A decision by the Francis Howell School District board to ban books with certain content has alarmed some students, parents and teachers.
The school board on Thursday approved by a 5-2 vote a proposal that bans books containing "explicit descriptions of sexual conduct," alcohol and drug use, repeated profanity and "purposeful conduct that injures the body or property of another in a manner that would be a crime."
Shana Youngdahl, an associate professor of writing at Lindenwood University, said the policy would keep students from reading important books, among them “Maus: A Survivor's Tale,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust.
“Art Spiegelman's books painted a clear picture of what can happen when we dehumanize people … when we allow our worst natures to dominate,” said Youngdahl, parent of a Francis Howell middle school student. “That's when the real horrors of humanity occur. … Is this what you want to say — that books like ‘Maus’ are bad books, that teach that we must value one another's humanity?”
Board Vice President Randy Cook introduced the policy in June after he said some parents asked to restrict books they deemed inappropriate.
“These are going to be the guardrails for Francis Howell,” Cook said. “Anything within these is acceptable, and anything outside is probably not.”
Books previously owned by the schools that do not meet the new guidelines may remain in the libraries. However, another policy the board approved Thursday allows any district resident or staff member to request their removal — effective immediately. Such books would not return to shelves until they received approval from the conservative-majority school board.
“If a teacher or staff member or administrator feels that this book is too important to the education of students and cannot be replaced … we'll certainly consider an exception,” Cook said.
Samantha Martin, a recent Francis Howell Central graduate, said she worries that students would not be able to read books like “The Kite Runner,” by Afghan American author Khaled Hosseini.
Martin, who read the book in an English classroom, fears the novel, among the most challenged books in the U.S., could be banned under the new policy because it depicts sexual assault.
“It's been around for ages … those are the books that are being put into jeopardy by policies like this,” Martin said. “In schools, we're supposed to be taught things that will prepare us for the world to come, for life outside of high school. I don't think that school is able to do that if we're censoring everything that comes into it.”
Cook and other board members said they will consider exempting “highly regarded works of literature, nonfiction or religious doctrine.”
In other action, the board approved a policy prohibiting teachers from discussing gender identity in the classroom. Board member Carolie Owens opposed the measure.
“Sometimes a teacher is the only adult a student can talk to,” Owens said during the meeting. “Growing up is hard, and you want to develop a relationship with your students.”
The conservative majority approved an additional policy prohibiting “values judgments on human sexuality.” Board member Steven Blair opposed the policy alongside Owens.
“That term is very vague,” Blair said. “If a person doesn't know what they can say … they just don't say anything. That creates a much bigger issue for me. It's a culture-wide issue, because … you can't put a rainbow flag on the wall, teachers can't even wear a rainbow pin.”
The board postponed voting on another policy that would require transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their assigned gender at birth.
“It's mostly the parents. I think the parents are worried about who is influencing their children,” said Martin. “The people … who are using different bathrooms aren't doing it because they have bad intentions, they're doing it because they don't feel comfortable.”
