About four months after complaints about their content led six Virginia Beach school library books to be removed from circulation, multiple school division committees have decided to return them to the shelves.
Each committee decided the books can provide students with different perspectives and life experiences and support instructional material taught across other class subjects, while noting the lasting impact some of the works could have on students, among other reasons.
The division’s chief academic officer sent a memorandum to board members on Jan. 28 with the committees’ findings. The books under review included “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, “Good Trouble” by Christopher Noxon, “Beyond Magenta” by Susan Kuklin and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.
Committee members were required to read the text and answer six discussion questions based on the district’s instructional material policy. Almost every committee had a parent, student, teacher, library media specialist and a coordinator from the division’s Department of Teaching and Learning. Every committee unanimously agreed to keep its assigned book.
Member Victoria Manning listed issues with four of the six books in an Oct. 5 email to Superintendent Aaron Spence after she said parents raised concerns.
Books have become a pressing topic over the past few months after debate about whether controversial teachings were coaxing students to think a particular way. State legislators also took up the issue this week, passing a bill in the Senate that would require the Virginia Department of Education to develop guidelines for school boards on how to notify parents about “sexually explicit” content assigned to their student.
The two books from Gaines and Morrison can be taught respectively in 11th and 12th grade courses as supplementary instructional material. “The Bluest Eye” is only approved for seniors in Advanced Placement Literature. Students can check out the other four books from the school library.
“The Bluest Eye” was called into question because of sexually explicit scenes. Members — a high school library media specialist, teacher, parents and department coordinator — decided the scenes “did not supersede the message and purpose of the book” after reading it and other online information.
Morrison’s book has been one of the most challenged over the past three decades, according to the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom. But it will remain in the district’s libraries and available as supplementary instructional material because it provides students with perspectives (specifically from Black women) they wouldn’t usually encounter, addresses multiple social issues and is referenced on the Advanced Placement exam, the report said.
School officials initially removed Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” from circulation because some of the graphics did not meet the division’s “expectations for instructional value,” a spokesperson said in an email to The Virginian-Pilot in October. But it was reinstated at the committee’s recommendation.
“One committee member did not initially recommend keeping the book in high school libraries as a result of objections to graphic depictions in the novel,” Kipp Rogers, the district’s chief academic officer, wrote. “After the high school student spoke about the benefits of the book helping students who struggle with self-identity, the committee member agreed to vote to keep the book in the library.”
The memorandum noted the following other recommendations:
The graphic novel allows a visual representation of the author’s thoughts/feelings in a way that simple text would not convey.
Students will see that the protagonist is experiencing much of what they do — growing up, feeling awkward in a variety of situations, following the path of education that is laid out for them, and deep-diving on subjects that interest them.
The student member noted the book is a memoir of someone’s life and not fiction.
The parent said, “For high school level students, this is a great fit. The images are not gratuitous or created in a way that less mature students would use an excuse to poke fun of or laugh at. Growing up is such a confusing time, I think it’s important to have books like this available for students to relate to.”
Rogers noted he and Spence had concerns about the book’s graphics, but that those concerns “did not warrant removal of the book from school libraries for student voluntary checkout.”
Sierra Jenkins, 229-462-8896, sierra.jenkins@virginiamedia.com
