Dearborn School Board makes decision about controversial books
After several months of contentious public comment surrounding seven controversial books in the Dearborn School District Library, the board decided to get rid of two and keep three, while two others remain under review.
Initially, there were six books under review, but the district decided to add a seventh on its own.
Here is an excerpt from a recent press release from the Dearborn School Board:
The books that went through the initial challenge process and the results of that process are:
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was deemed appropriate for high school and will remain on the shelves.
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell was deemed inappropriate for middle school, but appropriate for high school. Copies of the book will be removed from the middle schools that had it but remain at the high schools.
- Push by Sapphire and Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston were both deemed inappropriate for high school and copies will be removed from the school libraries.
- No decision has been made yet on All Boys Aren't Blue by Jason Reynolds and This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, but neither book is currently available to students, nor were they part of the district's collection. Both were only available through Sora, but that ebook service is currently disabled for district students.
- While it was not part of the initial list of challenged books, the district has also reviewed Flamer by Mike Curato. That book will remain at the high school level.
At the center of the controversy, which began over the summer, was the book titled "This Book is Gay." Initially, a concerned parent brought the book to the attention of administrators at a school board meeting over the summer.
The book in question still remains under review to determine whether or not it's appropriate for high school students.
Previously, the School Board outlined their review process for determining the appropriateness of books in the district's library and online access. View that story here. View the specific criteria here.
Despite being transparent about the process, parents packed several school board meetings and even had one shut down by the fire marshal due to capacity limits.
At those meetings, parents showed up in large numbers to voice their concern about books they claimed to have material unsuitable for middle school or high school aged children. CBS Detroit was there for those heated exchanges.
Members of the LGBT community were present at the meetings to push back against the books being banned saying they are no different in content to many heterosexual themed books. Many believed efforts to ban the books were routing in bigotry towards their community.
In early November, the ACLU urged the board not to ban any books and stated it was a violation of the constitution. The civil rights group urged districts across the state to protect free speech.
Despite the warnings, the board ultimately decided some books in question did not fit the criteria and others were inappropriate, while others remained available for students to access.
The School Board Superintendent Glenn Maleyko released this statement after the Board's decision regarding the books.
"With roughly half a million books in our school libraries, we realize the likelihood that there could be a few books that were added over the years that parents and staff agree should not be there. However, we want to assure our parents that those books are few and far between and that, overall, our libraries provide a wide range of age-appropriate materials to encourage students to strengthen their academic skills and build a love of reading."