VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Beach Public Library is not sending out as many books and materials to Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ libraries as they once were now that new book screening “guidelines” are in place.
In email sent out from last month by Katie Cerqua, the Programming and Community Outreach Manager for VBPL, she informed all branches that “until further notice,” books are not to be delivered to schools.
Books provided by outside partners, including VBPL, now must be “duly vetted by VBCPS staff” before they can be accessible to a student, according to Cerqua, and due to limited staffing for vetting on the school’s side, they can’t complete the vetting for the deposit collections and book giveaways.
Virginia Beach, like many municipalities, has what are known as deposit collections at schools. They allow for portions of the public library’s items to be more readily available to students.
The email came a little more than two months following the school board’s vote to establish a book content committee designed to review and identify “sexually explicit content” in school books.
Advocates who are against the increased scrutiny put on the school libraries, say this is a case of unintended consequences playing out.
“We already know that that has to happen because of this book content committee,” said Melissa Lukeson, who typically advocates for progressive causes in Virginia Beach, “… because of a manufactured outrage about what is in school libraries.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians described by some as “far-right” have zeroed in on the content of books in school libraries.
In February, the Virginia Beach School Board, by a 6-4 vote, directed Superintendent Don Robertson to create a “content committee” comprised of senior staff members, library media specialists and other “knowledgeable staff” to develop procedures to review books.
Specifically, the committee is charged with developing procedures to “ensure that elementary school libraries do not have library materials that contain sexually explicit content” and “identify incoming library materials for secondary school libraries that contain sexually explicit content and list such library materials on the School Division website.”
No deadline was set for the procedures to be implemented, and no records of books containing explicit content could be found online.
Because the committee is made up of staff, its meetings don’t have to be public.
“I think the superintendent is doing a huge disservice to our students and not making sure that there’s a balance between our trusting our LMS (Library Media Specialists) and making sure that they’re doing the job and having the appropriate materials — school-age appropriate materials,” Lukeson said.
She also felt the taxpayer resources were being wasted.
When the policy change passed, Robertson explained the it will take time to figure out the “heavier lift” required to review the incoming material at the secondary level.
Nicole Livas, a spokesperson for the school division, wouldn’t explain exactly why the VBPL was notified when it was.
“A Department of Teaching and Learning coordinator worked in partnership with VBPL to ensure materials are reviewed in advance of providing them to students,” Livas said. “VBCPS works to ensure literature provided to students is in compliance with School Board policy (e.g., age-appropriate). VBCPS and VBPL have and will continue to foster a strong partnership. We have already worked together to plan activities and lessons during our summer learning programs that nurture the joy of reading. We are excited about the opportunities VBPL and VBCPS have planned to provide our students with this summer.”
Kim Melnyk, chairwoman of the Virginia Beach School Board, did clarify that regulations aren’t yet complete for how to vet books.
“The regulation is still being developed by the superintendent,” Melnyk said, “but clearly this policy and subsequent regulation have unintended consequences that will require board conversation.”