In Spotsylvania County, Virginia, a controversial new policy is on hold as critics say it would lead to censorship of school library books.
The proposed policy would have classified all school library books as instructional materials. Then parents would have to be warned of any books that contain sexually explicit content and could bar their kids from access by signing an opt-out form.
"It just seemed like another way for our board to remove anything they deemed inappropriate," parent Maria Garcia said.
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For two years now, books believed to have sexually explicit content have been pulled off school library shelves in Spotsylvania County public schools, with parents holding a read-in to protest what they called book banning.
But on Monday night, the school board put the brakes on the latest proposal, which could have made even more library books off-limits to some kids. The decision to defer a vote came after parents and school board members raised concerns. Now it may be up to the next school board to decide to act on the plan.
"Parents would like to be informed if there may be sexually explicit literature in libraries," said Dante Braden with the policy committee. "The current law only states that instructional materials are the ones that parents need to be notified of."
But the proposal brought an angry response from school board member Dawn Shelley.
"So what you're doing is you're censoring the books in our school libraries, which goes directly, directly against Virginia code," Shelley said.
Shelley pointed to the Virginia law that took effect this school year, which requires districts to notify parents when instructional materials — those used for class assignments — contain sexually explicit material.
Library books, though, are not considered instructional materials unless part of a specific lesson.
"Banning books, all of that, is breaking the code of Virginia — all of it," she said.
Superintendent Mark Taylor defended the policy in a message to parents, writing in part: "It is disappointing that our community conversation about instructional materials shifted from promoting solid academics to debating the most degrading, vile material we will put in front of our children. Don't we all want the best for them?"
But even one conservative board member had concerns about the policy. The board then voted to postpone a decision indefinitely.
Garcia is hopeful the constant debate over books will end when a newly elected school board takes over in January.
"We finally hopefully have a chance of returning back to some sort of normalcy," she said.
