Colt Black is many things: undertaker, emergency medical technician, firefighter, father, husband, and Frederick County Public Schools Board candidate. He is also a self-proclaimed First Amendment absolutist.
So when Black was asked what resources Frederick County students should have available in their school libraries, his answer was something along those lines.
“I don’t support banning books,” he said.
But like many Maryland State Board of Education candidates, Black’s detailed views on the book’s issues are mixed. His vision for Frederick County Public Schools is that any book, educational or recreational, be reviewed by a committee or public hearing before it hits the school shelves.
In response to a University of Maryland Local News Network survey sent to all 109 school board candidates in the state, Black said, “Books that glorify these things should be removed.” “All books must be reviewed by a committee and open for public comment, both as educational materials and as library resources, before being permitted or prohibited for publication in educational settings.”
Black’s support for such a process is not unique in his county or across Maryland. When asked in a Local News Network survey whether they supported banning books, 38 of the 74 candidates who responded to LNN’s survey said they were experts on whether books were age-appropriate. responded that they support policies that involve the government. Another 19 people strongly opposed the banning of the book, without mentioning the book review policy.
“I will vote against banning books and editing curriculum based on personal beliefs,” said Sarah J. McDermott, who is running for school board in Anne Arundel County’s 4th District. “No subject should be banned from the curriculum or from the library. It should be age-appropriate, and I wholeheartedly trust librarians and educators to determine that for their students.”
However, 17 candidates were open to banning books parents found offensive.
“I’m running for school board to overhaul the curriculum, establish age-appropriate materials for kindergarten through high school, and eliminate the sexualization of children,” said school board member Elena Brewer. This is because we want to eliminate educational materials that are inappropriate for minors.” candidate from St. Mary’s County. Brewer is one of 19 candidates in the state to receive support from Project 1776 PAC. The conservative group’s founder, Ryan James Gardusky, said on the group’s website that he founded the PAC after objecting to a racially charged book his teacher read. To his godson’s class.
policy patchwork
Gov. Wes Moore signed the Freedom to Read Act earlier this year to end book bans in Maryland public schools as parents, activists and school boards protested against books across the state. .
The law prohibits public schools from excluding or removing materials from school libraries based on the author’s origin, background, or views. It also states that material cannot be removed based on partisan, ideological or religious disapproval. School systems should adopt a book review policy that leaves questionable books on the shelf until the review process is complete.
However, the law does not affect the vast majority of books that are banned across the state. Steve Wernick, director of curriculum and instruction for Carroll County Public Schools, said the bill only requires counties to have proper processes in place for removing library content, and Carroll County already has one in place. The decision stands because a committee was set up to ban the book.
More than 60 books (21) in Carroll County have been permanently removed by a unanimous vote of the school board. Prohibited titles include:
• And Then They Lived, a gay-themed young adult novel by Stephen Salvatore.
• “The Same” by Ellen Hopkins, a novel about a young woman who is sexually abused by her father.
• “The Kingdom of Ashes,” “The House of Earth and Blood,” “A Court of Frost and Stars” – popular fantasy novels by Sarah J. Maas.
Meanwhile, Wicomico County banned George M. Johnson’s coming-of-age novel about a queer boy, “All Boys Are Blue.” Frederick County banned Hopkins’ “Triangle,” which publisher Simon & Schuster described as a “staggeringly erotic” novel about the intertwined friendships of three women, including an affair. He praised it.
And Queen Anne’s County is Jacqueline Woodson’s story about multicultural children overcoming various challenges, which was selected as one of the New York Times Book Review’s 2018 Children to Watch. The novel “Harbor Me” was banned.
As November’s school board elections approach, the issue of banning books will once again be on the ballot in a contest between conservative candidates and their opponents. Candidates backed by the conservative 1776 Project PAC are running in nine Maryland counties.
Carroll County precedent
Carroll County has always been an outlier in Maryland’s largely liberal Central Corridor. It juts south from the Mason-Dixon border and is surrounded by liberal enclaves and Frederick County, a former Republican stronghold that flipped blue for the first time since 1964 in the 2020 presidential election.
Carroll County has remained stubbornly independent even as demographics have changed and Democrats have become more assertive in the region. It’s not unusual for several books to be challenged over the course of a year, but earlier this year there were 21 highly publicized permanent bans in Carroll County.
