Johnston’s rules on school library books could go beyond what new state law requires
Johnston County could remove any books with LGBTQ content from elementary school libraries because of North Carolina’s new Parents’ Bill of Rights law.
The law’s requirements include prohibiting instruction on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality in the curriculum in kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms.
In response, the Johnston County school board gave initial approval this week to an updated parental involvement policy that would apply the law to books in elementary school libraries. The district plans to review all books in elementary school libraries to see whether they discuss gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality.
“The revised draft of Board Policy 1310/4002 Parental Involvement requires Johnston County Public Schools to review and evaluate all supplementary materials for students in kindergarten through grade five to ensure compliance with the Parents’ Bill of Rights,” Richard Carr, a district spokesperson, said in an email. “The draft is a first read to allow opportunity for stakeholder input.
“After a final version of the policy is approved by the Board, the administration will develop next steps to comply with the policy and law.”
Policy would cover fifth grade as well
The updated policy would go beyond the state law’s requirements by also including fifth grade. School board members said this would avoid the need to create a separate section in school libraries just for fifth-grade students.
“There’s a section on there (parental involvement policy) that talks about K-4 materials that are not allowed and that would also include media center books of sexual orientation, sexual identity, a long list of things,” said school board vice chair Terry Tippett, who also chairs the policy committee. “This is added.
“What the (policy) committee has done at this point in time is make that K-5 because otherwise what you will have to do is have a special section in your elementary school media center for fifth grade only so therefore we’re looking at K-5.”
The school board is expected to give final approval to the updated policy in November.
Johnston County is the state’s seventh-largest school district. It has more than 37,000 students.
Wake not removing books from libraries based on law
State lawmakers gave school districts an extension to Jan. 1 to implement the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Not every North Carolina school district is interpreting the law the same way.
The Wake County school system’s attorneys have not advised the district to remove any books from libraries due to the new law, according to Sara Clark, a district spokesperson. Wake and Johnston use different legal firms.
The Campaign For Southern Equality released a legal memo on Monday accusing the new state law of violating the federal Title IX law by creating a hostile educational environment for LGBTQ+ students. The Asheville-based group urged school districts to delay implementation of the new state law.
“The law prohibits critical instruction by forbidding students, including those who are part of LGBTQ families, from learning about or even seeing examples of role models or families who are not straight and cisgender, or who, like Amelia Earhart, are remarkable in part because of their gender identity,” according to the memo.
Book challenges rising
School book challenges have been on the rise statewide and nationally.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently removed “Red: A Crayon’s Story” from elementary schools following parental complaints that the picture book violated the new state law. The story of a red-labeled crayon realizing it’s actually blue has been accused of promoting gender identity.
Other books such as “Melissa” and “10,000 Dresses’ that feature transgender elementary students have also come under fire across the state.
Tippett said the new state law overrides Johnston County’s current three-prong guidelines for considering challenges of books in school libraries. He said this means elementary schools will now have “quite a task” reviewing books.
But Tippett said the policy committee has not yet developed the procedures that elementary schools will use.
“The policy part is the easy part,” Tippett said at this week’s board meeting. “When I say easy, I mean we’ve got guidelines we have to follow. The actual administration of those things is what we’re going to have to look at.”
