A Solution to Book Challenges Ignored

An ad hoc committee to find a solution to books that some find unsuitable for placement in school libraries thought it had a solution. Then, Jon Russell disbanded it, with no explanation why.

Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT

An ad hoc committee to discuss Spotsylvania County Public Schools’ book challenge policy also discussed ways to control student access to books with explicit content. The committee arrived at least one solution, but the committee was disbanded before any solution could be implemented. 

The committee was assembled by School Board member Rabih Abuismail following the May 8 School Board meeting, at which the board approved adding the definitions of “sexually explicit content” to its policy and regulations governing the selection and review of instructional material. 

Chief of Staff Jon Russell wrote the revisions approved at the May 8 meeting. He told the board that the revisions were required by Virginia Code - referring to the law requiring school boards to enact policies to ensure parental notification of instructional material with sexually explicit content - and that he consulted superintendent Mark Taylor, the board’s attorney and “some” parents in writing them. 

Abuismail voted to accept Russell’s revisions but stated that the policy and regulations were still “outdated.” He asked that they be brought back to the board after more community members and librarians could be consulted. 

The committee was assembled as a result of that request, committee member Bernadette Chimner said. The members included Chimner; Russell; the school division’s library liaison Kim Allen; and Wanda Stroh. 

Abuismail; the board’s attorney, Whit Robinson; and the director and assistant director of the division’s department of teaching and learning served on the committee as advisory members, Chimner said. 

“The superintendent was also (an advisory member) but I only ever saw him very briefly,” Chimner said. 

Stroh and Chimner are community members not employed by the school division. The Advance spoke to Chimner for this story and also reached out to Abuismail, but did not reach out to the other members. 

The committee met three times in June and once in July, Chimner said. Its primary focus was to propose updates to form IIA-R, the checklist that school-based book review committees fill out. 

When a book challenge is initiated, the principal of the school where the book resides assembles an ad hoc committee of volunteers to review the book using the checklist. 

“Some of (the questions on the checklist) are confusing, very difficult to understand and ambiguous,” Chimney said. ‘The questions themselves need to be updated. That was our primary focus in the first couple of meetings.”

After that, the committee shifted its focus to figuring out whether or how students should have access to library books that have been identified as containing sexually explicit content. 

Solutions are discussed

Chimner said that during these discussions “emotions ran high.” 

“(Stroh) is very passionate (in her belief) that all these books are illegal,” she said. “Jon Russell was, on balance, a little bit more thoughtful. His position - or Taylor’s - is essentially that if the parents have the right to opt (their children out from being able to access these books), we need to make sure kids can't go into the library and get the book. We need a way to control access beyond the opt in/opt out.”

Chimner said Allen presented ideas on how to adjust the school libraries’ internal policy on ordering books, especially those with controversial themes. Russell, however, was worried about books already on the shelves. 

“Russell is convinced there is a legal obligation to keep these books out of the hands of kids whose parents opt out,” Chimner said.

The committee discussed putting the challenged books in a restricted section or in a locked cabinet, but Chimner said she worried about kids facing stigma or being shamed for visiting that section. 

Eventually, the committee arrived at at least one solution that seemed workable for everyone. 

Similar to the way video rental stores used to display empty cases and the customer would receive the actual movie upon check-out, the library would display the dust jackets of the challenged books wrapped around a different book. 

“So at check-out, the librarian would swap the book (if there was parental approval),” Chimner said. “We talked about doing the same thing for really popular books or books that are really thick.” 

Librarians already regularly weed the collections of titles that are old or out-of-date, and those weeded books could be used to fill the dust jackets of the challenged books.  

Chimner said the committee members recognized that this option would require some extra work on the part of the librarians, but that the librarians were willing to take it on “in the interest of finding a solution that would let us keep the books on the shelves.”

She said there was never an official decision to implement the “book shell” solution, but that “everyone seemed fairly on board” and that she was “under the opinion that there would be more meetings” at which to formally decide. 

Then, on August 16, Russell sent an email to the committee members informing them that the committee had been disbanded. 

“I want to thank you for your work on the IIA working group. We were able to cover a lot of ground and the working group is no longer needed. I appreciate your time and input to get us to this point. It was a pleasure working with all of you,” Russell wrote. 

Chimner said she wasn’t expecting the email. 

“I was under the impression that we had solved this problem,” she said. 

In October, the division issued a press release announcing that Taylor had ordered the removal of 23 more challenged books from high school libraries. 

The Advance reached out to the school division to ask about the committee’s work and proposed solutions. An unidentified spokesperson sent a statement clarifying that the committee was “a policy review committee, not a book review committee,” but did not respond to other questions.

