What stays in the school library? Amid parent challenges, one district uses review site to flag books

Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” can stay on library shelves in Maple Grove Senior High School, the Osseo school board decided Tuesday.

The book, which the American Library Association has listed among its Top 10 most challenged books, was challenged by a district parent for its depiction of sexual abuse.

A re-evaluation committee at the high school voted unanimously to retain the book, as did a district-level committee that included parents, a student, a librarian and an assistant principal.

The challenger, district parent Julie Smith, then appealed the decision to the school board.

“While I recognize that ‘The Bluest Eye’ is written by a critically acclaimed author and many believe this book has an extremely high amount of literary merit, the fact is the book is not appropriate for minors and is extremely sexually explicit,” Smith said to the board before reading aloud an excerpt about a sexual assault.

The board voted 5-1 to uphold the committee’s decision to keep the book.

According to Kim Haugo, Maple Grove Senior High School’s library media specialist, the book has been checked out three times since its acquisition in 2020.

This year, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill to prohibit a library from banning, removing or restricting access to books based solely on the viewpoint or ideas in the book. The bill also requires libraries to adopt a library materials policy and explicitly states that it does not limit the rights of parents and guardians to decide which books and other materials their children may check out.

The Minnesota School Board Association’s model library materials policy states that the school board may decline to purchase, lend, shelve or remove access to library materials legitimately based on: practical reasons or “legitimate pedagogical concerns, including but not limited to the appropriateness of potentially sensitive topics for the library’s intended audience.”

The model policy outlines the process for a district employee, student or parent concerned about the appropriateness of a book to request a review, which could include a review committee. Community members are not on the model policy’s list of who can request a review.

This fall, the Osseo school board passed a policy to allow district residents who are not parents or students to challenge library materials.

The Minnesota School Board Association does not track which districts have adopted or revised its model policy, said Greg Abbott, the association’s spokesman.

In her initial request for reevaluation, Smith cited BookLooks.org as one of the ways parents were made aware of the material in “The Bluest Eye.” BookLooks aims to be a “parent’s quick reference to objectionable material your child or young adult may be reading,” according to the site, which relies on “concerned parents” who volunteer to review material and give books a 1-5 rating for appropriateness.

St. Francis schools, in northwestern Anoka County, last month voted 4-3 — after hours of emotional debate — to update its library materials policy to include BookLooks ratings as the primary resource in determining what books can be purchased or donated for school or classroom libraries. No books rated 3 or above — indicating “parental guidance required” — can be accepted. Those ratings will also be used to determine whether to keep a book in the library if it is challenged by a parent or community member.

The district’s attorney and three board members advised against a policy that mandates reliance on BookLooks’ ratings. In a statement, the attorney said the language in the policy would “arguably violate the state law by supplanting the library media specialist’s professional judgment with an external rating system” since BookLooks does not “appear to have any professional library credentials.” The attorney also cautioned against using the site because of its perceived “ideological perspective,” which could “run afoul of the First Amendment.”

BookLooks was started by Emily Maikisch, a former member of Moms for Liberty. A representative of BookLooks did not respond to a request for comment. The BookLooks site says it is not affiliated with Moms for Liberty or with any other groups but says it does “communicate with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values.”

That’s one of the reasons St. Francis Board Member Amy Kelly said the board chose BookLooks.

“We’re red here,” she said at the Nov. 25 meeting, adding that district policies should reflect the community’s priorities. “We’re not always going to be on the same page, but I know we’re conservative. [Community members] don’t want the stuff in the library.”

So far, the district has removed “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and “Out of Darkness”because of their BookLooks ratings, said Ryan Fiereck, president of the St. Francis teachers union. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” had gone through a review committee, which deemed it appropriate to keep in the library, he said, and “Out of Darkness” was set to be reviewed by the committee before the new policy was approved.

Fiereck said he’s heard from union members and community members who disagree with the board’s policy revision.

“We’re pretty unified in thinking this went too far,” he said. “The joke is that conservatives and Democrats here, for the first time, can agree on something.”

Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, a national nonprofit that works to protect free expression, said the organization has not seen any school district other than St. Francis solely rely on BookLooks.

Meehan said the best practice for school districts is to have a consistent, transparent process for reviewing books that include “preexisting, sensible systems that have long helped librarians and educators make purchasing decisions.”