Amanda Jokowski, one of the county’s school board candidates, said she opposes such a measure.
“While in rare cases a book may be deemed inappropriate for school libraries, these decisions are based on clear and consistent criteria that focus on educational value rather than censorship or ideological preference. It should be done,” she said in response to a candidate survey.
Jokowski said Carroll County is a testing ground for conservative policies, especially in schools. She noted that the county has a large and active Moms for Liberty chapter, which supports chapters in other counties. Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that emphasizes parental rights, rose to prominence in 2021 and has led the fight to ban the book in many school districts.
To provide a different future for Carroll County’s educators and students, Joskowski is collaborating with fellow school board candidate Muri Lynn Dueppen on the Stone Tablet for Student Success. This joint candidacy highlights the pair’s shared values and urges voters to put their names at the top of the ticket in November. Ballot paper. Their website lists opposition to book banning as one of their core values.
Joskovsky hopes voters see her as an alternative to the conservative candidates she opposes. She said she believes many Carroll County residents are tired of the current school board’s “politically motivated direction.”
But her success is far from guaranteed in a county that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 60 years. Among her challengers is Kristen, a 38-year-old small business owner who describes herself as a “conservative lifelong resident” of Carroll County and, according to the Baltimore Sun, is backed by Moms for Freedom. There’s also Zimmer.
“My goal is to protect the family and community values that make our county special,” Zimmer said, citing Ronald Reagan as the politician he most admires. When asked about the banning of the book, she said: “If there is any question about the content, I will rely on parental consent…I make it clear that I will not tolerate anything that is inherently sexually inappropriate or features extremely sexual content.”
Howard County Debate
In March, the Howard County chapter of Moms for Liberty announced plans for its latest effort, following in the footsteps of Carroll County and removing 46 books from Howard County public school bookshelves.
The chapter’s efforts have so far failed, but one of its founders is currently running for a post on the county school board. The Baltimore Fishbowl reported in March that former state representative Trent Kittleman, who lost his 2022 re-election bid, embraced the Mamas for Liberty group as he launched his school board campaign. He reportedly requested that he be removed from the list.
However, her views on this issue remain stubbornly conservative. She condemned the banning of six Dr. Seuss books containing harmful stereotypes in 2021, but remains concerned about other types of books.
In response to a Local News Network survey, Kittleman said, “The false ‘book bans’ that have been criticized in recent days involve the removal of certain books from school libraries because of what is considered overtly sexual content. This is an effort by many parents who want to help.” “It is not unreasonable to exclude overtly sexual content from schools that ‘doesn’t serve the purpose of obtaining social benefit.’
Kittleman is offering the Democratic stronghold a new vision for public schools that aligns with the Republican values he touted during his eight years in the Maryland House of Delegates. One of her opponents, incumbent Jen Malo, has proposed the opposite.
“It is essential that schools have a diverse and inclusive library inventory,” said Howard County Board of Education Chairman Malo. “We must be proactive about including these materials, despite extremist fear-mongering and demands for their removal.”
this matter will go to court
The battle between conservative parents and the school board in Montgomery County looks a little different than in other parts of the state. In September, a group of parents argued before the Supreme Court that a school board’s refusal to allow parents to refuse elementary school students from classes featuring LGBTQ+ books on the grounds that it violated First Amendment rights. filed a petition asking for reconsideration.
The books are part of the district’s efforts to become more inclusive by adding titles with LGBTQ characters to the kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum.
Brenda M. Diaz, one of the county’s school board candidates, stands with those parents.
Diaz, a social studies teacher at Fusion Global Academy with more than 20 years of experience in education, said Maryland law allows parents to request that their children be exempted from certain parts of the sex education curriculum, so it’s no different. The rights of children will be extended to parents as well. For books that children can access.
“Schools should be able to work with parents to decide which books to remove,” she said in response to the LNN candidate survey.
But Lynn Harris, a Montgomery County board member seeking re-election, doesn’t think public opinion should be considered when deciding what books students have access to.
Harris, currently vice chair of the Montgomery County Board of Education, is a strong supporter of the county’s LGBTQ+ curriculum.
“If families want to limit the books their students read, there are many ways to do that,” Harris told a local news network in August. “However, it is inappropriate to impose these choices and personal decisions on thousands of other students.”
(Courtesy of Capital News Service)
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
