Hempfield school board approves policies targeting sexually explicit content in school libraries

• By Ashley Stalnecker/LNP | LancasterOnline

This story is published in partnership with LancasterOnline.

Correction: In an earlier version of the story, it was incorrectly reported that the district’s new solicitor was approved by a unanimous vote. The solicitor was approved by a 8-1 vote, with Jim Maurer voting nay.

Hempfield School District’s board has no immediate plans to remove any library books but voted Tuesday to implement a set of policies that lay the groundwork for the board to review and potentially remove books containing content deemed sexually explicit or inappropriate.

Jim Maurer and Mike Donato were the only two to vote against revisions to the district’s policy on resource and library materials but joined the rest of the board in favor of the new policy laying out a selection and challenge system.

The new policies go into effect immediately, but the administration must develop regulations within them, such as who would be responsible for reviewing the library books.

The revisions to the district’s Policy 109 specifically guides the selection, challenge and maintenance of library materials while defining phrases such as “sexually explicit content,” “age or grade appropriate” and concepts of varying levels of difficulty and representing different points of view.

The new rule, Policy, 108.1, create guidelines for resource material or that which is available in school curriculum and outlines the process of challenging materials, giving the superintendent or assigned “designee” responsibility to notify the board of any recommendations for the removal of materials caused by parental concerns.

Board President Dylan Bard said after the meeting that neither he nor the board knows yet which books would be subject to review. That, he said, would be the responsibility of the administration.

“It’s not going to be like, OK, running to the library and yanking 15 books off the shelf, five books off the shelf, one book off the shelf,” Bard said after the meeting. “That’s not how it’s going to work.”

The district’s new solicitor (approved by a 8-1 vote Tuesday, with Jim Maurer voting nay), Attorney David Walker with Stock and Leader, said after the meeting that the administration would essentially be fleshing out the policies for use in the district’s schools and that “might take a little time.”

The policies establish guidelines for the selection and review of books in the district’s libraries, including a rule ensuring books with sexually explicit content or material are no longer available to students.

Sexually explicit content and material is defined in the new policy as “material that encourages an excessive interest in sexual matters and graphically describes/illustrates sexual behavior or acts of any kinds.”

Absent before the meeting was any protest or rally against the policies. Over 140 people had shown up in protest at the May 9 meeting, when the proposals were first read.

Opposition ‘tired’

“The people who have tried to help the board see how their policies are detrimental to the students and the district are tired,” said resident Jamie Beth Cohen, who helped organize last month’s rally. The board “hasn’t heard us. … They act as if they represent a small, vocal minority rather than the whole district and the best interests of the students.”

She said people are far more interested in voting out those on the board than reasoning with “people who have shown themselves to be unreasonable.”

Only three of eight speakers during the public comment portion of the meeting asked the board to vote against implementing the policies. The other five thanked the board for the new policies.

One told the board she wished the board had included stronger language surrounding sexual content in library books.

“I learned about the books that people were concerned about, read some of the material, and it was pretty much pornography,” resident Kandice Null said. “I want to thank you for passing last time the (policies), to at least start having some kind of procedure to review these things.”

After a police report reporting pornographic or obscene content contained in three books in the Hempfield High School library in 2022, Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams declined to file charges.

To meet the legal definition of pornographic, materials must depict images of real children rather than computer-generated images, while obscene materials are considered those that lack “serious literary, artistic, political, educational or scientific value,” Adams wrote in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline earlier this year.

Those in favor of the new policies, citing a disdain for what they call pornographic or sexual content in libraries, were either parents or residents in the district. Only two students spoke, both against the policy.

Hempfield High School junior Charley Odell said mass genocide, sexual assault, rape and genital mutilation are all topics included in the Bible — a book she said is passed around among children and even has a club at the high school devoted to the discussion of it.

“All those despicable topics I just mentioned are in the holy Good Book,” Odell said. “So I ask this as a community: Before you accuse pieces of paper of poisoning your children, maybe you should face the fact that you are the ones who poisoned them.”

She said if the board does remove library books containing sexual content she will launch a campaign against the Bible being allowed on school grounds and the existence of the club that discusses it.

“It’s pretty disgusting that (the board is) being very hypocritical,” Odell said after the meeting. “They’re violating freedom of speech, and yet they’re still fearful of violating freedom of religion.”

 

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