Brandywine Community Schools in Niles has taken action to stop objectionable content from reaching its students.
At its regular meeting Monday, the Brandywine School Board approved a motion to deny all books deemed as sexually explicit or violent from entering the middle school and high school libraries. Elementary school books will not be effected.
Last month, the board – which has a new majority of We The Parents-supported candidates – moved to create an Explicit Material Book Review Committee to review library books currently within the district.
According to new board president Thomas Payne, this new measure will help the book review committee by not giving them more books to review.
“There’s books that are in the library currently that are very sexually explicit,” Payne said. “Personally, I think it would be a mistake to continue the inventory and try to kind of chase your tail on what’s in there and exactly, what we’re gonna do, when we’re gonna do it and make recommendations to the board.”
This committee has not yet been formed, so there was some confusion among board members as to how they would review books without this committee. There were several amendments suggested to the motion, including one to stop all new books from entering all libraries, but they were not voted on.
Superintendent Travis Walker said Wednesday in an interview that there is already a process to review such books, which is handled by a media center specialist. He said this is the process that will be used to review new books.
“We’ve got some different resources to make sure we would not be adding any sexually explicit or violent books to our inventory,” Walker said. “One of those avenues is to look at reviews on the vendor’s website and pay special attention to any of the poor reviews and whether that review is due to objectional objectionable content.
Walker – a longtime educator who was hired as superintendent in May 2022 after being principal at Brandywine HS for a year – said the district may also use a resource called Common Sense Media, which has reviews and provides age-appropriateness ratings for content.
He added the school employees are aware of the current climate regarding challenges to books in other districts, and he is not aware of any inappropriate additions to the libraries during his tenure.
The new changes come as a coalition for Brandywine graduates, parents, teachers and other members of the community criticize the board for what they believe are unnecessary oversights and a political agenda by the new board majority.
At Monday’s meeting, district parent Jeremy Colby said during public comment the district needs to slow down and reconsider some of its actions.
“Literally right out of the gate, we’re making committees to put a hold on library books,” Colby said. “You guys pushed through something that you had already decided on before you ever got to the board meeting.”
Last month, the board also created the following committees:
- Curriculum Committee
- Sex Education Advisory Board
- Tutoring Advisory Board
- Parent/Community Involvement Committee
- Parent/Guardian Curriculum Transparency Committee
“You guys are looking for a fight where one doesn’t yet necessarily even have to happen,” he said. “A lot of these issues have already been addressed, so slow down and figure out what’s been addressed and do we have to go do this and create these fights for no reason.”
Colby also echoed other people’s criticism of the board for putting public comments at the end of meetings, after action has been taken on items. At the last meeting, public comment happened at the end of a nearly four-hour meeting.
“We, the community, need to feel heard,” Colby said. “To move us towards the end of the meeting … that doesn’t tell us that you’re concerned about we the parents.”
By Ryan Yuenger
ryany@wsjm.com
