Hempfield Area parents, board members debate book policies ahead of upcoming vote

Occasional cheering and applause rose on Monday as Hempfield Area School District residents and parents reviewed book challenges and bans.

A policy governing the process awaits a final vote by the school board in two weeks.

During Monday’s school board meeting, several residents talked about the proposed policies, and some raised concerns about censorship, book bans and intimidation of librarians.

The board previously discussed changes to two regulations which govern what materials can remain in or be bought for the library and on what grounds people can challenge books’ inclusion. The most recent round of edits were approved for 30-day review at a board meeting July 10 and are set for a final vote Aug. 14.

The new rules would make lists of books that librarians intend to purchase visible to the public for 30 days before they officially are acquired. Hempfield residents would be able to “express concern with a title listed for purchase” by submitting a form, which the librarian, building principal, subject area teacher and assistant superintendent would review.

The revisions also include detailed definitions of “sexual content” and “ethnic intimidation” as described in the state School Code, noting that materials “labeled or described as including sexual content, graphic violence or hate speech/ethnic intimidation” require careful review.

At the meeting, Hempfield parent Ceil Kessler said that according to a right-to-know request the district responded to in April, only one person — Paula Cinti, who is listed as vice chair of a Westmoreland County chapter of the organization Moms for Liberty on the chapter’s website — was the source of book challenge requests from November 2021 to November 2022.

“It is your responsibility as a board to keep the school district running smoothly and try not to run afoul of the Constitution while doing so. It is not your responsibility to substitute your morals and judgments for mine, or second-guess the opinions of educators with advanced degrees in their field, who we have hired to teach our kids,” Kessler said, asking the board to vote no on the changes to the policies.

Cinti, who also attended the meeting, and Jennifer Stape, a Hempfield Area School Board candidate, both raised concerns about the content of books included in a previously approved dual-enrollment college literature course in the district.

“What is the obsession with sex and exposing our minors to sexualized content?” Cinti said, and read a list of sexual crimes that educators in Pennsylvania have been charged with in the past.

District Solicitor Krisha DiMascio clarified that the book rules are administrative regulations, which technically do not require a vote, but said the board has decided to vote on the book rules to allow the public to have input. She also said that if a book is removed for sexual content, the district will replace it with a book on similar topics or a similar author.

“We know we’re not going to make everyone happy, but we also have to protect the students, and we also have to protect the rights of citizens, and protect the right to free speech,” she said. “This has really been very thoughtfully done over the last year. … It is not a buzzword or topic on a national scale here, where we’re trying to rid our community of a specific topic or author. In fact, we have mechanisms in there to stop people from doing that.”

Background

The revisions are the latest phase of a policy conflict that has continued at Hempfield for more than a year and a half about the appropriateness of books and other resource materials in the district’s libraries.

Discussions and debates began in 2022, when district parents challenged the inclusion in the high school library of two books: “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, which chronicles Johnson’s journey growing up as a queer Black man, and “The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person” by Frederick Joseph, which reflects the author’s experiences with racism.

Both books later were allowed to remain after they were formally reviewed by a district committee.

Over the past year, the district has discussed updating its policies for bringing new books and materials into the libraries and its rules for how books can be challenged by community members. The policies have moved back and forth between the policy committee and board for revisions and clarifications.

At the meeting, Davon Magwood, a father of three who lives in Hempfield, said the book policy revisions are a “slippery slope.”

“I don’t get how you guys get to decide what books are right for my children,” he said. “If there are kids finding stuff in books, they’re going to find it online. I feel like this is a misguided way of helping our children.”

Melissa Royer, a Hempfield resident, urged the board to trust librarians.

“Your staff know the rules. Please show the same respect you did every year before now,” she said. “Allow these professionals hired by your district to do their job, and respect their experience. Not doing so is undermining their profession.”