Pickens County School Board Lawsuit:
By Alex Saitta
May 15, 2023
Lawsuit:
I read the story in the Pickens County Courier where the school district is being sued for removing the book, “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.” I read the complaint filed by 3 parents, the NAACP and the ACLU. I thought it was weak and hope the school board has the courage to stand by their decision.
Folks this is coming to Pickens County, in a variety of ways. We will now see how smart, resourceful and courageous our elected leaders are. These groups like the ACLU mean business.
The Law:
Whether you agree with their decision or not to remove the book, the school board has the authority to pick and choose the school curriculum, books and materials. The citizens of Pickens County, through the state law, solely give the board that authority.
59-19-10: “Each school district shall be under the management of the board of trustees…”
59-19-90(7): “The board of trustees shall… manage and control local educational interests of the district, with exclusive authority to operate or not operate any public school or schools.”
The ACLU doesn’t have the authority to pick and choose which books are used or available in Pickens County Schools. Nor does the NAACP or Jason Reynolds the author for that matter. Not the Freedom Caucus in the SC Legislature, the Conservatives of the Upstate or Governor McMaster. They and others can give their opinions which books should be chosen (as all have), but that authority sits with the school board exclusively.
The Supreme Court:
The landmark US Supreme Court case here is “Island Trees School District vs Pico (1982)”. There the Supreme Court majority opinion stated the same, “The Court has long recognized that local school boards have broad discretion in the management of school affairs… public education in our Nation is committed to the control of state and local authorities,"
More from Island Trees vs Pico majority: “As the Court has recognized, school officials must have the authority to make educationally appropriate choices in designing a curriculum.”Going further, school board policy affirms that: IHA states, “The professional staff of the district will prove the basic instructional program for the district’s schools. The superintendent and the [school] board must approve the program.”
Final Say In Disputes:
State law also gives the school board final say in disputes such as this, where a parent filed a complaint against the book.
59-19-510: Any parent as “the right to appeal the matter of controversy to the county board of education by serving a written petition upon the chairman of the board of trustees.” And the school board will give a final ruling on it. The school board heard the complaint and under its authority in 59-19-510, it removed the book.
Not Discrimination:
Think about it, if the head of the grand wizard of the Taliban petitioned the district to include his book entitled, “Bomb Making For Dummies”, in the curriculum or school libraries, and the school board rejected it, no one would question it because the school board has that authority under law.
There are literally scores of publishers and authors vying to have their textbooks purchased and put in our schools, and those not selected are not being discriminated against. Books are removed each year and replaced by others in the classroom and libraries. Again, it is not discrimination.
Constitutional Removal:
The school board has the right to pick and choose which books it puts in their schools, but their reasoning can not violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.
When the courts look at such a case as this, they’ll examine the motive of the board members. A school board can legally remove a book for a few reasons. One is, the book doesn’t meet the district’s educational standard.
From Island Trees vs Pico majority: “Respondents [ACLU — Pico] concede that, if it were demonstrated that the removal decision was based solely upon the educational suitability of the books in question, then their removal would be perfectly permissible."
Island Trees vs Pico goes further to highlight other reasons a book can be removed — vulgarity is another. “First Amendment principles would allow a school board to refuse to make a book available to students because it contains offensive language…”
If you remember, when I was on the board in 2007, we removed a book entitled, “Fat Kid Rules the World” because it did not meet our educational standard and was filled with 4-letter words.
Books the school board thinks are not relevant to the lesson or are not age/ grade appropriate can be passed over or removed as well, though this reasoning is not as strong.
From Island Trees vs Pico: “… criteria that appear on their face to be permissible -- the books' "educational suitability," "good taste," "relevance," and "appropriateness to age and grade level,"
Unconstitutional Removal:
Board members can not remove a book because they personally don’t like it, for political, racial or religious reasons, or the majority of the public opposes it.
From Island Trees: “Petitioners [Island Tress School Board] rightly possess significant discretion to determine the content of their school libraries. But that discretion may not be exercised in a narrowly partisan or political manner… we hold that local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion."
Pickens County Board’s Motives:
In this current lawsuit the ACLU, NAACP and the plaintiffs make the case the decision was racially and politically motivated.
From their complaint: “The vote was a calculated decision by seven white board members to suppress ideas that they personally and politically oppose… the board may not exercise that authority to silence views based on its political and partisan preferences.” However, if you look at what the board members said when they decided to remove the book, it wasn’t about politics, religious, racial or their personal biases. Nope, it was based on the book falling short on of the district’s high educational standard.
Board member Amy Williams’s Op-Ed: “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You” does not reach our standard of rigor in education, has insufficient educational value... All school board trustees need to know the law, read the books they are approving to include in the curriculum and not be afraid to vote to uphold the educational standard of Pickens County.”
