Oak City woman cites new state law, parent group’s talking points in bid to get books she calls ‘pornographic’ removed from school libraries
Pornography! On the shelves at your child’s school library!?!
GASP!
The tentacles of a burgeoning conservative political movement spreading in certain parts of the country reared its head in Millard County at a school board meeting last week.
A concerned citizen, Oak City resident April Love—she confirmed she has no kids currently enrolled in local schools—presented information to the Millard board of education calling more than a dozen literary titles available in Delta High School’s library smut not fit for school-aged consumption.
“Pornography” was the descriptor she used over and over and over to describe works of literature—some familiar titles long derided for graphic content, others by authors few outside the world of English lit would even be familiar with—she said should not be available to high schoolers.
Without reciting the offensive content, Love regurgitated long-held fears about “pornography” and its ill effects on the youthful mind— though one would be hard-pressed to believe that today’s youth are widely accessing the written word for adult content, what with the ubiquity of such material online, in movies, popular music, and on social media, available with the touch of a button.
“The current movement which I am engaged is relatively new, as far as parents speaking up,” she told school board members. “I know that you all are really concerned about pornography in the schools. I know that. I know that you understand the damaging and addictive effects of pornography, how it severely damages relationships, breaks up families and, many times, well, it changes the brain, leading to more deviant and violent behavior as time goes on.”
Love extolled the virtues of Utah laws and education policies currently in place to protect kids, saying today’s teachers walk a tightrope. But she also pushed local administrators to do more—essentially calling for outright banning books flagged for containing offending material.
“Pornographic books, with descriptions and illustrations, can in some cases be even more dangerous than photographic images,” Love told board members, adding that some of the 14 books she referenced included detailed descriptions of “lust toward minors,” “empathy for rapists and pedophiles,” and even “links to child porn (web) sites.”
“And these have been showing up in school libraries across the country,” she said.
BOOKS AS ‘PORN’
Among offending books identified in Delta High School’s library, however, include a graphic novel rendition of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 classic “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Renowned black author Toni Morrison’s first novel “The Bluest Eye,” published in 1970, is also among offending titles.
More modern books on the list include 2013’s “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Lauren Myracle, which some reviewers noted when it first appeared might cause controversy since it provides an “honest” take on a teen’s first sexual experience.
“All in all, this story sets a high standard and level of expectation as to how a first love and first sexual experience might go. Aside from considering moral or religious implications, for teens trying to gain a better understanding as to how it all works, this book sets a wonderful blueprint,” wrote one reviewer for The BookBrowse Review, noting that the kids depicted in the novel responsibly weighed important factors such as birth control and STDs when contemplating sexual activity.
When asked whether she expressed similar offense when her own children were in school, Love said she did not because back then she didn’t have the law on her side.
Now she does.
PLAYING POLITICS WITH EDUCATION
Earlier this year the Utah State Legislature passed HB374, outlining how school districts should manage “sensitive materials in school.”
Conservative parents came out in force when the law was first debated in committee. Leading the way were members of Utah Parents United, ostensibly a group of concerned citizens which exists to “educate and empower parents in Utah to advocate for their children.”
The group’s website reveals a sophisticated political operation targeting all manner of hot-button conservative topics—critical race theory, sex education, transgender issues—and providing a guide on how to approach education officials, lawmakers and policy experts to effect changes more inline with the group’s philosophy. For example, the group hosts a portal called “LaVerna in the Library” that specifically details how parents can lodge protests about offending school library books, including utilizing the new standards outlined in HB374.
The first step, according to the group, is to join a social media page dedicated to conversations about such books, but that also contains links to various conservative fights in other states.
One recent post was about a proposed new law in Idaho—HB666, fittingly—that could criminalize the dissemination of material in schools harmful to minors, with a fine and actual jail time for those convicted. It passed the Idaho House this year but appeared to die in the state’s Senate.
Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, a West Jordan Republican and sponsor of HB374, was asked to weigh in on the Idaho bill. He wrote on the page: “Thanks for passing this along. Everything is on the table. We will not tolerate schools and districts flaunting Utah law!”
It should be noted that HB374’s restrictions mostly rest on the state’s 1977 definition of pornography, defined as any material that “(a) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, finds that, taken as a whole, it appeals to prurient interest in sex; (b) It is patently offensive in the description or depiction of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sadomasochistic abuse, or excretion; and (c) Taken as a whole it does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
DISTRICT ADOPTS NEW POLICIES
When Love was finished with her presentation, most of the scant support she received actually came from school board members themselves.
Adam Britt thanked her for bringing harmful material to their attention. Outgoing board President Todd Holt also said he was appreciative of Love’s efforts, especially since they fit with the community’s conservative “rural values.”
Superintendent David Styler assured Love the district was taking the issue seriously and building a framework to review books challenged by members of the public.
Styler said the law was official in June and school districts were required to have new policies in place by October. He said the board crafted new policies beginning in July specifically addressing library books, classroom materials and instructional materials.
