Hempfield Area School Board may vote on book-challenge, acquisition policies at next meeting

After nearly 18 months of meetings, debates and changes, Hempfield Area School Board members sent two controversial policies back to their policy committee for additional tweaks.

The policies are centered around the purchase of resource materials, with a particular focus on books available in the district’s libraries, and the procedure for challenging their use and availability to students.

In 2022, district parents challenged the inclusion in the high school library of “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, which chronicles Johnson’s journey growing up as a queer Black man. Parents also asked for the removal of “The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person” by Frederick Joseph, which reflects the author’s experiences with racism.

A formal complaint was filed, and the books were reviewed by a district committee. After the review, both books were allowed to remain.

Since then, the school board and district officials have worked on a policy laying out the procedure for acquiring resource materials such as library books, as well as a formal procedure for when a book’s use is challenged.

Board members made several suggestions at their meeting Monday night to try and fine-tune the policies.

Selecting resource materials

With regard to a policy for choosing resource materials, school director Tony Bompiani suggested carving out a specific procedure for library books.

“If we had a 30-day review process for them, that would give us more of a chance to evaluate materials before we bring them to the library and they end up being challenged,” Bompiani said.

School director Jerry Radebaugh agreed.

“Why can’t we put a list together of future book purchases for parents to review?” Radebaugh asked. “Anything we can do to filter material on the front end would help streamline the process. And if someone sees something that doesn’t align with the (policy), it can be challenged with respect to the (policy itself), not fully challenged after we’ve bought it as part of reevaluation.”

The latest version of the policy, dated April 19, notes materials with mature content “require careful review.” That content includes “offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated,” and also includes instances of ethnic intimidation, and lays out specific guidelines for both elementary and secondary schools.

“We’re not going to have a policy that’s perfect, but we need to make it as perfect as possible,” Bompiani said.

District parent Tracy Miller said the policy should do a better job “of making sure these books don’t come in here in the first place.”

“I do not have the right to tell another parent what their kid can read,” Miller said. “But it’s different when the book is available to anyone in the library, and I think the district needs to respect the rights of parents who don’t want their kids reading this material.”

Challenging books

The proposed policy regarding a request for reevaluation of resource materials was changed very little. If a book or other resource material is challenged, the person bringing the challenge will attend an informal meeting with district staff. If they still wish to request a reevaluation, a committee is formed to respond to the request.

On Monday, several board members and parents suggested removing a requirement that the committee should include a high school student.

“Given the difficulties that this board has had with this issue, I don’t think a student should be put into that situation,” said school board President Paul Ward.

The draft also removed a reference to maintaining the anonymity of committee members undertaking a request for reevaluation.

Greg Myer of Hempfield asked the board to keep children and parents “front and center” when making more tweaks to the policy.

“Part of evaluating materials is seeing how they reflect the community at large and what the community thinks of them,” Myer said. “Ideally, you’d publish the material someplace like the newspaper. But no newspaper would ever publish some of the things in these books.

“I’m just encouraging you to consider and respect that,” Myer said.

Hempfield Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said the policies will remain on the agenda for a potential vote at the school board’s June 26 meeting with minor changes. The district’s policy committee also will reconvene to consider feedback from Monday’s board meeting.

“Any major changes will be included in a future revision that will be placed on a 30-day review,” Wolicki said in an email to the Tribune-Review.

The board meets next at 7 p.m. June 26 at the district office, 4347 Route 136 in Hempfield.

Copies of the most recent versions of both policies are available on the district’s website. For details, go to HASDPA.net and click on the “School Board” link under the “Our District” menu. An agenda for the June 12 meeting includes links to the policies.