or obstruct intellectual freedom.”
Van Patten, who is president of the public libraries section of NYLA, emphasized that BPL “does not take a political or religious stance and the library does not stand in loco parentis” — that is, the library does not fill the role of a parent.
“We serve everybody in the district and there’s all kinds of people in the district, and viewpoints and backgrounds,” Van Patten said.
Van Patten said she recognizes the difficult position many school librarians are finding themselves in.
“They definitely have tougher challenges,” Van Patten said. “The school librarians that I know throughout the state are still firmly in defense of the collections.”
The history of banning books is as old as books themselves. In 213 BCE, Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang is said to have ordered the destruction of poetry, history and philosophy books whose themes and perspectives did not align with his administration. Throughout its history, the Catholic Church has heavily regulated and even banned translations of the Bible into everyday languages (as opposed to Latin). Censorship is often a feature in authoritarian regimes such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Iran.
“Back in probably the ‘70s there was a whole push of people trying to do this, and it’s hit a new cycle,” Van Patten said. “It has been hitting many states and many places.”
Despite the recent rise in attempts to censor books, libraries and free speech organizations are determined to protect their collections.
“We’re going to keep firm to our belief,” Van Patten said.
To learn more about frequently banned and challenged books, visit the American Library Association at ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/.
