New Library Materials Reconsideration Policy PASSED!
New Library Materials Reconsideration Policy PASSED!
Judge Keough and Commissioner Walker co-sponsored the agenda item. Judge Keough is the hero of the hour, pushing the new policy to a vote.
We made the news!! Thank you!!
Thank you to The Shenandoah Sentinel: https://shenandoahnews.com/new-library-policy-establishes-citizen-review-for-childrens-books/
Thank you to Texas Scorecard: https://texasscorecard.com/local/montgomery-county-adopts-citizen-led-library-book-review-policy/
Thank you to the Conroe Courier: Montgomery County panel, not librarians, to decide on challenged books (yourconroenews.com)
This article is split into the following sections:
Tuesday morning, March 26th, item 10.A
What is in the old policy?
Examples of children’s books we are finding.
What is in the new policy?
Are we banning books?
Tuesday Morning, March 26th at Commissioner’s Court
The LORD will fight for you, while you keep silent.
Exodus 14:14 NASB
The court has heard from me and others a lot this past year. There is a time to speak/act, and there is a time to be still and let the Lord do his work. I felt strongly that last Tuesday was a time to be still. I do however appreciate all who spoke and realize that it was very difficult to hear what was being said from those who opposed the new policy. I cannot thank you enough for coming and supporting the court members in passing the policy. Thank you for calling, emailing, and praying to the Lord.
Montgomery County residents were fired up Tuesday morning, March 26th, about item 10.A on the Commissioner’s Court agenda. This item was the new library book reconsideration policy presented by County Judge Mark Keough and Commissioner Robert Walker. The policy was written by Judge Keough and his staff. The day before court, I asked everyone to come wearing red to encourage the court. I did not ask my friends to speak. I knew the opposition would be obnoxious, but I also knew that Judge Keough and Commissioner Walker would explain the policy when they got to the agenda item, and they did. They explained well that this is not about banning books; they were simply giving citizens a voice in what materials were appropriate for which age groups. In this new policy, citizens can ask the new committee to consider material to be placed in a more, or even less, restrictive location in the library.
After our fearless county judge pushed the court to a vote (with a motion and a second on the floor), it passed in a 3 to 1 vote. Commissioner Noack was not present, and Commissioner Riley was the only no vote. Rather than provide commentary on this process, I will simply link the video beginning at public comment here: https://montgomerycountytx.new.swagit.com/videos/300817?ts=132
If you would like to skip ahead to the court member’s discussion, you can access this here: https://montgomerycountytx.new.swagit.com/videos/300817?ts=2967
I very much appreciated Commissioner Gray’s response to a citizen a few minutes later, (1:02:35) when he said that he views his position as a management position, not a position of power, and that whether he holds office for another term, he will know that he stood for what he believes in.
Amen!
What was wrong with the old Policy?
There was a lot of confusing discussion being tossed about. After hearing some of the public comments, one might think that the library will have no books by the end of the summer! Nothing could be further from the truth. The main purpose of the new policy is to provide a means for citizens to facilitate moving a book from one age group section to another either more or less restrictive. Let’s take a quick look at the old policy and then see what is really in this new policy. I think you will find the new policy to be level-headed and fair.
Our current Reconsideration Policy was established by the court in 2013 and employs a Reconsideration Committee that is already in existence. Each commissioner currently has one citizen appointee on this committee. This committee is not the same as the Advisory Board, which is a separate appointed group of people.
Here are a few facts about the current Reconsideration Committee:
· There are currently 10 members – 5 librarians and 5 citizens.
· The committee never takes a vote and nothing they do is binding. The committee simply holds a discussion which may or may not be taken into account by the library director when making the final decision. This is why I call it a Kangaroo Committee.
· The current committee is closed to the public.
· 11 books, total, were reviewed by the committee last year. Of those 11 books, 10 contained information about gender transition and 10 were located in the children’s section of the library. The majority of these books also contained information about suicide, self-harm, hiding internet search history from parents, and other alarming information that young kids may not be ready for.
Before we take a look at the new policy, let me briefly bring your attention to two books that I felt compelled to bring to the court’s attention last year:
Two Book Examples
George by Alex Gino (for ages 9+)
“So you’re, like, transgender or something?” Kelly whispered as best she could in her excitement. “I was reading on the Internet, and there are lots of people like you. Did you know you can take hormones so that your body, you know, doesn’t go all manlike?”
“Yeah, I know.” George had been reading websites about transitioning since Scott had taught her how to clear the web browser history on Mom’s computer. “But you need your parents’ permission.”
The Pants Project by Cat Clarke (for ages 9+)
“Over the summer, I’d spent a lot of time on the laptop (and then making sure to delete my search history, even though I was 99 percent sure the moms wouldn’t know how to check it anyway.) Chapter 3
I already knew the word. Transgender… “Trans” is the short version, which isn’t quite as cool, but it is a lot faster to type. I found out that there are a lot of trans people out there. This one website had a bunch of their life stories, and I read them over and over again. Then I discovered more sites and blogs, and tons of videos on YouTube. It was just the best thing. I wasn’t alone. -Chapter 3 (Explaining how to find adults on the internet in the trans community.)
