REQUEST:
Dan Kleinman, Executive Director
World Library Association
Ste R-275 – #196
12600 Hill Country Blvd
Bee Cave TX 78738
12 November 2023
Timothy L. Doak
Superintendent of Schools
York School Department and Central Offices
469 Rte 1
York, ME 03909
Dear Superintendent Doak:
This is a Materials Reconsideration Request I’m bringing to your attention because 1) I saw no procedure for filing such requests on
https://www.yorkschools.org/ and 2) you as superintendent have the right under the US Supreme Court
Pico case of 1982 to remove certain books from school libraries immediately without any need for any reconsideration process, a process devised by American Library Association from Chicago, IL, far from York, ME.
I, as Executive Director of World Library Association [WLA], am bringing this matter to your attention under the direction of someone from the school community who wishes to remain anonymous. Specifically, that person said, “I’d prefer WLA be my intermediary with the library to protect my privacy.”
This is needed to not only protect the person’s privacy, but to preclude the ridicule and harassment, including defamation lawsuits, that too often follows when school librarians target parents as the means to defend material that may be immediately removed under the Pico case. Unfortunately, retaliation against a child due to doxxing concerns is also a factor supporting anonymity.
Therefore, please provide all responses to WLA that will then advise the anonymous person and publish all communications and decisions here for all to see:
The anonymous person wishes to have the following book be reconsidered then removed from York Middle School, 30 Organug Rd, York, ME 03909:
“It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health” by Robie Harris
The anonymous person provided the following comments to WLA:
To help with the decisions you must make now, I provide some limited additional information from scholarly sources:
“There Is No Such Thing as a Banned Book: Censorship, Authority, and the School Book Controversies of the 1970s,” by Professor Rita Koganzon, American Political Thought 12, no. 1 (January 2023): 1–26. A copy of this is attached to this email, but here is the URL:
“Bd. of Educ. v Pico” – 1982 US Supreme Court – pervasively vulgar and educationally unsuitable books may be immediately removed from public schools:
“Removal of Books With ‘Lascivious Content’ from School Libraries Likely Constitutionally Permissible,” by Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy, 9 August 2022:
“Books Under Fire: Intellectual Freedom in an Era of Censorship,” by American Library Association, wherein ALA admits the Pico cases allows for the removal of books under Pico. See slide 10 where it says, “School boards have greater discretion over school library materials; if the board can demonstrate that the materials are ‘educationally unsuitable,’ or ‘pervasively vulgar,’ the removal may be upheld by the courts.”:
I note the anonymous requester is requesting removal from a middle school on the grounds the book is both educationally unsuitable and pervasively vulgar. As such it may be legally removed.
There is the confusion that a work must be considered as a whole to be deemed obscene and removed from a school. That is a misconception created intentionally to cause confusion. The “as a whole” case regarding obscenity comes from a case that does not apply in a school setting, namely, the 1973 US Supreme Court case of California v. Miller. That confusion is likely the reason the book was previously retained. But it doesn’t even apply. For a scholarly review of the difference between the Pico case and the Miller case, see what Stuart Baggish, Esq., said in a video included here:
“Details on Stopping Indoctrination in Schools and Libraries: Guide for Parents and Legislators on Obscenity, Drag Queen Story Hour, 1619 Project, Etc.”
Thank you for considering the request from an anonymous citizen in your community.
As the anonymous citizen has not even provided me with an email address, I will publish this email and all responses here:
Sincerely,
/s/
Dan Kleinman, Executive Director
World Library Association™️
Your Library, Your Way™️
12600 Hill Country Blvd, Ste R-275 – #196
Bee Cave TX 78738
(512) 766-9427
CC Eric Lawson, Director of Tech & Libraries
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[NOTE: Attachment sent but WLA does not have permission to republish or link to it here, only to send it in emails.]
RESPONSE:
Dear Mr. Kleinman,
Thank you for your email sent on Monday, November 13, 2023. I have reviewed your request and will not remove that book from the library.
Tim
Timothy L. Doak
Superintendent of Schools
Return to Home
469 Route 1 | York, Maine | 03909
(207) [elided]
This is a staff email account managed by yorkschools.org. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. They are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender.
Dear Superintendent Doak,
Thank you for responding, especially so quickly.
The speed at which the response was received, one day, leads me to believe no serious reconsideration occurred. I cannot find a Materials Reconsideration Request on the school web site, but Maine has such a form on the last page here:
https://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/admin/policies/Collectiondev.docx That form is based on the American Library Association sample form that asks irrelevant and personal questions designed solely to give parents the rope by which to hang themselves. Be that as it may, I know of no review under the ALA form that ever took one day.
The submission I made is from a member of your school community. World Library Association is only the intermediary to protect the adult and the school children from harassment. So whatever you say goes and WLA will not be arguing otherwise, being only an intermediary, except in the case of this one day response to the materials reconsideration request of a member of your school community.
Please give this matter a full review as if it was given by a person disclosing his/her name and exposing his/her school child/job to harassment and ridicule. Else, please advise how this matter can be reframed while still protecting the privacy of the requester.
Giving this matter no serious reconsideration violates your community’s First Amendment rights to seek redress of their government, in this case a public school. I’m certain that was not your intent, so please take the time to provide a substantive response similar to the last time the material was reviewed, as noted in the linked article previously provided.
You are not just responding to me, but to all those in Maine and in your district, and they direct you to comply with the First Amendment. Indeed, the state motto of Maine is Dirigo, “I direct,” and that applies to Maine citizens. They want a substantive response to this Materials Reconsideration Request. The health and wellbeing of school children is at issue here, and you are in change. Please exercise your duties as directed by your own citizenry.
Respectfully speaking, of course.
Thank you.
