CO School District Fights on Side of Parents to Keep Controversial Books Off Library Shelves

COLORADO – A battle over books available to young children is brewing in one Colorado school district. 

It all started in August when the Elizabeth School Board voted to remove 19 books from its school libraries. All were books the board deemed inappropriate, like The Hate You Give, Nineteen Minutes, and George.

“It’s about who is in fourth grade who is transitioning,” District Public Information Officer Jeff Maher said of ‘George’ in an interview with 710KNUS. 

Before the district removed the books, it sought community input. 

“We provided a display for 25 days for families in the community to come and review them, read them, and give the board feedback, and overwhelmingly the community said we don’t feel these books have value and should be removed from our library,” Superintendent Dan Snowberger explained in an interview with CBN News. 

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Months later, in December, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of two students, the NAACP, and the Authors Guild, saying the removal of these books violates students’ First Amendment rights to be able to access different information and ideas. 

A district judge agreed and ordered the books be returned. Now, after some legal back and forth, the books are back on school shelves while the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals considers the case. 

“Part of the litigation has really been around, what is the right of a school board to curate its content?” Snowberger told CBN News. “We feel very strongly that the libraries in our district are part of the curriculum resources, and so our board’s view and my view is that materials contained in our library should support our curriculum, and needless to say, the books that were reviewed did not.” 

Associate Dean and Professor at Regent University School of Law, Brad Jacob, says in a situation like this, judgment calls have to be made. 

“There could be illegal reasons why the decision is made,” Jacob told CBN News. “If the school district says we’re not going to allow any books that show black people, we’re just going to have no books about black people in our library, you’re going to say ok, that looks like race discrimination. It looks like we’ve got an Equal Protection Clause challenge. But in general the decisions about what books will be most helpful, what will most of our students gain from having on the shelf, and what is appropriate for them to read in this school – elementary, middle school, high school – those are for school authorities to make based on the input that they get from their community.”

For Snowberger, it’s about letting parents do the parenting. 

 “We want children to come to school with the values they have at home and go home with those values,” he explained. “It’s not our job to change them. It’s our job to teach children to read, write, do math, learn science, civics, and social studies.”

Right now, the case is in a holding pattern while it waits for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to consider both sides. The court is expected to either make a ruling or move to hear arguments within the next few weeks. 

You can support the school district in its legal battle by clicking HERE.