School district right to be proactive, but with care
Park County School District 1 administrators are being proactive, or at least quick to react, to parents’ concerns regarding some of the most controversial issues being raised across the nation regarding K-12 schools.
As a parent, being quick to respond to issues is great to see, and it seems what the district is working to the benefit of all students. Recent concerns voiced over what bathrooms transgender students can use under federal law (bathroom of choice) have been addressed by the district in the Tribune. Staff meets with these students to form a plan, and to Superintendent Jay Curtis’ knowledge no students use a restroom outside of their biological sex or a private restroom.
While this may not satisfy all stakeholders, the district is still at work. Superintendent Curtis made clear in an interview with the Tribune, he has discussed with legislators, bringing to our area an Oklahoma law that stipulates transgender students must use a private restroom or the restroom corresponding to their biological sex.
These proactive moves being made on that count seem to be a good accommodation for all.
However, as a parent of a middle schooler, I hope administrators aren’t removing books from a classroom library simply because of a complaint. Three books were removed from a seventh grade classroom library after a recent complaint. It was the first the district had received regarding library books since implementing a new policy in the spring of 2023, Curtis said, although he noted it was not a formal challenge as outlined in the school policy.
Hopefully those books were examined by administrators before being removed. From what little examination I did by leafing through excerpts of the most explicit parts of each of the three books, provided to attendees at an early October school board forum, the explicit references to sexual assault in the three have varying degrees of detail. Some details, I would agree, are not suited for a seventh grade student, but one of the books in particular, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” is an interesting historical account of a woman whose cells were taken without her consent and used in revolutionary scientific studies. It is not a book about sex, but a biography that includes a brief recounting of sexual assaults Lacks suffered while a 12-year-old girl.
Sexual assault is horrible, but it’s very real as there are middle school age students who have been sexually assaulted in this region in recent years that have been documented in the courts. When my oldest son was in Boy Scouts, kids were required to have an understanding of what sexual assault involves so as not to become a victim of it.
In other words, it’s a real problem, as is drug abuse, violent crimes and other issues we would like to not think about but are nonetheless happening.
As the parent of a middle schooler, I know the students are well aware of all these issues, so if the account is not too graphic, is it worth denying them the chance to happen upon a history crucial to the field of science because there is an account of a sexual assault?
There’s a way to accomplish both the protection of our youth and still allow them the chance to learn from challenging books.
The middle school is in the final stretches of categorizing classroom library books under a new protocol where some books will need active parent consent before a student reads it. So books with historical and literary value, even if they do include some language or situations that parents may find uncomfortable, can be kept under a requirement that students obtain parental consent before being able to read them.
In some cases, it is right to completely remove a book from a classroom or school library after a complaint, but I hope the decision is being made by more than one of the many parents who have children at the school.
I’m heartened by how responsive the district has been with these touchy subjects, but it’s important they’re making the best decisions for all students and parents.