St. Johns County, Fla. — School board members for the St. Johns County School District placed new restrictions on three books.
Board officials decided to take “Check & Mate” and “Monday’s Not Coming” out of middle schools and restrict them to only ninth through twelfth grade, with parents’ permission to check out.
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Meanwhile, “There is Someone Inside Your House” was restricted to only high school seniors, also with parental permission.
“My son was 18 in 11th grade. So you’re now saying a grown adult is restricted from reading a book of his choice?” St. Johns County parent Carole Gauronskas outlined. “There’s too many reasons to see that banning a book is a bad thing.”
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“This is a book about a serial killer slashing people described in detail,” St. Johns County parent Jean Moore said. “This content would be considered rated R and not appropriate for schools.”
While many parents spoke out in support of both protecting and restricting those books in St. Johns County Schools, some also questioned the current book restriction process itself.
“Reliance on the opt-out form deflects responsibility away from the fact that this board has no control over the media center contents,” Moore accused the board of. “I’m sorry to say that this board and district administration has refused to create clear standards and guidelines as to what is considered acceptable and age-appropriate for minor children placed in your care.”
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Now, the school board plans to meet for a workshop session before the start of the next school year to review their process, including a possible permission slip for books parents would sign, and a movie-like ratings system.
However, school board chair Anthony Coleman said he’s cautious of either idea.
“I think we probably want to be careful with the ratings because kids are watching movies on their phones and all of this,” Coleman said. “Our media specialists are the professionals. And if we’re doing it correctly, it will already be worked out in itself.”
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