Rockingham County Public Schools

The Rockingham County School Board voted to “temporarily remove” 57 books from all Rockingham County Public School (RCPS) libraries at their first regular meeting of the new year. 

The book list, composed of “concerning material that includes sexual content, violence, and profanity,” as stated in the motion made by board member Hollie Cave, includes works like “Beloved,” “This Book is Gay,” and “Looking for Alaska.” 

According to data from WMRA, a local broadcast radio station, of the books included on the list, “Just over a third focus on queer or trans characters” and “Thirteen of them were written by authors of color.” Additionally, many of these books deal with difficult topics like “addiction, abuse, and self-harm.”

In the Jan. 8 meeting where the decision was made, school board chair Matt Cross stressed the temporary nature of these book removals, stating the board’s “plan to remove some books … temporarily while policy and review process is established. Once our policy and review process is in place, all titles that have been temporarily removed will be formally reviewed consistent with our policy.”

However, no estimated date for the finalization of this policy and review process has been given as of this article’s publishing. 

Although much of the Rockingham County community has voiced their appreciation of this censorship, many community members and students have expressed their disapproval of the indefinite removals. Spotswood High School students performed a walk-out in response to the censorship in late January, and a student-led protest against the school board decision followed shortly after in early February. 

EMU Teacher Education Response

A similar frustration for the school board’s censorship in RCPS can be found among both the faculty and students of EMU’s Teacher Education program.

Professor of Elementary Education Ron Shultz sees the recent Rockingham County School Board decision as yet another example “of the kinds of misunderstandings and conflicts that frequently arise when people make assumptions of each other rather than engage in respectful conversation.” 

He believes teachers’ voices should be heard and considered before choices are made that impact their work and relationships with students, adding that “Such important decisions should not be made by just a few overly zealous and sometimes uninformed school board members.”  

In addition to his work as a professor, Shultz also serves as the Field Placement Coordinator for the education department. In this role, Shultz meets with education students prior to their senior year to discuss their student teaching placement preferences. 

According to Shultz, although the book removals themselves should have no direct impact on a student teacher’s experience—as the books are unlikely to be required readings in these schools—Shultz wants to assure education students that “If a placement in an RCPS school feels too uncomfortable for any reason, we have six other school divisions to consider.”

Although there might be no direct impact on student teaching experiences, education professor Barbara Wheatley fears this censorship may harm first-year teachers. She worries “many might go into the classroom as a new teacher and be afraid of putting books on their shelves that might ‘get them in trouble,’” causing educators to live in fear.  

Wheatley, who has years of experience as a former elementary educator, reading specialist, library media specialist, and currently teaches EMU’s Children’s Literature course, is “disheartened, angry, and upset about the book removals.”

“It has made my stomach upset,” she admits, “and I fear that we are moving backwards in time. When we suppress books and their availability to readers, we suppress knowledge.”

Having personally experienced book challenges from parents in the past, Wheatley commented on “parent’s rights,” an argument often used to challenge and/or ban works of literature. She argues, “While parents have every right to decide what is appropriate for their children to read, they do not have the right to decide this for other people’s children. This is exactly what happens when books are pulled from the shelves.”

Wheatley also highlights the harm censoring books may have on children, particularly in how they view others. “[These book removals] will only perpetuate the decline in open-mindedness and ability to work with others who might be different from us,” she shared. “We need a variety of books for all our readers in our schools. Without these, we become an ignorant society.”

Sophomore Jordyn Thompson, a history and social science major in the program, believes that those in power, such as the school board, should not dictate what students can and cannot read. “The fundamental premise of democracy is that individuals must be afforded the liberty to seek knowledge through their own devices, and without fear of retribution or censorship,” they shared. “By restricting access to information, those in power are limiting the growth and development of our society.”

Thompson also shared her thoughts on some of the harm that can come from book censorship, such as the idea that banning a book can send the message to students that there is something wrong or dangerous about it’s content, and how “Books, especially those that delve into topics of diversity, BLM, LGBTQ+ issues, gender, and sex education, play a crucial role in saving lives.” They conclude, “Recognizing the impact of literature on fostering understanding, empathy, and a sense of identity is vital for the well-being of individuals and society as a whole.” 

Several discussions surrounding the RCPS book removals have occurred within the education department since the board’s decision. In Children’s Literature, Wheatley taught a lesson on censorship, and included the RCPS list as topic of conversation. She also plans to address the situation in her upcoming fall 2024 course, Young Adult Literature. 

Wheatley and fellow education professor Kathy Evans also joked about purchasing the 57 removed books, as well as other commonly challenged works, to make them available for student use. She hopes to eventually make this joke a reality. 

Wheatley leaves EMU students with one final encouragement regarding censorship in RCPS: “read the books on the list and decide for yourselves. I encourage you to find any challenged books and read [them]. How can you decide if a book is objectionable if you haven’t even read it?”