Free Expression Victory in Fayetteville Schools

Just 10 days before the kick off of this year's Banned Books Week, an Arkansas school board voted on Thursday, September 15, to lift restrictions that it had imposed on three sex education books. At a special board meeting attended by about 70 people, the Fayetteville School Board voted four to three to drop its requirement that students obtain parental permission to check out the books from the schools' libraries, as reported by the Northwest Arkansas Times (NAT). Key to the board's decision, the article noted, was a 2003 ruling by a federal judge who overturned a similar library restriction in Cedarville, Arkansas, after the ban was challenged by two Arkansas parents, Billy Ray and Mary Nell Counts.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) had filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Counts.

"This is a great way to start Banned Books Week," said ABFFE President Chris Finan, who noted that this year's Banned Books Week runs through Saturday. Finan also said that he was particularly pleased that the Cedarville decision had played a role in overturning another library restriction.

The Fayetteville School Board's decision came some four months after it had initially ruled to restrict access to the three books in question -- It's So Amazing, It's Perfectly Normal, and The Teenage Guy's Survival Guide -- after receiving a complaint from Fayetteville resident Laurie Taylor. Taylor wanted access to the books restricted because they dealt explicitly with sexual matters, the Arkansas Times reported. In May, the school board voted four to three that students be required to seek parental permission to check the books out from the schools' parent libraries, the article explained.

However, the controversial ruling by the board prompted a letter from a number of free expression organizations, including ABFFE, the Association of American Publishers, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, and PEN American Center, to Fayetteville Public Schools Superintendent Bobby New. In the letter, the groups "strongly urged" the superintendent to resist Taylor's efforts to get the district to review books in school libraries and "to impose a parental consent requirement on all students." The American Library Association sent its own letter protesting the restriction.

"School officials are bound by constitutional considerations," the groups stressed, "including a duty not to discriminate against unpopular or controversial ideas," and they pointed out, "This duty applies with particular force in the school library, which, unlike the classroom, has 'a special role ... as a place where students may freely and voluntarily explore diverse topics.'" Weeks after the letter was sent, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette wrote an editorial backing the groups' letter to New and urging the Fayetteville School Board to reverse its decision.

Last week, the school board called a special meeting to discuss the issue with parents and rule on the library restriction.

Prior to the board's vote, school attorney Rudy Moore, Jr., argued against the library restriction by pointing out that the Cedarville School District failed in its attempt to restrict students' access to the Harry Potter series in school libraries. At Thursday's meeting, Moore explained to attendees that if the Fayetteville restriction was challenged in court, the same judge who overturned the Cedarville restriction would "likely be ruling on it," the Arkansas Times article noted.

Following the meeting, board president Steve Percival told NAT that the Cedarville case had "effectively settled the concept of a restrict shelf" in school libraries. The board recommended that a process be developed to allow parents to "notify librarians of books they don't want their own child to check out," among other things, the article explained. --David Grogan