CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A list of almost 400 banned books from another Tennessee county was recently sent by the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System for use by school librarians, raising concerns about whether CMCSS was mandating the same banned list. But CMCSS says it’s only a resource.

Earlier this year, Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act was amended to require removing inappropriate reading materials from school libraries. Wilson County Schools drafted a list of 390 books they are removing, and the list has made its way to Clarksville.

“The list was provided just as a resource, not a mandate, for library-media specialists and principals to use as they review their collections for compliance with state law,” CMCSS spokesman Anthony Johnson told Clarksville Now. “CMCSS has only shared this list as a resource since it was developed by another district in the state using the criteria in state law to make their recommendations.”

Legislation changes

The Age-Appropriate Materials Act was amended by legislators to add specific criteria for materials that should not be available in public school libraries.

CMCSS had discussions with individual principals to ensure library-media specialists were aware of new law, and that materials “shall not contain nudity, descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse, or be patently offensive or appeal to the prurient interest.”

Under the new law, a school’s principal is responsible for supervising the development of a library collection and ensuring that a current list of the materials made available to students in the library collection is posted on the school’s website by the first full day of the school each year and updated quarterly to reflect any changes in the collection.

Wilson County’s list

The list developed in Wilson County includes several frequently targeted texts such as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give, which were removed from high school libraries, according to a summary by The Nashville Scene. It also includes Dr. Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday, removed from elementary school libraries, and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Erika L. Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis, removed from middle school libraries, the Scene reported.

Over the years, CMCSS has refrained from developing its own list of banned books or sharing lists from other organizations or states, instead, providing a limited list of recommendations made by a district review committee and deferring the responsibility of age-appropriate materials to individual school administrators, library-media specialists and classroom teachers.

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But with the change in state law, that has changed. Johnson said CMCSS felt it was important to share the list from Wilson County, but only as a resource.

“We are not directing you to immediately remove all of these titles from your library collection,” according to talking points from a meeting between leadership and principals. “However, we are providing this list as an example of books already vetted by Tennessee educators and strongly encouraging you and your library-media specialists to review the list and consider, if you have these titles in your collections, whether these materials violate state law.”

If administration finds that any materials do violate state law, they must be removed from the school’s collections.

The Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board has not taken up the matter.

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