VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Big things were happening at the Virginia Beach School Board meeting on Tuesday night as parents and teachers voiced their feelings on how school libraries deal with materials that some consider inappropriate for children.
At the board meeting on Feb. 13, board member David Culpepper issued an amendment that would create a content committee to make sure sexually explicit content in elementary school libraries is banned.
Late on Tuesday night, the school board passed it in a six to four vote.
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Before the vote, public comment lasted well over two hours, as supporters and proponents of the policy voiced their opinions.
“Tonight’s proposal to once again create a list of inappropriate books, or as I like to call it the naughty list, is yet another proposal to ban books that diverge from one person’s view on what is acceptable for all students,” one resident said.
“Mr Culpepper’s amendment should be unanimously passed because it’s amazing to me that there’s professional resistance to removing a lot of this material from school libraries,” said another.
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In 2022, Virginia legislation passed Senate Bill 656. This states that the Virginia Department of Education shall develop model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content. Some of these books include "Ready Player One," "The Grapes of Wrath" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Culpepper's new amendment would allow the created team to ban books like these in elementary schools and require middle and high schools to clearly list them on the schools website.
According to the agenda, the committee would include "at least four library media specialists." It is unclear as of right now who those people will be.
