The Orange County Board of Education recently held a special meeting to consider an appeal by a parent of the decision to keep three books in the Cedar Ridge High School library. The Orange County Board of Education chose to uphold the previous decisions saying these books have a place in the county’s high school libraries.
In November 2021, the school review committee was convened to review the books “Gender Queer,” “Lawn Boy” and “Out of Darkness.” The parent complaint said the books are obscene and sexually explicit.
That committee chose to retain all three books in the library for student self-selection.
The parent later emailed the superintendent a request for the removal of the books at the district level. The District Review Committee voted in early January to retain all three books in the school’s library.
After the District Review Committee decision, the parent appealed to the Orange County Board of Education which met Monday to review and make recommendations on the books.
Sarah Smylie, a member of the Orange County School Board, mentioned the recent pushes to ban books during Monday’s meeting.
“If you look at the books that are being targeted, there is a different pattern to them that we shouldn’t ignore,” Smylie said. “The vast majority of the books being challenged are either about people who are LGBTQ or are about people who are Black, Latino or Indigenous. I do not agree with pandering to these attempts to limit student’s access to voices of people of color and LGBTQ perspectives.”
Smylie said the complaints are coming from political groups masquerading as parent rights groups. In North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has led the charge in wanting books like “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” removed, describing them as “filth.”
The books in question are considered supplementary because they are not classroom materials or an assignment. While the local complaint pointed out sections of “Gender Queer,” “Lawn Boy” and “Out of Darkness” as obscene, OCS school board members said those passages were taken out of context.
“Lawn Boy” is a coming-of-age story about a Mexican-American youth discovering his sexuality and sense of self. “Out of Darkness” follows a romance between a Mexican-American girl and an African-American boy who have to keep their relationship secret due to racism within their community.
“Gender Queer,” is a memoir by Maia Kobabe about their journey as a non-binary young adult. Smylie said she believes the book has serious literary value in high school libraries.
“If you read the book and take it as a whole, it describes the author’s genuine struggles with gender identity and sexual orientation while growing up,” Smylie said. “That’s not something salacious or pornographic. That’s clearly not the story the author is telling.”
Carrie Doyle, chair of the Orange County Board of Education, said she was deeply touched by the supportive community that helped the author in their journey.
“My hope is for the [Orange County Schools] community to be equally supportive of our LGBTQ+ students, staff and families,” Doyle said. “One of our OCS high school students shared with the board the following, ‘Seeing these books on the shelves makes me feel like there is a place for me.’”
Doyle also said she heard from numerous students ahead of Mondays meeting who were unanimous in wanting the books to stay in the library.
“They needed these books,” Doyle said. “It was already heard enough being LGBTQ+ in our schools. These books were a comfort to them. These books helped [them] develop empathy. These books helped them understand their peers. These books speak to the stories of racial minorities.”
The board acknowledged the age appropriateness of the three books, with Vice Chair Brenda Stephens saying she believes they should remain in the county’s high school libraries.
“As a librarian, I don’t ban books,” Stephens said. “I try to get books in hands of as many people as possible because we need to learn from them.”
While the initial recommendation was for the books be kept for at least two more years, the OCS school board instead unanimously voted to keep the books permanently on the shelves.
Featured photo via Amazon
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Great job, OCS! Let freedom of speech ring!
Have you actually looked in the books and seen what’s in them? There are exually explicit images. Might as well be porn in the library.