These are chapter books located in the children’s section alongside Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Very young children (think 3rd grade) are picking up these books independently and many of the chapter books have no indication in the description that they contain these mature themes. Many parents choose to place the family computer in a public space in the house, but that doesn’t mean we don’t also install a robust filter. Of course, we do have a responsibility as parents, but also, all adults have a responsibility for what they are putting in reach of children. My favorite comment was from Christian Collins who said, “I’m baffled we are even having this conversation... [people saying] well I have a degree in library science… I have a degree in education… Well, many people have a degree in common sense!”
Here is what is in the new policy, in regular mom language:
· There will be two reconsideration committees. The citizens reconsideration committee does not apply to the books in the adult section. The adult section is overseen by a separate librarian reconsideration committee. This is a closed committee. Interestingly, nobody complained about this at all.
· The citizens reconsideration committee is only responsible for reviewing material in the children’s section, young adult section, and the new separate parenting section containing sensitive youth materials.
· There are two parenting sections in our libraries now. The parenting section referred to in the new policy is not the adult parenting section that contains parenting books like baby care, discipline, gentle parenting etc. The new parenting section is in a different area of the adult section that contains sensitive youth books that you might not want your child to pick up independently. Children’s and young adult books about sex, suicide, the death of a pet, adoption, cancer, and gender transitioning are in this section. These are all books that would have been in the children’s or young adult sections except the content is sensitive. Books in this section will be restricted for checkout to adults over 18 years of age. This is the parenting section referred to in the new policy.
· Books submitted for reconsideration will be moved to the adult section until a decision has been made. The reason why this is important is because there was a book called It’s Perfectly Normal in the children’s section a few years ago, and it shows drawings of naked adults in sexual positions. This book now resides in the adult section after pressure from the court.
· You must be a resident to submit a reconsideration request. This part was a little confusing because you do not need to submit proof of residency. This has always been the case and has not changed from the previous policy. The reconsideration form has a place for your residential address, and it obviously must be Montgomery County.
· The new library policy does allow for a book to be removed only by unanimous consent IF it meets the standards as harmful material by Texas Penal Code 43.24(a)(2). I would honestly be surprised if we saw one book removed a year, and I don’t believe any will be removed at all. The bar is very high.
Here is the old library policy - page 12 is where the reconsideration portion of the policy started.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19hlKlDnp8Akjjq0o5pppwK6vMVy7nREP/view?usp=sharing
You can compare this with the new policy that can be found here:
https://destinyhosted.com/montgdocs/2024/CCREG/20240326_1490/24299%5FLibrary%5FPolicy.pdf
Are we banning books?
I want to caution my fellow concerned citizens against pushing to remove books from the public library entirely. Books that are historically significant should, in my opinion, have a place in our libraries, even when the book is distasteful. A few good examples of this could include, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, The Communist Manifesto by Karol Marx, The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin, and George by Alex Gino. (Links show these book placements in our libraries.)
Should George be in the children’s section? Absolutely not, but in my opinion, the book should be in the library. You might not be familiar with George, which is quoted in this article above. This was the first children’s chapter book published about a transgendered child. The author has since changed the title to Melissa out of respect of the main character. Why should this book be in the library? I think it should be there because it is a historically significant book during a historically significant phenomenon. Will this phenomenon pass? Will detransitioners demand that our society stop doing this to children? I believe so, but when that happens, we can never forget where our society went.
Should all the books ever written be in the library? No, there are some books that should not be in the library at all. A good example is if a book contains illegal images. I don’t think there is such a book in the library but that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a process if a book that is pushing this envelope is found.
Librarians themselves believe some books should not be in the library because they are poorly written or generally receive unfavorable reviews. When we first attempted to get the Brave Books into the library, the librarian in charge of this process responded that the books do not qualify because they had not been reviewed by the literary journals. Turns out, the books need to be award-winning, or raved about by the literary journals to qualify for purchase. Until recently the books needed to be available from approved vendors for our libraries to purchase them. Conservative children’s book authors need not apply even if their book is wildly popular. See where we are going here? It looks like the left found a creative way to ban books.
We simply want age-appropriate books in age-appropriate hands. We would also like our tax dollar purchases to more accurately reflect the needs of the community. This doesn’t mean our tax dollars don’t buy liberal leaning books.
In Conclusion,
The new policy is fair and provides citizens the opportunity to have more input in what is appropriate for various age groups. The citizens will be appointed by our elected court members who are accountable to the voters. The citizens are instructed to make decisions based on our community standards. Previously, librarians were given no direction by the policy and presumably made these decisions based on their own personal views. I am proud of our elected leaders for making this courageous decision. I will close with the following comment from one of our current reconsideration committee members Ryan Hutson, “I am inspired by Judge Keough and the decision by Commissioners Court today. By giving citizens a voice in shaping the accessibility of content in our public libraries, we can strengthen our efforts to protect our children and uphold the values of our community.”
Written by Michele Nuckolls, a local homeschool mom who spends a lot of time in the public library with her kids.