UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A group of North Carolina moms fighting to stop proposed changes to the book review policy in Union County held a "read-in" before Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting.
The board ultimately deferred the agenda item at Tuesday night's meeting and is expected to consider changes to the policy at its next meeting later this month. If approved those changes would make it easier for Union County Public Schools to censor what books are allowed in public libraries.
Some parents are in support of a closer book review.
“It has been determining that not all materials have been properly reviewed for age appropriateness," parent Deb Helms said.
Others argue banning books infringes on the student's constitutional First Amendment right and, in most cases, they say the books aren't inappropriate, but instead a learning opportunity.
“They’re books that children should be reading to understand the real world and understand issues they may face in the real world and start learning how to deal and cope with it," parent Weston Burroughs said.
The American Library Association says there were 330 reports of books being challenged from September to November of 2021. Some of those books include Harper Lee's iconic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Maus" by Art Spiegelman and Alex Gino's "Melissa." Censorship efforts have ranged from local communities such as a Tennessee school board's pulling single books to statewide initiatives.
Even across the state in Raleigh protests have grown in response to book bans. Some worry these books in question mostly include perspectives from underrepresented minority groups and without that perspective there's worry.
“By removing representation of them in the library we can only do more harm we’re also telling children not in the LGBTQ community to erase them," parent Melissa Filanowicz said.
On the other side, the concern is much different.
"There are some books with pornography and pedophilia that should absolutely be removed from K through 12 school libraries," Yael Levin, a spokeswoman for No Left Turn in Education said.
No Left Turn in Education is a national group opposed to what it calls a "Leftist agenda" for public schools that has called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the availability of "Gender Queer" among other books.
"Now we're not talking about a public library or bookstores," Levin said. "We're talking about K through 12 school libraries, books that are just pornographic and with pedophilic content."
The proposed changes to the policy are expected to be addressed later this month.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story indicated the board was discussing a new policy, instead of changes to an existing policy.