Newton school board considers creating panel to screen books for objectionable content

After the purchase of 34 novels for optional reading in Newton Public Schools, Superintendent Fred Van Ranken says the district’s screening process for objectionable content isn’t strong enough.

Van Ranken is proposing that a panel of book evaluators sign off on all reading materials after reviewing them for language, sexual content, violence, drugs/alcohol, mature themes and religious/political themes, The Newton Kansan first reported.

“We are not banning books,” Van Ranken told The Eagle on Tuesday.

“We just want to make sure that our parents trust us, that we’re communicating information with them, and that we’re being good stewards for their children.”

The Newton school board approved the purchase of the 34 novels earlier this year with little fanfare. Individual teachers evaluated the books and filled out the material approval forms for each of the novels.

Three of the books — “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie and “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely Reasons — have appeared on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books List in the last two years.

The books are not course-required reading but will be available to students who want to read them on their own or as part of a reading circle.

Van Ranken says parents should have an opportunity to be more involved in vetting the curricula their children are exposed to in school.

“That’s one of the issues that’s been floating around on the — I hate to say on the conservative side of things — but for example, the parent’s bill of rights and things like that because they don’t feel like there’s enough of a level of communication,” Van Ranken said.

SB 58, dubbed the “parent’s bill of rights,” is a mostly Republican-backed measure aimed at giving Kansas parents more oversight to challenge classroom materials, including “lessons, syllabi, surveys, tests, questionnaires, examinations, books, magazines, handouts.” The Kansas House failed to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the bill late last month.

The Newton school board has not yet formalized a book review panel, and it’s unclear who would be represented on such a committee. But board members expressed support for strengthening the review process at last week’s meeting.

Board member Andy Ortiz told The Kansan he has been reading five of the novels approved as optional classroom reading materials.

“There is drugs, sex and rape. It is very normalized in those books. … I was disappointed to see that,” Ortiz said. “The kids were very disrespectful to parents, and having sex with people the first time they met them.”

Ortiz and other school board members did not respond to The Eagle’s requests for comment.

“To do this right, we need to have these conversations. I believe this is a community conversation. The majority of us want to make sure we do this right,” Ortiz told The Kansan.

A Derby public schools book review panel decided in March that “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” should no longer be taught in the classroom. The award-winning novel, told from the perspective of a Native American teenager, was also removed from Derby North Middle School library after panel members objected to its use of profanity and sexual content.

“The Hate U Give,” a novel about a Black teenager who witnessed police murder her friend, has been banned in some places on the grounds that it promotes an anti-police message — one of the reasons that has also been given for banning “All American Boys.”

Below is a list of the 34 novels approved for Newton’s optional reading program along with their corresponding grade level.

12th – “A Woman is No Man” by Etaf Rum

12th – “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi

12th – “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro

12th – “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles

12th – “One Dark Night” by Lisa Wheeler

12th – “The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea” by Hyeonseo Lee and David John

12th – “There There” by Tommy Orange

11th – “Allegedly” by Tiffany Jackson

11th – “I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika Sánchez

11th – “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler

11th – “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng

11th – “Not So Pure and Simple” by Lamar Giles

10th – “Educated” by Tara Westover

10th – “Home Fire” by Kamila Shamsie

10th – “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

10th – “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie

10th – “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henríquez

10th – “The Girl With the Louding Voice” by Abi Daré

9th – “All-American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

9th – “Dear Martin” by Nic Stone

9th – “Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From” by Jennifer De Leon

9th – “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

9th – “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

6th – “Freak the Mighty” by Rodman Philbrick

6th – “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds

6th – “Holes” by Louis Sachar

6th – “Malala” by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

6th – “Ungifted” by Gordon Korman

5th – “Esperanza Rising” by Pam Muñoz Ryan

5th – “George vs. George” by Rosalyn Schanzer

5th – “Paul Revere’s Ride” (poem) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

5th – “Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbitt

5th – “Weslandia” by Paul Fleischman

5th – “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” by Christopher Paul Curtis

This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.