Abuismail also did not respond to questions about the committee’s work.

An ad hoc committee assembled by School Board member Rabih Abuismial to discuss Spotsylvania County Public Schools’ book challenge policy and ways to control student access to books with explicit content arrived at least one solution - but the committee was disbanded before any solution could be implemented. 

The committee was assembled following the May 8 School Board meeting, at which the board approved adding the definitions of “sexually explicit content” to its policy and regulations governing the selection and review of instructional material. 

Chief of Staff Jon Russell wrote the revisions approved at that meeting. He told the board that the revisions were required by Virginia Code - referring to the law requiring school boards to enact policies to ensure parental notification of instructional material with sexually explicit content - and that he consulted superintendent Mark Taylor, the board’s attorney and “some” parents in writing them. 

At the May meeting, Abuismail voted to accept Russell’s revisions, but stated that the policy and regulations were still “outdated.” He asked that they be brought back to the board after more community members and librarians could be consulted. 

The committee was assembled as a result of that request, committee member Bernadette Chimner said. The members included Chimner; Russell; the school division’s library liaison Kim Allen; and Wanda Stroh. 

Abuismail; the board’s attorney, Whit Robinson; and the director and assistant director of the division’s department of teaching and learning served on the committee as advisory members, Chimner said. 

“The superintendent was also (an advisory member) but I only ever saw him very briefly,” Chimner said. 

Stroh and Chimner are community members not employed by the school division. The Advance spoke to Chimner for this story and also reached out to Abuismail, but did not reach out to the other members. 

The committee met three times in June and once in July, Chimney said. Its primary focus was to propose updates to form IIA-R, the checklist that school-based book review committees fill out. 

When a book challenge is initiated, the principal of the school where the book resides assembles an ad hoc committee of volunteers to review the book using the checklist. 

“Some of (the questions on the checklist) are confusing, very difficult to understand and ambiguous,” Chimney said. ‘The questions themselves need to be updated. That was our primary focus in the first couple of meetings.”

After that, the committee shifted its focus to figuring out whether or how students should have access to library books that have been identified as containing sexually explicit content. 

Chimner said that during these discussions “emotions ran high.” 

“(Stroh) is very passionate (in her belief) that all these books are illegal,” she said. “Jon Russell was, on balance, a little bit more thoughtful. His position - or Taylor’s - is essentially that if the parents have the right to opt (their children out from being able to access these books), we need to make sure kids can't go into the library and get the book. We need a way to control access beyond the opt in/opt out.”

Chimney said Allen presented ideas on how to adjust the school libraries’ internal policy on ordering books, especially those with controversial themes. Russell, however, was worried about books already on the shelves. 

“Russell is convinced there is a legal obligation to keep these books out of the hands of kids whose parents opt out,” Chimney said.

The committee discussed putting the challenged books in a restricted section or in a locked cabinet, but Chimner said she worried about kids facing stigma or being shamed for visiting that section. 

Eventually, the committee arrived at a solution that seemed workable for everyone. 

Similar to the way video rental stores used to display empty cases and the customer would receive the actual movie upon check-out, the library would display the dust jackets of the challenged books wrapped around a different book. 

“So at check-out, the librarian would swap the book (if there was parental approval),” Chimner said. “We talked about doing the same thing for really popular books or books that are really thick.” 

Librarians already regularly weed the collections of titles that are old or out-of-date, and those weeded books could be used to fill the dust jackets of the challenged books.  

Chimney said the committee members recognized that this option would require some extra work on the part of the librarians, but that the librarians were willing to take it on “in the interest of finding a solution that would let us keep the books on the shelves.”

She said there was never an official decision to implement the “book shell” solution, but that “everyone seemed fairly on board” and that she was “under the opinion that there would be more meetings” at which to formally decide. 

Then, on Aug. 16, Russell sent an email to the committee members informing them that the committee had been disbanded. 

“I want to thank you for your work on the IIA working group. We were able to cover a lot of ground and the working group is no longer needed. I appreciate your time and input to get us to this point. It was a pleasure working with all of you,” Russell wrote. 

Chimner said she wasn’t expecting the email. 

“I was under the impression that we had solved this problem,” she said. 

Last month, the division issued a press release announcing that Taylor had ordered the removal of 23 more books from high school libraries. 

The Advance reached out to the school division to ask about the committee’s work and the proposed solutions. An unidentified spokesperson with the division’s communications office sent the following statement, “The committee you are enquiring about was a policy review committee, not a book review committee,” but did not answer any questions.

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