Wake school board passes 2-year ban on repeat book challenges
The policy was approved in a 7-2 vote at the board's meeting on Aug. 1.
Wake County Public Schools’ board of education successfully passed a policy that will ban parents from re-challenging a book or books for a two-year period.
The vote was 7-2, with only Cheryl Caulfield and Wing Ng voting against the policy. A full video of the meeting can be accessed on YouTube.
Opponents say the policy essentially silences parent complaints and is a violation of parental rights, as well as some accusing the board of “changing the rules” to suit themselves and not those they serve.
Meanwhile, supporters of the policy have defended it, claiming it will protect the district from having to do the work that comes with the consistent stream of book challenges.
The policy sends a book challenge through a series of stages and committees that will arguably take months to complete. The fact the policy takes up six pages to detail the journey of a single challenge says quite a lot.
Interestingly, the policy only addresses “parent/guardian” challenges and says nothing about limiting challenges brought by students.
The policy claims materials can be removed, yet, over the past two years, I am not aware of any actual removals.
If the committee determines that the challenged material is educationally unsuitable, pervasively vulgar, or inappropriate to the age, maturity, or grade level of the students, the committee shall take appropriate action, including but not limited to removing the material from instructional use or modifying student access to the material.
Excerpt from WCPSS Policy 3210
The books being challenged are not subtle in their content and contain explicit sex scenes, pedophilia, and rape.
Read: Speaker defines "pervert" for NC school board
A number of books challenged in the past year depict young males engaging in gay sex, have characters engaging in drug use, contain pervasive vulgar language, masturbation scenes as well as “how to” tips, and at least two books brought before the board teach young children they can change their sex at will.
Read: Reverend delivers part two of "who are the perverts"
Despite the content being inappropriate enough to run afoul of the law to air on television, Wake County Schools has consistently rejected parent challenges to those titles and kept the books on the shelves for young children to access.
More To The Story
The Wake school board’s decision to pass a policy restricting parental objections comes at a time when parents as a group have been recognized as a voting powerhouse and legislation protecting parental rights has been filed in dozens of states and in Congress.
North Carolina’s parental rights bill is Senate Bill 49. Frankly, the bill could have been stronger and more specific, but it remained unchanged and was passed by both chambers.
Wake County’s updated book challenge arguably runs afoul of Senate Bill 49 in a few areas.
For one thing, the bill requires school districts to increase parental involvement, not discourage it as Wake County is doing with its two-year ban on re-challenging a book.
Another thing is that a good number of the books challenged by parents that Wake County schools have refused to remove will be in direct violation of the section on age-appropriate instruction.
Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill and after his veto, lawmakers immediately said an override would be coming.
The overrides have been pushed back several times so far. All votes, including overrides, have been held up until the state budget is finalized.
Related Articles:
Report: Biden using Dept. of Ed to shut down parent dissent on inappropriate books