PCSD Board amends state required sensitive materials policy, assuring due diligence in education on process

Books Photo: Syd Wachs

PARK CITY, Utah — The Park City School District (PCSD) School Board has chosen to amend policy 9050 regarding instructional materials rather than create a new policy after discussions at the October 18 school board meeting and hearing public input. The additions to the policy reflect decisions made by the state legislature with their passing of H.B. 374, prohibiting “sensitive material in schools” and requiring all Utah school districts to have policies with similar prohibitory language and standards.

House Bill 374 lists requirements that school boards must meet to be compliant with the law. PCSD discussed with the state board of education before its decision to amend the existing policy. In addition to these meetings, the legislative subcommittee weighed in, inviting three districts to present how compliance with the state bill could look.

Under direction of the law, the PCSD will be creating committees at every school to review and decide the level of sensitivity of any material in order to judge its allowed or banned status. Committee members will be trained in how to understand the law and apply it. Training from the state education board has been requested; it has yet to be received. An administrator, a teacher, parents that are recommended by community councils, and a librarian (should the issue have to do with the school’s library) will comprise committees.

Sensitive materials will not be assessed on graphic elements previously in the policy but must now be aligned with state law on whether the material is pornographic in nature. The Miller Test, which came from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. California, will be used to evaluate materials.

“You read the novel as a whole. It could be pornography if taken as a whole; if it…was designed to be erotic when applied against the standards. The built-in community, which is the wide community, not just your small community, and has no serious value, whether artistic or political. The criminal code for public displays of pornography defines pornography as being anything of a sexual nature, and it goes into a lot of detail,” said Park City School District spokesperson Heidi Matthews.

It’s important to note, says Matthews, that the state law’s evaluation wording is in direct contradiction with federal law. State law states a book must be judged for value as a whole, while federal law states that a book must be judged for any value.

“The committee will be making a determination if the book is sensitive materials and therefore needs to be out of schools; it’s out entirely; there’s no middle ground. The committee could also determine that it might be restricted for an age group, or it might be determined that it is no longer going to appear on the approved novel list for full classroom instruction. If it’s determined to be sensitive materials per law, it’s not to be in the schools at all nor on library shelves. There’s an appeal process. The policy reads that the book will stay on the shelves and in circulation until the [appeal] decision is final,” said Matthews.

Regardless of the outcome of a committee’s evaluation of a book, parents still have options that they can act on.

“There are always options if a parent does not want students to read a book…they can request an alternative,” she said. “That is always given. Absolutely support parents’ right to determine the reading of their students. So if there is something that they don’t want their students to read, we can help them through the library systems.”

“I think the important thing is that the school board took input from the community and took their time in researching and a full understanding of what it was that they were required by law to do, but also being open and responsive to the input of the community. I think it is setting our district up as well as districts across the state for a considerable amount of work,” said Matthews.

To date, there have been no submittals of materials to be evaluated under the amended policy, but the board and staff are anticipating that there will be some moving forward.