US schools banned 10,000 books last school year alone
It’s Banned Books Week in the U.S. and it comes as we’re learning more than 10,000 books were banned in public schools nationwide last year.
Straight Arrow News
An Ohio elementary school teacher is suing her school district after she was disciplined for having books with LGBTQ characters in her classroom library.
Karen Cahall has worked at New Richmond Exempted Village School District in Clermont County for more than three decades. She’s listed on the district’s website as a third grade teacher at Monroe Elementary School.
“Cahall maintains sincere and deeply rooted moral and religious beliefs that all children, including children who are LGBTQ+ or the children of parents who are LGBTQ+, deserve to be respected, accepted, and loved for who they are,” her lawsuit, filed in early December, reads. You can read the document here, or at the end of this story.
The federal civil case is against the school board, Superintendent Tracey Miller and board members Todd Wells, Tim DuFau, Robert Wooten, Jonathan Zimmerman and Amy Story. The district declined to comment on the pending litigation as of Friday morning. Miller is planning to retire in January.
The board does have a policy in place regarding controversial issues, which was adopted in 2009. Topics “likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community” are allowed to be taught in classrooms so long as they are related to the class’s instructional goals, encourage open-mindedness and teachers don’t “tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view,” the policy reads. If topics come up outside of the curriculum, they must be approved by the school’s principal.
Cahall’s lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of that policy, and how the district used it to suspend her for three days without pay.
Superintendent says teacher’s actions ‘were intentional,’ threatens termination
The lawsuit says Cahall was punished under the policy for having four books in her classroom that had LBGTQ characters in them. Those books were among about 100 other books available to students in her classroom, were not prominently displayed, and she didn’t teach from those books or require students to read them.
The books in question are:
- Ana On The Edge by A.J. Sass.
- The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil Sylvester.
- Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake.
- Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff.
None of the books listed above describe sexual activity, the lawsuit says. But they do include LGBTQ characters who “are coming to terms with feeling different and excluded.”
Still, at least one parent – Kayla Shaw, according to the lawsuit – found the books inappropriate for elementary kids and wrote to the school’s principal and board members regarding their presence in Cahall’s classroom.
The email was forwarded to Superintendent Miller, who “immediately commenced disciplinary proceedings” against Cahall, the lawsuit says.
The Enquirer has requested the email Shaw sent to the school board regarding Cahall’s books and is awaiting that document, among other records.
Cahall knew the books were controversial and “not acceptable,” according to a disciplinary letter Miller sent to Cahall, “because you asked for them to be placed in the library and were denied. You subsequently placed the books in your classroom library without putting them through the established approval process.”
Miller wrote that he believes Cahall’s actions “were intentional” and suspended her for three days without pay.
“It is my sincere hope that you will internalize the discipline you are receiving and that you will reflect upon this in order to change,” Miller wrote in Cahall’s suspension notice. “However, if you continue to behave in this manner in the future, you will be subjected to more severe discipline up to and including termination of your employment.”
Cahall filed the lawsuit on Monday and the school board has yet to respond, according to court records.
(This story was updated to add a video.)
