Censorship in Placer County schools was a growing problem last year, and with conservative school board slates’ overwhelming success last November, efforts to ban books in Placer County have not slowed down. On March 10th, the Western Placer Unified School District considered banning The Hate U Give from being required reading in 9th grade English classes. Thankfully, the board decided against it - for now.
On March 9th, the Roseville Joint Union High School District (RJUHSD) took a different approach when it unanimously approved its Curriculum and Instructional Materials Approval Process. While this process is much less flashy than outright banning a book, it can nonetheless be effective at overriding the recommendations of teachers and banning books if abused. You will not hear about the books being banned; they just will not make it into the approved curriculum.
RJUHSD’s process will rely on the Miller test for obscenity to determine the appropriateness of books and other educational materials. Use of the Miller test is supposed to be a very high burden to justify censoring pornographic literature, and using the test to determine whether a book is appropriate for a high school course will be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The potential for rampant misinterpretations and misapplications of the test is high given efforts by conservatives to influence the process. Further, the RJUHSD will likely be deeming more books as “controversial,” but it remains unclear how such a move will fully play out.
For school boards that have such curriculum approval processes, it is vital that parents get involved and speak up as early as possible to encourage teachers to not self-censor themselves when selecting the books, they want to teach and to counter the voices seeking to ban books that feature queer stories or depict gender, sexuality, or the lives of teenagers and young adults in realistic ways. By the time a school board votes on these books, it will be too late for us to change the outcome. This underscores the importance of finding passionate and qualified school board candidates, standing up for teachers when they are repeatedly slandered and called “groomers,” and consistently voice our convictions at school and school board functions. Otherwise, conservatives and school boards in Placer County will continue to find ways to erase information and perspectives that express and validate representation for the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and women.