Rutherford County Schools leaders set to make a final decision on whether to ban seven books
Rutherford County Schools board member Caleb Tidwell argued during Tuesday's work session that banning certain books for sexual or obscene material is not a violation of the First Amendment. (Screenshot)
Members of the Rutherford County Schools Board of Education are expected to make a decision on whether to ban seven books Thursday in order to comply with state laws instructing school libraries to remove books with sexual or obscene material.
According to board documents from the school board’s work session meeting on Tuesday, the titles in question are “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi, “Skin and Bones” by Sherry Shahan, “Queen of Shadows” by Sara J. Maas and “Tower of Dawn” by Sara J. Maas.
Jeff Reed, the board’s attorney, told board members at Tuesday’s work session meeting that under the state’s obscenity law, books that describe sexual conduct in a “patently” offensive way can be considered obscene and therefore removed from schools.
Reed noted that the board will need to decide if the books in question are considered obscene or “not age appropriate.” He added that if the board decides to take no action on the books in question, the matter can instead be referred to the State Textbook Commission.
“If this group determines that a book is obscene and meets those [state] definitions of obscenity, you have to remove the book under those statutes,” he said. “If you determine that a book is not necessarily obscene, but may not be age-appropriate for everyone who has access to it, then in that case, you have to take action to either remove the book so that kids who are not of appropriate age do not have access to it or impose some restrictions on it.”
The work session meeting came a day after the school board received a letter from the ACLU, urging them not to ban the books. It argued that the label “obscenity” in particular is “typically reserved for pornographic, sadomasochistic, and purely, patently offensive, sexual material.”
“Under the First Amendment, books cannot be removed from school libraries simply because they are about same-sex relationships or contain characters with LGBTQ+ identities — as many of the titles you are considering removing do … Likewise, books cannot be removed from school libraries simply because they tell stories about race, racism and the history of racism in the United States — as Beloved and Homegoing do,” the letter read. “Finally, books cannot be removed from school libraries simply because they contain references to sex or the human body. Mere mention of sex or bodies does not make a material obscene.”
Board member Caleb Tidwell, who has been leading the charge to flag certain books for review by the board, called the ACLU letter a “threat letter,” and argued that there is legal precedent for school districts to ban obscene books from schools, based on several Supreme Court cases.
“If you read any of these cases, what you’ll find out is that the Supreme Court has decided that the people closest to what those community values are and what those community values should look like is the elected officials,” he said. “So, the buck stops here.”
Board Chair Claire Maxwell said she hopes the board can “come to an agreement that works for everyone” on Thursday, when the board is expected to meet and make a final decision on the books in question.
“I just ask that everybody come Thursday and vote with their conscience and vote with their heart, but we’re going to be fair and everyone that wants to be heard will be heard on Thursday as well,” she said.
