Recently a new rule went into effect in MO, Library Certification Requirement for the Protection of Minors, that was designed to help protect children from sexually explicit, obscene and age inappropriate content while empowering parents. No surprise, the Cameron school district is in direct defiance and non-compliance with this new rule. Libraries which do not comply with these rules will be ineligible to receive state funding earmarked for the purchase of books. Rules for thee, but not for me. Why wouldn’t the school district want to comply with a requirement designed to help protect minors?
There are six requirements outlined in this rule that libraries must follow in order to receive funding from the state. Those rules are :
- Libraries must create and publish a written policy describing how they consider age appropriateness when selecting materials. – No such policy exists at the Cameron school district. This is one of the many complaints of the citizens concerned about the books in our school district.
- Libraries are banned from buying materials that are “obscene,” “pornographic for minors” or “child pornography” as defined by Missouri law.
- Libraries must create and publish a policy letting parents and guardians determine what materials their child(ren) can access. Library workers are banned from giving material to children that hasn’t been approved by parents. – No such policy exists in the Cameron school district. They do offer a “restriction form” but that does not comply with this requirement. It is going to require a GOOD policy for the district to be able to comply with this one.
- No “age-inappropriate” materials will be displayed in areas of libraries primarily used for children or teens. – Under the new rule, parents have the right to challenge such displays. This is good for parents AND students. See item 6.
- Events held in the libraries must designate which age groups the events are deemed appropriate to allow parents to decide if they will allow their child(ren) to participate.
- Libraries will adopt a written policy letting parents challenge whether materials, events or displays are “age-appropriate.” Results of challenges must be published on a library’s website. – This item is big. I will write about it below.
Just last week at a special board of education meeting the board voted unanimously to rescind policy KLB-AP1. That policy partially complied with item 6. But our board of education felt it was prudent and necessary to rescind the policy which allowed parents to challenge individual books if we had any concerns about the contents.
Now the district tells us if we have concerns about a book we need to address those concerns through policy BDDH-1. You will have to request to be added to the agenda to address the board of education and ask them to consider instructing the district to review the book which concerns you. Mind you, they are under no obligation to do so. It is entirely at their discretion.
The stated goal of this library certification requirement is to protect children. Why would the district and board of education vote to rescind policy KLB-AP1 which gave parents and tax payers a process to challenge books, to try and protect our children?Why is our superintendent not complying with this new rule? Is he not aware, or is this a deliberate act?
To the parents and tax payers in the Cameron community, its time to take a stand. I encourage you to contact every member of the board of education and ask them why they choose to move away from the requirements that were put in place to help protect our children. Demand answers. And let us know how the respond.
https://www.cameron.k12.mo.us/page/board-members
Currently the Cameron school district has no policy in place which would prohibit sexually explicit material from being in our school libraries. This is true for the content that is currently in the library as well as books that can be added in the future. No policy will prevent more sexually explicit content from being added to the library.
At the special board of education meeting in August, the board directed Matt Robinson to order the review of all the books that been previously challenged under policy KLB-AP1. They knew, or should have known, the outcome of that review before they even ordered it to be conducted. No content will be removed for being sexually explicit. It will be retained because it fits the districts mission to be “diverse”.
Policy IIA is the basis, the guide, for how policy IIAC-R1 will be viewed and applied as the school district reviews the list of challenged books. Within the highlighted picture above, notice this quoted portion.
Multi-cultural, disability-aware and gender-fair concepts will be criteria for selection of materials
The people who are reviewing the challenged books will argue that the books that include issues such as LGBT, alternative sexuality, alternative genders and the other topics that concern us are all multi-cultural issues. Because All Boys Aren’t Blue is about a homosexual black man it gets 2 marks in the multi-cultural column and will likely be retained.
You will notice that the district doesn’t define multi-cultural, disability-aware or gender-fair concepts. Because the district doesn’t define it, those who are reviewing the books under this policy get to apply their own subjective definitions.
Moving on to the policy that will be used to “reconsider” the challenged books. Towards the bottom of policy IIAC-R1 you will find the section which covers reconsideration. This is the image to the right of this text. You will notice that this too is entirely subjective, it will be entirely at the discretion of each committee member to decide what they feel those subjective guidelines mean.
Look at item 5. We know the librarian likely recommends every one of the challenged books, she personally selected most of them. So no chance she will say those books aren’t recommended. But should a sexually explicit book which describes how to have anal sex be recommended by anyone at the school district? I say no. Not appropriate content for young children and no amount of context will make it OK.
What should be done?
Many of the books that are being challenged are there because board policy was not followed. Those books should be removed until they can be added in accordance with board policy. To remove only the challenged books would invite lawsuit from organizations like the ACLU for viewpoint discrimination.
Anyone who failed to follow board policy relating to this book mess should be considered as having a conflict of interest in being on that reconsideration committee. Other teachers, librarians or administrators should be appointed, as necessary.
The board of education has the ability, and obligation, to amend policy which does not comply with community standards. It is in their power to draft new policy, or alter existing policy, to protect our children from sexually explicit content. They could amend IIAC-R1 to replace sexually explicit content as well as limit the schools ability to add new books with sexually explicit content.
They could publish the list of books they hope to add to the library in advance of such purchases. This would allow the community to look into the books and make the book selection committee aware of any concerning content. That would give the community a stake in the books being bought with their tax dollars while helping to make the job easier for the selection committee.