Despite findings from a Osceola School District committee that reviewed books community members have questioned — and some demand be outright banned — the School Board held off on a vote Tuesday to accept the committee's findings that the books, with mature content, should remain on school library bookshelves.
Instead of voting on accepting the committee findings, along with a separate item to approve the District's "Proposed Guidelines for Books with Mature Content," the Board chose — after discussion that got heated at times — to delay any vote until holding a workshop to further discuss, well, all of it.
The four titles reviewed were “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Looking for Alaska,” “Out of Darkness” and “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl.”
While Board Member Julius Melendez struck a chord against a lack of "due diligence and process" in the matter, fellow member Jon Arguello had issues with a majority of the 15 members of the review committee being School District employees.
"If I were a an employee of the district, absolutely I would do as I was told, or be subjected to some sort of retrobution," he said. We're going to get the result we all expected, all these books are staying. I don't think this was a fair process.
"The arguments for leaving these books in schools is that they haven't been checked out ... in a district not performing well academically, to have books that aren't focused on providing an opportunity to improve their performance is probably not the best use of public funds."
Michelle Jarrett, District Library Media Supervisor noted community members and Student Advisory Committee (SAC) parents who were not employees.
"Board procedures were followed, and professionals who represent English teachers and media specialists were part of this committee, and I believe worked with integrity I'm proud of the job they did," she said. "They thoroughly read the books and there was lively discussions."
Melendez said he wanted to see the standards for what the committee read, why they voted how they did, and be able to read what parents found objectionable.
"I take the recommendations into consideration, and I want to see that form of evaluation," he said. "I want to look at the standards and scoresheets and make my decision from there."
Board Chair Terry Castillo said no parent had filed a formal complaint using the District's procedure, and that Superintendent Debra Pace and the School Board agreed to pull the titles due to public opinion — months ago parents read graphic passages from some of these books during public comment at meetings — and subjected them to review.
"There are folks who want them banned regardless," Castillo said. "So we chose not to follow our own protocols because some didn't like the outcome. To this day, the books in question have not been protested through the official District process. The books should remain in our libraries as suggested by the committee."
Out of 16 reviews for each book, the review committee logged three votes for removing “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and one to remove "Out of Darkness" from school shelves — 15 voted the latter should remain on high school library shelves.
Some of the review documents had notes. About "Looking for Alaska," one responded wrote, "I think this book is for a very mature audience, at least 17+ years old, that can capture the best of the intentions of the author and the come out the other end with light and not more darkness."
Notes on "All Boys Aren't Blue" includes: "Vote is to make available for grades 11 & 12," and "In high schools with mature label."
Written about “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl”: "Compared to the other books this was more light‐hearted and down to earth, and I think there are worse things out there than reading this book. For that reason, I would say it's OK in high school, however, with permission from parents and only for 10‐12 graders because of the vulgarity."
For an entire list of the review results, click here.
For the proposed Guidelines for Books with Mature Content, click here.
