Open Letter
I am Sheena Wilson, a parent of children in LexRich 5 and a tax-paying resident of the district. I would like to express my support for public education in the state of South Carolina and my concerns with the recent decision of this board to override the recommendation of the district book review committee and to ban the series of books written by Sarah J. Mass under the Court of Mist and Fire title set.
My concerns have very little to do with the specific language that was featured in the books under review. While it might not be language nor literature that I would personally choose to read for myself or my children, when placed in context with other literature which is readily present in our school libraries, classrooms and many of our homes this language nor the topics do not stand out. A quick review of literature ranging from the Bible to William Shakespeare features topics such as genocide, infanticide, incest, sexual assault, polygamy, prostitution, torture, sexual assault, teenage suicide, slavery, racism, and homophobia, and yet these books are not only present but are encouraged reading to youth as young as six years old.
Just as I can put these topics in context when reading these works of literature with or without my children, so should the language and topics discussed in the book challenge be treated. Otherwise, the decision of the school board begins to look extremely hypocritical – particularly considering that we’re talking about a question of educational and intellectual censorship impacting all of the families in our district regardless of their level of offense at the literature under consideration.
What if someone else finds the topics I previously listed to be equally offensive? Does the district now have a responsibility to preemptively ban books featuring these topics in a future meeting?
This begs the question of the additional issue with the manner in which the board chose to enforce the book ban in a previous meeting, in that the board not only censored the book which was under the review, but additional books in the same series which were never challenged. This would seem to indicate that the board can ban books from the district without going through the formal review process.
I am additionally concerned because the book and the series which was challenged is transparently part of a nationally coordinated strategy to undermine the intellectual integrity and independence of our public schools. These books are easily found on lists distributed by groups such as Moms For Liberty and are used to attack public education so as to facilitate the diversion of funds from public education and into private school vouchers and charter schools. Viewed in this light, decisions to capitulate to these demands – against the informed recommendation of the district committee tasked with the review process – should be seen by the voters in this district as political grandstanding by the school board to placate outside political interests that are not concerned with the quality of education that is produced in our district.
I am bipartisan and have no political party alignment.
I stand for the education of our children.
I stand with teachers, librarians and administration within our school systems.
Sheena Wilson
Resident of Lexington Richland 5 School District
