Cobb school district to ask for legislation on book ratings

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a slate of legislative priorities requested by Cobb County School District officials that include a number of rollover items.

There also is a new item that follows in the wake of a school library controversy in the district over sexually explicit materials.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale is asking that the Georgia General Assembly consider developing a book rating system, similar to movies, that he said would clear up confusion about what’s appropriate to have on school library shelves.

He said public school districts are required by federal law, for example, to follow the Children’s Internet Protection Act for discounted rates on internet and telecommunications services.

“We have nothing for books whatsover,” Ragsdale said during a board work session Thursday afternoon.”It just makes common sense to put a rating system in place.”

He said such a rating system—which he didn’t think would get legislative approval right away—would also provide guidance for publishers of school books and other materials.

There wasn’t any opposition from board members, but at a voting session Thursday night, Post 2 member Becky Sayler made a motion to remove language substituting a ban on “inappropriate” materials for “sexually explicit” and “pornographic.”

Sayler, one of three Democrats on the board, said “inappropriate” is a vague word that could create more confusion. Her motion failed 3-4 along partisan lines.

So did three other motions relating to the book rating priority, and she ultimately asked for a delay in a vote for another month for more public feedback.

“I truly cannot believe that we’re having a conversation again about what books should contain,” Ragsdale said during the work session. “It’s common sense. It speaks for itself.”

The Cobb school district has come under fire for removing three books that contained sexually explicit content fromseveral middle- and high school libraries, despite protests from some parents that the district was engaging in book banning.

At the October board meeting, Sayler proposed a change in the book policy that would have created local media committees to provide feedback for library operations, with the district media committee having the final say.

She said that content should be allowed that has won awards and is used in book fairs and other related competitions.

But Ragsdale, who issued a lengthy statement in September defending the decision to remove the books, was adamant that materials deemed to be “vulgar, sexually explicit, lewd, obscene, or pornographic” will continue to be removed.

Before Thursday’s vote on the legislative priorities, he took The Marietta Daily Journal and the head of a local teachers association to task regarding the book issue.

On Oct. 29 the newspaper published a lengthy report about “hundreds of books” being removed from Cobb school district libraries since the school year began in August.

The MDJ obtained the information through an open records request and also published a 62-page school-by-school list of the titles that were no longer on shelves.

In reading from prepared remarks, Ragsdale said that in spite of the headline, the reality was “a bit more bland.”

He said the district purchases around new 100,000 library titles a year and there’s only so much space on the shelves.

Many of the materials, he said, were older items that “were weeded to make room for new items.”

Ragsdale said that the routine replacement of materials was, “unfortunately, not grabby enough” and the media outlet mentioned the removing of books containing themes “that are commonly challenged in school districts around the country.”

But he said that amounted to 14 titles in all, and “this was a wonderful opportunity for those wishing to agitate and wildly and unhelpfully speculate, arguing that it is part of some secret culture war or political attack.”

Ragsdale denied accusations by Jeff Hubbard, head of the Cobb County Association of Educators, that what was happening in Cobb is part of a broader effort nationwide to restrict materials in school libraries, especially in Republican-friendly locals.

“Unfortunately for Jeff, one of the books that was replaced was Webster’s New Book of Facts,” Ragsdale said, tongue-in-cheek.

Ragsdale said that anyone looking at the 62-page list can, “if they try hard enough . . . find something to give offense.”

He said the district will not permit “taxpayer supported unrestricted access” to sexually explicit books “for children.”

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Before the board vote, Ragsdale