Cobb County school board rejects proposed changes to book rules

Sayler was concerned that without the additions to the policy, the district would continue to experience a “chill effect” as staff members limit what materials are accessible in schools out of fear of repercussions. Cobb, the state’s second-largest district, has become a regular stage for culture wars this school year.

“I’m concerned that without these additions, this chill effect will limit the intellectual reach of our students,” she said at Thursday’s board meeting.

But the board’s four Republican members and Democrat Leroy “Tre’” Hutchins voted against the proposed changes, arguing that the power to remove books should lie with the superintendent.

“I could never support a policy that gives an unelected organization authority to make decisions that Cobb families and educators should be making,” said board member David Chastain.

Cobb’s policies about books came under scrutiny in August, when a teacher was fired for reading a book about gender identity to elementary students. At the time, her attorneys argued that the district’s policies about “controversial” materials were vague. She and her attorneys are asking the state Board of Education to overturn her termination.

Later, the school district removed two books from libraries for containing “sexually explicit” content. An outside group, “Libs of TikTok,” claimed credit for getting the books removed. Some community members argued that the district broke its own policies by allowing a group with no apparent ties to the district to initiate a complaint. Sayler said her proposed changes were attempting to clarify the process for considering removals when they’re not initiated by a parent complaint.

Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said during a September board meeting that it’s his job to keep “lewd, vulgar, sexually explicit, obscene or pornographic material” out of schools, and that the number of awards a book has earned doesn’t supersede inappropriate content.

“This policy as written would not allow me to remove a book that contained one-and-a-half pages description of oral sex from children having unsupervised access to that material,” Ragsdale said Thursday, referencing the removed book “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.”

Sayler emphasized that pornographic material in schools is illegal and that the policy changes would not have any effect on that.