Central Bucks School District Policy 109.2 paves the way to book bans in our school libraries.

We stand against censorship of diverse voices in our libraries, opposing a policy that paves the way for a few people to remove books librarian educators specifically chose for our students, half of which depict experiences other than cis/het/white voices have told.

We defend kids’ right to read good books and trust librarians to decide what books are of educational value in our libraries. We recognize and respect the work of Central Bucks’ school librarians (like all trained, certified school librarians) in building library collections, developing information literacy curriculum, and crafting library policies. We believe that kids, guided by families and educators, can choose their own books from their school libraries.

In the summer of 2022, despite months of protest and calls for the Central Bucks School Board to simply follow professional standards and guidelines recommended by their own librarians, and deeply concerning censorship warnings from The Education Law Center, Warning from a Texas Librarian, NAACP, National Coalition Against Censorship, ACLU PA, PFLAG, PA School Librarians Association, the CBSD school board majority gave a small group of vocal parents with limiting views control over materials that are available to ALL students in the district.

Parents have the right to restrict what their own children read, but it stops there. No one parent or community member should be able to prevent all 17,000+ students in CBSD from accessing information at the library.

About CBSD Policy 109.2:

• CBSD library policy 109.2 allows for book banning because it prohibits the evaluation of a book in its entirety, focusing exclusively on out-of-context snippets.

• Policy 109.2 slates for removal any book that contains “implied nudity” or references to sexual activity, regardless of the maturity of our high school students and their need for top quality information.

• Policy 109.2 was written in secret, with advice and legal counsel from the Independence Law Center, a non-profit organization allied with the influential national group the Family Research Council, which advocates for special privileges for religious beliefs and against LGBT rights.

• The policy allows any community member to challenge any book, effectively empowering an individual or minuscule group to dictate the choices of ALL district families.

• There are currently 60+ book challenges made by just a few community members.

• Two books: Gender Queer and This Book is Gay—have been removed from Central Bucks libraries (Gender Queer was at 1 HS and This Book is Gay was at 1 MS.)

• The policy places unnecessary, burdensome restrictions on new book acquisitions and could disproportionately reduce new book orders about LGBTQ and race.

• “Parents Rights” and “Protection from Sexualization” imply dangers that never existed, water down awareness of true rights and abuses, and provide cover for censorship to proliferate in our community.

Read CBSD library policy 109.2, passed in July 2022: here.

Read CBSD library policy 109.2 administrative regulations, enacted in December 2022: here.

About the 60+ books challenged in CBSD

Where are all these titles coming from? It appears Moms for Liberty, to whom liberty apparently means telling other families how to raise their kids. And No Left Turn in Education, who’s leader advised “that challengers should talk about sexual content in the books rather than sexual orientation, sexual identity, or race to avoid legal scrutiny.” *See the court case challenging a policy that removed eight critically acclaimed books in a Missouri public school.

Many of these groups have websites that identify dozens of targeted books whose lists are being used to identify books for censorship.

Challenged books about LGBTQ+

1. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

2. Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

3. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin: REMAINS

4. Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler

5. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

6. Flamer by Mike Curato

7. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe: BANNED

8. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

9. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki

10. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison: REMAINS

11. Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

12. Melissa by Alex Gino

13. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

14. Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

15. Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

16. Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill

17. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

18. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky

19. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

20. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson: BANNED

21. This is Our Rainbow by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby

22. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithian

Challenged books about race

1. Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

3. Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

4. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

5. Grown by Tiffany Jackson

6. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez

7. Out of Darkness by Ashely Hope Perez

8. People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins

9. Sold by Patricia McCormick

10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

11. The Haters by Jesse Andrews

Other

• After by Amy Efaw

• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

• All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell

• America: A Novel by E.R. Frank

• Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison

• Breathless by Jennifer Niven

• Burned by Ellen Hopkins

• Crank by Ellen Hopkins

• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

• Fade by Lisa McMann

• Forever by Judy Blume

• Glass by Leen Hopkins

• Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

• Identical by Ellen Hopkins

• Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

• Infandous by Elan Arnold

• L8R, G8R by Lauren Myracle

• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

• Looking for Alaska by John Green

• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

• Nicolson by Louise Rennison

• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

• Normal People by Sally Rooney

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews: REMAINS

• Red Hood by Elana Arnold

• Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

• The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

• The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

• The Living Bible

• The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

• This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki

• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

• TTYL by Lauren Miracle

• Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

We believe in the freedom to read:

• Reading is a foundational skill, critical to future learning and to exercising our democratic freedoms.

• All students must be able to find books in the library that contain characters to which they can relate: characters that look like them, talk like them, and face issues they have faced.

• Policy making should be collaborative, transparent, and follow research-based best-education practices and standards.

• Trained, certified school librarians connect students with the right book at the right time. These librarians carefully select age-appropriate resources for the school library collection that meet the academic and literacy needs of all their students.

• Parents have the right to guide their children’s reading and can place any book on restriction for their own child, but parents should not be making decisions for other parents’ children. Specifically, a small group of parents should not dictate what books other people’s children are allowed to read.

• Removing and banning books from libraries is a slippery slope to government censorship and the erosion of our country’s commitment to freedom of expression.