Alachua County school district clarifies book challenge policy

After an unprecedented spate of book challenges in the fall semester, Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) has taken a step toward clarifying its policies and procedures for handling those challenges.  

District attorney Susan Seigle provided the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) with written procedures for book challenges and hearings at a workshop on Wednesday. 

Seigle said when the challenges first started coming in, the district had not yet come up with new policies to adhere to a new state law, House Bill 1069, which revised the process for review of library and classroom materials available in public schools, and the process for parents to limit student access or make objections to materials. 

The law also requires that materials alleged to contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct be suspended from library shelves until a resolution is reached. 

The new law required new policies and procedures from the district, but Seigle had just been hired and legal assistant DeeDee Talbot was out for an extended period of time. 

This lack of new policy resulted in a school-level library advisory council (LAC) voting to keep a book, “Beyond Magenta,” on its library shelves, then being overruled by the principal to remove it in October. Seigle said she received many email complaints after that decision, asking why there had not been more opportunity for public input. 

Seigle’s revised procedure skips the school-level step, directing principals to receive book challenges and immediately forward them directly to a district-level LAC, which will convene twice a month to hear all objections. She said this helps relieve principals and media specialists from too much involvement and individual responsibility for a decision with broad effects. 

The district LAC is then to make a recommendation, not a decision, to avoid public input at committee meetings. If the LAC recommends removal of the material, the recommendation goes directly to the school board where it can have public input. If the committee recommends to retain the material, it goes to a hearing officer, currently Bessie Jackson. 

“It does put a little burden on you,” Seigle told the board, “but I would rather you have the input from the public so you can get the sense of the public feeling, and make your decision based on that.” 

This procedure was not yet solidified by December, when the first book hearing was scheduled, so Seigle said over 800 pages of exhibits and witness lists ended up being shared two days before the hearing. Since then, Seigle added to the procedures Jackson’s request for two weeks to review such material before the hearing. 

Seigle also told the board that her policy is not to subpoena any staff members for such hearings, instead opting to procure the staff member upon request without a subpoena. She noted that there will be some limits on such requests, as not all employees have relevant information, and some, such as the superintendent or board member, have conflicts of interest that do not allow them to attend LAC meetings. 

At the tail end of a five-hour regular meeting of the School Board of Alachua County on Tuesday, the school board voted 4-1 to retain a book challenged by Crystal Marull, who submitted the majority of the fall semester’s challenges. The book addressed on Tuesday was “Melissa,” by Alex Gino, which Marull argued contained passages referring to pornographic interests that 10-year-olds should not be contemplating. 

“After participating in the past two hearings, it has become apparent that the personal opinions of the district and school media specialists are motivating them to openly disregard the state’s selection criteria for library materials,” Marull said on Tuesday. 

Marull was allowed 10 minutes to speak to the board during the Tuesday hearing, based on procedures in student hearings, but that time limit is not necessarily set in stone for future challenges, and she said the time limit procedures were not communicated to her ahead of time. 

Board Member Sarah Rockwell said on Tuesday that she has read “Melissa” and found it to be a high-quality children’s book that can help students feel comfortable with themselves. 

Board Member Kay Abbitt was the lone dissent, calling herself “old-fashioned” for being uncomfortable providing the book to young children. 

Marull also attended the Wednesday workshop and told the board the entire book challenge process has been one of the most anti-parent-friendly processes she has encountered in any school district, including other issues she has brought up within ACPS. 

Seigle told the board on Wednesday that she considers the policy documents to be “living documents,” flexible enough to change according to any new legislation. 

School Board attorney David Delaney agreed that the policies and procedures should be left open to more “tinkering” if things change on the state level and the district needs to react.