The Bermudian Springs School Board continues to make complications where solutions already exist. At their meeting in March, the school board approved a first read of a revised Policy 109 regarding resource materials. This revised policy creates something called the CIRA Committee to review any material deemed “borderline”. While the revised policy defines various forms of impropriety, the new CIRA Committee will have authority to remove any material they deem sexually explicit. With no other guidelines in the policy, the three people on the CIRA Committee will use their own judgement and discretion to decide what constitutes “sexually explicit,” forcing their beliefs into classrooms district wide.
While this revision of Policy 109 is careful to avoid the word “ban,” restricting and removing books from the district is a book ban. What’s most egregious is this book ban removes parent choice! No group of parents should decide what books other parents’ children can read. Before this revision, the current policy allowed the educational professionals hired by the district to select age appropriate materials to use in classrooms to most effectively deliver approved curriculum. This selection process was overseen and approved by the administration to ensure materials matched curriculum. Then a list or syllabus of the approved age-appropriate materials is shared with parents, so they are aware of the materials used in classrooms. Any parent that objects to any resource for any reason is allowed to exempt their student from those assignments. The current process allows trained professionals the freedom to select age-appropriate materials that best serve the students while allowing all parents to decide what’s right for their own children.
Instead this unnecessary revision of Policy 109 is overreaching. Book bans are government censorship. They erode our country’s commitment to freedom of expression. Book bans do not protect students from complex or challenging issues; books help promote understanding and knowledge to deal with complex issues. Reading is a foundational skill, critical to future learning, and to exercising our democratic freedoms.
Once the Policy 109 revision is approved in April, the three people on the CIRA Committee will decide what resources and books the students can access; not educational professionals, not even parents! Policy 109 will remove educational opportunities from students as staff will begin to self-censor to avoid having their choices questioned by the CIRA Committee. Policy 109 creates a hostile work environment where staff are afraid to make decisions or to try anything innovative; no one likes to work while being micromanaged. Policy 109 will stifle creative classrooms with fear mongering. Policy 109 will discourage critical thinking over concerns of the judgement of just three individuals. Policy 109 shows the school board does not trust trained educators to do their jobs. This mistrust will ultimately lead to more departures from the District and make recruiting new staff even more difficult.
Many of the current school board members ran campaigns based on the concept of parent choice and parent involvement. The administration created a standardized, district wide syllabus so all parents could learn what materials are used in classrooms. Unfortunately, this was not enough for the current Board. Now they want to create a committee with only three people that decide for everyone in the district what is and isn’t appropriate. Ironically the members that ran on a platform of parent rights are now advocating removing parent choice from our curriculum. Apparently, they know better for all students, even better than the students’ own parents!
Banning books is just fundamentally wrong and un-American. The students at Bermudian deserve an expansive and diverse education; not one limited and restrained by a school board committee! There are already solutions at Bermudian; why does this School Board continue to make complications?
Matt Nelson has lived in York-Adams area his whole life while he's lived in Bermudian Springs School District since 2005 with his wife and two children. He has been a member of the Bermudian Springs School Board since 2019. He is a chemist that graduated from Gettysburg College and currently works for York College of Pennsylvania.
Age appropriate decisions are made by ADULTS, not children. NO ONE is banning anything. Go buy it on Amazon or go to the public adult library. School libraries are meant to supplement what is taught in the classroom. We have far too many perverts advancing their own agendas in our schools, as happened with the Boy Scouts.
Thank you, Matt Nelson. This is very well stated, an excellent explanation of a tragic and infuriating situation. Perhaps when this policy goes into effect and books have been “removed” (not “banned” after all) you could share with us some examples of the kind of books being attacked.
I taught 10th and 12th grade English at Bermudian Springs High School from 1975-79 and 1981-2010. During most of those 33 years, I was writing my own short fiction, and I encouraged many of my students to investigate the collections of award winning contemporary short fiction found in the high school library. For years I was happy our fine librarian ordered contemporary collections of award-winning fiction. Collections such as the O Henry Award Winners and Best American Short Stories found a home on the shelves. Now I suppose the Three Wise Ones will be forced to investigate those 20 year… Read more »
I agree. This certainly appears to be a censoring of books. Let’s not try to put lipstick on this policy that is anything other than a book ban