HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Parents in Hall County want district leaders to take a look at material within books assigned to children and to consider banning, Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln learned.
The concern tonight is coming from parents regarding the type of books that are assigned for students to read as a part of their coursework.
“The last thing that we want to do is remove those books from the school,” Hall County School District Chairman Craig Herrington said.
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Monday night, Hall County board members heard and considered parents’ reasoning for what some are calling offensive literature to be removed.
The house was packed, and parents and students voiced their concerns regarding the offensive literature.
“I feel like there’s a good string system in place for parents to stay connected to kids’ education,” parent Claire Duigan said.
While some parents are ok with the current literature policy, others say more clarity is needed.
“They’ve yet to lay out how material is chosen, what the standard is. I don’t think that was answered at all,” parent Jeremy Holt said.
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Herrington said the board wants to properly review and assess material before deciding if removing district-approved literature is necessary.
“If you start making choices to remove certain books from the school, the criteria you use to remove those books would also remove prominent pieces of literature,” he said.
Herrington said the district began receiving phone calls after a parent’s Facebook post about concerning material went viral on Facebook.
The book, “Dear Martin” was discussed, which details a black teen’s interaction with police.
One student advocated that the book should stay.
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“That book is a good eye opener. People need to know that, people need to know the racial injustice that is happening in our society, all of the bad things that are happening that should not be censored,” she said.
Hall County isn’t the first district to run into this controversy.
Earlier this year, Forsyth County Schools removed eight books for containing sexually explicit content.
Statewide, a Georgia bill is awaiting the governor’s signature, which would make it easier for districts to remove books considered harmful to minors.
Despite the bill, Herrington said the board will not be the book police.
“Once you start down that path, it opens up a variety of range of options that people can request that other books be removed,” he said.
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