School board weighs book policy
Anderson County Board of Education has been discussing but has yet to vote on policies related to, a state law about school library books passed last July.
First, the law requires each school board to pass a policy for school libraries. This policy must have a procedure for how to choose books appropriate for students’ age and maturity levels. Second, it requires each board of education have a procedure to evaluate feedback from students and parents on library books. Third, it requires a procedure to regularly review the books already at each school’s library. Parents and students can appear before the board to challenge books, and then the board will have 60 days to review it or else a state committee will make that decision for them. There is, however, an appeal process.
“I adamantly oppose removing books. I think the librarians need to be making those decisions. The teachers need to be making those decisions,” Board of Education member Dail Cantrell, who led the discussion at the board’s Dec. 9 work session said. Cantrell works as a lawyer at the Cantrell Law firm and spoke on the issues from a legal and personal perspective. “I cannot think of a book other than pornography that I would say should not be in a school system,” he said, although he said that the appropriate books for an 18-year-old high school student were not the same as the ones for an elementary school student. Similarly, Board of Education Chairman Scott Gillenwaters said students should be able to research any topic.