He said what is new in the policies is that anything that is clearly obscene is immediately banned without going through a review process.
“All of these things have basically been in place a month, from September on. Librarians, we tasked them and their principals to begin starting to go through all of the books and the things that they have in their libraries…nothing was done intentionally by our librarians at any point. And it’s certainly not their intention at this point to have those things there,” Styler said.
The superintendent told Love the district has the same list of thousands of concerning books that her “group” has and a lengthy process is underway to compare that list with the thousands of books in school libraries.
Love agreed the daunting task can be “overwhelming.” Love said she was previously an employee of Delta City’s library.
LIBRARIANS, STUDENTS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
After Love’s presentation and the board’s response, a public comment period was opened to allow opponents of book banning to speak. Numerous individuals, including many area school librarians, added their comments to the discussion.
Christina Allen, a children’s book author, board member of the League of Utah Writers and mother to a Delta High student, said she supported a teen’s right to choose which books are right for them even if they are not right for everyone.
“To imply that the librarians at the Millard School District, even through negligence, are stocking libraries with material harmful to children is nothing short of insulting,” she told the board. “Make no mistake. When we vilify the books selected…we are vilifying the people who selected those books. In a county with no book stores and where a great portion of parents cannot afford to pay for their child’s lunch, let alone buy extra books, removing a book from the school library is effectively denying children and their parents the choice to read it.”
A Delta High student, junior Massimo Lovejoy, said he circulated a petition for a few hours before the board meeting last Thursday. He said he collected two dozen student signatures urging the board not to engage in book banning at the school.
“It’s quite clear a majority of the people in the school do not believe the books in the library are pornography, but rather that they are important to our school and important to us as growing individuals,” he said.
Another student who spoke was Tallon Taylor, Delta’s student body vice president. He spoke against banning challenged books. He said students gain empathy, perspective and a portal into another world reading books.
“I know myself and the rest of the student body officers and students that are here, we are going into the world as 17-, 18-year-olds, and we don’t know a lot outside of Delta, Utah. This is a pretty conservative town and it is very limited as to what we experience. And so I think it is important that when we go out into the real world we have some sort of perspective on it. And these books can help with that,” he said.
Michelle Lovejoy, Delta City’s head librarian, said she supported providing the choice to parents and children on what to read. She said she was speaking as a parent and not as the city librarian.
“My children attend Delta High School. Banning books is something I am really passionate about, as a librarian and as a parent. My children have the right to choose what they read. And I’ve always embraced that…I want them to continue to grow on their own,” she said.
Laura Bassett, Delta’s middle school librarian, perhaps gave the most impassioned plea. She became emotional talking about the work she puts in ensuring kids are not exposed to material outside of their age range. She said she is vigilant in monitoring content, but says it’s also impractical to know the content of over 5,000 books firsthand.
“We all have a sincere desire to help the students in this county grow. It is insulting to feel challenged in that way. I’m not going to lie, I cried. I put so much work into my library. And it hurts my heart to think that someone would accuse me of having pornography. I would never give pornography to a child,” she said, adding that books enrich lives in ways no other medium does, including exposing students to tragedies and consequences they may never individually face, but surely can learn to sympathize with.
LynnDell Watson, Delta High’s librarian, said she appreciated the support of all involved. She said so far she’s identified four titles that definitely runs afoul of the new state law. Those books she removed. She has flagged another 42 books that she will review and decide whether to keep or remove. She said she closed the school library for two days in order to go through as many titles as possible.
“I think it started with the LGBTQ books…but I’m worried it’s just going to keep going,” she said. “We’re going backwards in time. I don’t understand it.”
Across Utah, librarians are doing much the same, as policymakers wrestle with better managing library content without running afoul of Constitutional guarantees, both of controversial authors to write and students to read.
Some states are going much further.
Deep red conservative Texas has reportedly banned more books than any other state so far, removing 801 titles in 22 school districts this year alone, according to a September report from the Texas Tribune.
In Idaho, a tiny protest over LGBT books in one library district snowballed into a full-fledged political effort to remake the county’s library board. The library director eventually resigned—after only nine months on the job, according to press reports.
The Salt Lake Tribune has reported extensively the last few months as districts across the state put new measures into place—and remove dozens and dozens of titles.
One striking argument from opponents of the measures, noted the Trib in September, was that conservative activists seemed to be targeting books specifically by minority and LGBTQ authors the most.
Shannon Hale, a children’s author and writer of an op-ed about the issue, said targeting books about underrepresented groups in society exposed the political nature of the movement.
“Suddenly people who have grown up being used to books being all about white, straight people are seeing something else: More representation of what’s actually out there. And it’s making a lot of people afraid,” she wrote.
Hale also wrote that in a state where the leading cause of death among 10- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 24-year-olds is suicide, providing literary outlets for underrepresented minority communities is far more serious and vastly more important than the average Utahn understands.
