‘Literally heartbreaking as a librarian:’ 150 titles pulled from Tennessee school libraries

Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout
25 November 2024
Books by Toni Morrison are among those pulled from school libraries in Rutherford County. (Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector)

Rutherford County school librarians’ phones started buzzing with traded messages of fear and frustration as soon as the central office email directive arrived on an otherwise routine Tuesday morning:

150 book titles had to be removed from the shelves – or tracked down and taken from kids who had borrowed them.

Immediately.

“Librarians had to drop everything they were doing: no more checking books in and out, no answering questions or assisting with research, not able to do the jobs they love to do. Some even had to shut down their library for the day,” said Elizabeth Shepherd, librarian at the Discovery School in Murfreesboro who described the frantic text message exchanges among fellow librarians that ensued.

“Instead, they had to make their first priority book removal, not just taking them off the shelves but also taking them out of the hands of students, a process that is literally heartbreaking as a librarian.”

The books were removed without formal review by school board members, librarians, teachers or parents less than 24 hours after an emailed request to Rutherford County Director of Schools James Sullivan from a school board member.

“Per state law, here is a list of 150 books that have been challenged for sexually explicit content,” read the Nov. 11 email from board member Francis Rosales. “Please review the attached documents for violations related to sexually explicit material in school libraries,” the email said.

They had to make their first priority book removal, not just taking them off the shelves but also taking them out of the hands of students, a process that is literally heartbreaking as a librarian.”

– Elizabeth Shepherd, librarian at Discovery School

Rosales cited newly enacted Tennessee legislation that bars books that contain nudity and descriptions of “sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse” and attached “pages of concern” for each title.

“It was partly because of accusations that we were having those types of books in our school libraries, so I took it upon myself to do this,” Rosales told the Lookout on Thursday. “My goal is if we are accused of having these books we should tackle this now.”

But the speed with which the school district pulled books that include American classics such as “A Clockwork Orange’’ and “Catch-22,” along with LGBTQ-theme titles including, “Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens,” created a firestorm that spilled into public view at a Nov. 14 board meeting.

School board member Katie Darby accused Rosales of including books to be banned that “have no business being on there” and “wasting people’s time.” Rosales questioned whether Darby supported having sexually explicit materials available to children. The board chair gavelled to a close the testy exchange that followed.

Law source of ‘chaos and confusion’

Tennessee’s newly enacted school library statute, in effect since July 1, expands upon a 2022 law requiring school libraries to regularly review book collections to ensure only age-appropriate reading materials are available to students.

The new law, which received unanimous support from Tennessee Republican lawmakers, further defined objectionable books as those containing sexually explicit passages, nudity and excess violence but failed to define what those terms mean.

The vagueness of the law’s language has drawn sharp criticism from educators and civil liberties advocates who warn the legislation could be interpreted to encompass a vast range of children and young adult books.

“Public Chapter 782 is the source of this chaos and confusion for school librarians in Tennessee, as it creates a way for unchallenged books to be removed from the shelves, does not take into account the age or maturity level of the student, and it encourages self-censorship,” the Tennessee Association of School Librarians said in a statement.

The association said the law has put educators in the position of deciding on whether books meet new “legal standards that have not been adequately explained by the State of Tennessee in the form of guidance.”

As a result, public school officials have requested an attorney general’s opinion to help them comply with the law. Districts, including Rutherford County, have deferred decisions on how to create new guidelines to review challenged books until they receive that decision. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to comment on the status of any opinion Friday.

Conservative website cited in state book bans

In the meantime, some school districts have begun to proactively remove books that could violate the new law, relying largely on a single website created by a Florida resident and former member of the conservative parents’ rights group, Moms for Liberty, that rates books on their sexual content, violence and explicit language.

Last month, Wilson County, Tennessee removed about 400 books from its public school libraries relying on book reviews by the website, BookLooks.org. Among the removed titles are those by the authors Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut and Dr. Seuss.

Williamson School Board member balks at “age appropriate” book law

School officials in Wilson County then shared their list of banned books with educators in Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS), prompting pushback by some local parents and educators against removing books.

CMCSS officials later clarified the list is being used as a “resource” as the system weighs which books may be banned.

Rosales told the Lookout she had also relied on the Wilson County book list and Booklook.org for help in compiling her list of 150 questionable books.

Rosales compared the 400 books Wilson County educators have pulled from library shelves to book ratings by BookLooks.org, she said. She then compared books the website rated poorly for explicit content, expletives and violence to books available in Rutherford County school libraries to arrive at her list, she said.

BookLooks.org has been the source for multiple book bans across the nation, according to Tasslin Magnusson, senior adviser to the Freedom To Read Team at Pen America, a First Amendment advocacy group, which has tracked more than 10,000 book bans in public schools in the 2023-2024 school year.

“It’s a dirty look at the books,” Magnusson said. “Even the scenes they quote are often out of context. They don’t evaluate books as a whole or work under any guiding principles.”

In Rutherford County, librarians are currently reviewing each of the 150 books being challenged, according to a district spokesperson.

Librarians will compare book content to the language of the state law to make recommendations on which books should be permanently removed by the end of the year, the spokesperson said. The district has authorized $1,000 in compensation to librarians conducting the reviews.

The school board will then vote on retaining or removing individual books. Until those votes are cast, the books will remain unavailable to students.

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