Cobb superintendent pushes back on school book removals

The 2023-24 academic year in the Cobb County School District ended just as the way it started on a key cultural issue that has been roiling public schools around the country:

The removal of books from school libraries and classrooms that contain sexually explicit and adult-themed material.

What critics have called “book bans” that amount to censorship, Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale insists are measures to protect students from harmful materials and prioritize parental rights.

At a Cobb Board of Education meeting last week, Ragsdale fired back at his critics for a third time since the flap began last September.

During his monthly remarks, Ragsdale blasted a civil rights complaint filed against the Cobb school district by the National Women’s Law Center, saying the removals have created a hostile environment for students of color, as well as from the LGBTQ community and other groups.

The NWLC action was filed with the Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education, and includes allegations that the Cobb school district shut down attempts to create a gay-student alliance at Walton High School.

The complaint asks for the removed books to be restored to Cobb school library shelves and for future removals to be halted.

The complaint also wants the Cobb school district to create clear mission statements and policies that “value diversity and are committed to ensuring safe, inclusive, and supportive campuses free from discrimination.”

But Ragsdale said the allegations are “lies …. spread by an out-of-state political action group that seeks to impose their political agenda on our children.”

Cobb has removed seven titles from school bookshelves during the past school year, out of more than a million pieces of materials that he said represent a wide variety of diverse elements and perspectives.

Following complaints by parents about the books, Ragsdale said the district found them to be lewd, vulgar and sexually explicit.

“This complaint isn’t about any facts, but an attempt to push a specific political agenda of a D.C.-based advocacy group on the students and citizens of Cobb County,” Ragsdale said.

“We will not bow to their demands to break the law, and we will always protect the students of Cobb County no matter their gender, race, nationality, religion or any other protected class.

“I will not be moved. The sexualization of children can never become normalized.”

Om Sunday, the district reiterated the message on its social media channels, pledging to update parents when books are removed for explicit and graphic content. 

“Some will continue to fight for sexually explicit content in schools, to flip our Board majority in November, and to remove our Superintendent and staff.”

A part of that message prompted a response from a school board candidate from East Cobb.

Democrat Laura Judge posted on her candidate Facebook page Monday that “it’s problematic that we have a district communication team that continues to lean politically one way with posting their fear of ‘flipping the board majority.’ “

Judge is seeking the Post 5 seat being vacated by Republican David Banks. Republicans have a 4-3 majority on the school board, and three of those seats are on the November ballot. She and Republican John Cristadoro, both parents in the Walton cluster, will be facing off in the general election.

That partisan wrangling has been at the heart of a number of school board disputes in recent years, and the book removals are no exception.

The Cobb school district’s social media thread on Sunday referenced a partisan 4-3 vote by the board to extend Ragsdale’s contract in February, calling it an attempt to “heighten political pressure” against the Republican majority and the superintendent.

Parents critical of Ragsdale and who regularly address the board at meetings have started an informal “public comment book club” in a social media group to read the titles that have been removed in Cobb schools. A few wondered if the Bible also has been removed, in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

“All that talk about incest, rape, prostitution, nudity and the like. Lewd, lewd, lewd!” said one parent, with another linking to just such a decision in schools in Utah, and with passages from the Old Testament.

But other parents said that they found the books inappropriate for the schools, with one saying that “perhaps you could show your children this material if it is important to you, rather than fight to get it disseminated to others’ children.”

Judge, who has said occasionally that the school board composition shouldn’t be partisan, said in her Facebook post Monday that “until we have a board that is willing to hold the superintendent accountable for actual problems we have within our schools, rather than this manufactured one that has happened under the current majority and/or leadership, we will continue to see our students and schools treated as political pawns by this district on their social posts or through our CTLS platform.”