After JoCo district pulled books off shelves, student challenged the Bible as ‘inappropriate’
Without a formal review, the Gardner Edgerton school board on Monday rejected a student’s challenge and agreed to keep the Bible on library shelves.
The Johnson County district this school year has removed seven library books in response to one parent’s complaints over inappropriate content. So Elizabeth Fiedler — a vocal opponent of book bans who graduated from Gardner Edgerton High School last month — submitted a challenge of her own.
Fiedler issued a satirical request that the district ban the Bible from library shelves. Her complaint reads: “I fear that children will be indoctrinated into following the dangerous example set by some of these passages or it will corrupt their innocence.”
She told The Star that “if we are actively challenging and removing books on the basis of inappropriate material then all books should be removed even if it agrees with your ideology.”
During last month’s board meeting, Fiedler said the Bible contains explicitly violent and sexual content, which are the reasons for other book challenges.
But she made clear: “I have never, nor will I ever, believe that books with only a couple of things that are slightly inappropriate should be challenged. The Bible belongs in schools, as well as all of these other books.
“We should equip students with the skills to analyze any pieces or books they read. No one should be using their religious beliefs to challenge or shape any student’s education.”
Last month, Superintendent Brian Huff said at the meeting that the district would follow its policy and review the Bible, as it has with other challenged books. He said the review would begin in the fall and, “we are committed to following the process as its laid out.”
But during Monday’s meeting, the school board voted 6-1 to keep the Bible without reviewing it, as part of the regular consent agenda. Board member Katie Williams asked to have a discussion about it, but she was turned down.
“I am incredibly disappointed in the school board for electing to ignore their own policy they have stood by until it inconveniences them,” Fiedler told The Star.
The board also agreed to retain another challenged library book, approving a committee’s recommendation.
At the end of Monday’s meeting, Williams expressed her “disappointment in this board in their unwillingness to have an open and transparent discussion and in the inconsistent implementation” of the book challenge policy.
“As you know, I have no desire to remove the Bible from our libraries. I am only wanting to have a discussion that we are addressing each stakeholder’s concern equally and consistently,” Williams told her fellow board members.
Board member Greg Chapman countered that, “the other books that were reviewed were not publicly stated by the person asking for the review that they didn’t actually want the book pulled. They just wanted to take a shot across the bow. ...
“I disagree wholeheartedly with your premise, because nothing about this specific book review was like any of the other book reviews. ... And there’s no reason to burden our staff, burden our committee people, just because it’s a shot across the bow.”
Throughout this school year, parent Carrie Schmidt has challenged several books, arguing they include sexual content that amounts to pornography, as well as violence and discussions of self-harm and abuse inappropriate for students.
In response to her complaints, the district removed seven books from library shelves. Three are in a series by author Mila Gray: “Come Back to Me,” “Stay With Me” and “Run Away With Me.” The novels, which deal with romance, love and loss, were marketed as appropriate for ages 16 to 18 by the publisher.
Another book removed from the library was “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover, a romance novel about a young woman breaking the cycle of domestic abuse. And the other three banned titles are in the bestselling fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas: “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “A Court of Silver Flames” and “Empire of Storms.”
Administrators asked a committee to review three others.
As the books were removed, Gardner Edgerton High School’s longtime librarian resigned last month. And the challenges have angered several parents and students, who believe one parent’s complaint should not infringe on their access to books, which trained library professionals deemed appropriate.
On Monday, the board approved the committee’s recommendation to keep one of the challenged books, “Wintergirls” by Laurie Halse Anderson, a story of a girl suffering from mental illness and an eating disorder, without discussion.
Earlier this spring, the school board followed the committee’s recommendation to retain “Bait” by Alex Sanchez, which tells the story of a troubled teenager who ends up in juvenile court.
The school board last fall also agreed to retain “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which is required reading for 10th graders. The book, a common reading requirement, is based on author Sherman Alexie’s own experiences and tells the story of a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, then moving to an all-white high school.
Next, the committee is reviewing “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, about five troubled teenagers who fall into prostitution.
Earlier this spring, some Johnson County residents received a mass text message urging them to help Gardner parents “remove pornographic and sexual content from our schools!” It included a link to a Change.org petition started by Schmidt.
Other districts in the Kansas City metro and across the country are seeing a similar controversy, with a small number of parents attempting to remove several library books. GOP lawmakers and conservative parent groups have spearheaded challenges to diversity initiatives and library books, most of which have LGBTQ characters or racial themes. That has led to several lawsuits and Missouri lawmakers threatening to cut state aid to public libraries.
Missouri House Republicans this year unsuccessfully tried to cut from the state budget the entire $4.5 million in state aid that libraries were slated to get next year in retaliation for a lawsuit challenging a state law passed last year that bans sexually explicit material from schools.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s new rule governing libraries went into effect late last month, threatening to pull public libraries’ state funding over providing minors with books considered pornographic or obscene.
The Lee’s Summit school district spent nearly $19,000 reviewing the first half of the 90 books challenged this year by a small group looking to ban library materials. The district decided to retain the 52 books reviewed as of April.
