B-H BOARD ADOPTS LIBRARY POLICY

    In addition to the overall adoption of new policies at Monday’s Britton-Hecla Board of Education meeting, one particular policy was discussed at length. The policy in question was 6032 “Selection and Review of Library Materials.” 
    The draft of the policy detailed the selection and approval of new library materials, requested reviews of library materials and the procedures for that process. 
    Various people spoke about the policy. Mary Satterlee noted that she was concerned about some of the language in an optional section of the library policy that restricted parents from making only one complaint per year. 
    While she was speaking about the library policy, B-H teacher Jenna Peters asked about books that had been pulled out of the library. Last school year, several titles had been pulled by the superintendent out of concern. With no real mechanism to review the materials, those books sat off shelves for the remainder of the year. Peters questioned what the problem was with the titles and where the complaints were coming from. 
    Teacher Jen Boyko was also concerned. “I’m concerned that we pull titles without an authentic personal experience with books,” she said. “And just because a book may have an explicit passage does not mean it is without cultural meaning. The larger picture is more valuable.” 
    “If we start pulling materials, where does it end?” wondered teacher Kelly Mills. She added that it should be parents’ jobs to have open conversations with their children about what they are reading and consuming. 
    When the library policy was brought up later in the meeting, board member Audrey Schuller discussed her concerns about the lack of adequate filtering particularly when it comes to e-books and materials on Sora. Sora provides K-12 students access to ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and comics from the school library and requires credentials through the school to access. 
    “The filters do not limit obscene or erotic language or drawings,” noted Schuller. She added that she was shocked by some of the materials students could access through Sora. “We have to have a sense of decency,” she emphasized.  She expressed her desire for part of the policy to allow parents and the public access to the card catalog of library materials including Sora materials. 
    Options were discussed how to address situation. Superintendent Steve Benson gave a few ideas, including putting a disclaimer on Sora, letting parents opt in or out of a system that assigns levels to books and also said that they have the capacity to block books entirely from the app. None of these steps were decided on at the time. 
    In the end, the board decided on amending the policy. Part of the policy now reads, “the Board has implemented the following selection and review processes to limit potential obscene materials that could be located in hard copy or electronic format in school libraries,” adding the “electronic format” part. A line stating the card catalog and ebook list will be made available online to the public was also added. 
    The board moved to take out optional language describing steps of the book review process. The rationale was that the board wants to allow the administration to decide upon such procedures themselves. 
    With the above amendments the board unanimously approved the library policy, though it was noted that the policy is still a work in progress and could be changed later. The policy is available on the school website.