Board member Brian Swords from the meeting: “As somebody who majored in history and read this book — there’s some thought provoking things in the book. I have no doubt about that, but it’s not appropriate for the age level that’s being presented... I teach graduate level courses. And I can see where this could be debated, this book could be debated in a graduate level classroom, but not in a K-12 classroom.”
Appropriate age/ grade reasoning is another “permissible” reason for removing a book.
Board member Phillip Bowers said, “I just don’t think taxpayers should be paying.” Bowers didn’t give a reason, but the complaint assumes his reasoning was unconstitutional. LOL. The complaint is that weak. Bowers under deposition can say, I don’t think it is worthy of taxpayer monies, because Brian Swords taught in college, runs a college campus and said the book should not be used in high school. Or Bowers could say, this or that inaccuracy in my opinion drops it below our educational standard. Perfectly legal reasoning.
Additionally, the district has many books in the library and in the curriculum authored by blacks and on black subject matter.
Shannon Haskett, Karla Kelley, Betty Garrison and Betty Bagwell said very little of relevance to the case, thankfully.
Their Complaint:
The fact the board members are all white is also in the compliant, implying all whites are inheritably racist. That is not true — the complaint is that weak. The landmark desegregation ruling in Brown vs the Board of Education (1954) was made by an all-white US Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs also argue Stamped is a New York Times best seller, so it should not be removed. Again, the decision of which books are chosen lies with the school board, not how many copies are sold to the general public.
Additionally, the courts will only get involved if there is a constitutional violation. The courts will not second guess a constitutional removal of any book based on merit or lack of.
From Island Trees vs Pico: “… by and large, public education in our Nation is committed to the control of state and local authorities, and that federal courts should not ordinarily intervene in the resolution of conflicts which arise in the daily operation of school systems."
So if the school board says the book doesn’t meet its educational standard (a constitutional reason) the court will not second guess that. If the board members instead said they removed the book because they are all Republicans and the book was liberal, the court would rule their reasoning unconstitutional and force them to put the book back in the schools.
More In Their Complaint:
For pages the plaintiffs argue the book conforms to the state education standards and hence should not have been removed. Again, whether it conforms to the state education standards is a decision of the board members, not the ACLU, NAACP, those 3 parents or the courts. As long as the reasoning behind their decision was not based on politics, religion, racial, or the majority of the public opposes the book, the school board has the right to make this or that decision.
Finally, the complaint also goes on for pages how Henry McMaster, state superintendent candidate Ellen Weaver, members of the Freedom Caucus in the SC House, the head of the Conservatives of the Upstate and public citizens speaking at the meeting opposed the book for political, moral and religious reasons. WHO CARES! They are not on the school board; they did not make the decision. The motive of the board members is what is important.
Board member Karla Kelley made one relevant and smart comment in the meeting when she said, “I want to speak as one board member tonight, my decisions are my own…” All the board members need to follow on that and say, it is our job to listen to everyone, but I looked at the state law, the case law, the facts and the best interests of the education of our students and I made my own decision -- not influenced by politics, race, religion or the prevailing public opinion.
Not History:
The final problem the plaintiffs face is the author admits the book “… is not a history book.” This undermines its credibility and one reason it falls short of our educational standard.
I read the book from 1963 on, and there are glaring re-writes of history that make it of little value in a formal educational setting.
From page 186 of Stamped: “This time, in 1968, the movie was called the Planet of the Apes. Here’s the basic plot: 1) White astronauts land on a planet after a two-thousand-year journey. 2) Apes enslave them. 3. Turns out, they’re not on a faraway planet. They’re on Earth. 4. (Noooooooooooooooooo!)… Planet of the Apes stoked the racist fear fire by showing the dark world rising against the White conqueror.”
However, if you watched the movie like I did in 1968 and again before I wrote this, 1 of the 3 astronauts is black. The movie is based on the 1963 book Planet of the Apes written by a French man, Pierre Boulle. There is no evidence he had a political axe to grind when it came to race relations in the United States.
There is also a massive re-write when it comes to the 1976 movie, “Rocky”. Like it was some kind of grand racial plan. SMH.
From page 199: “White masculinity was being threatened constantly, by Black men. So, once again, White America created a symbol of hope. Of ‘man’. I mean, MAN. Of macho. Of victor. And plastered it on the big screen. Again. This time his name was Rocky… Rocky symbolized the pride of White supremacist masculinity’s refusal to be knocked out from the thunderstorm of civil rights and Black Power protests and policies.”
This is not why Sylvester Stallone wrote, Rocky. In March of 1975 Muhammad Ali (coming off his victory to take the heavyweight title from Big George Foreman), took on an easy fight against Chuck Wepner. Ali was black and a big talker like Apollo Creed in the movie. Wepner was white, a journeyman fighter, punch drunk and from Bayonne, NJ or the inner city like Rocky. Like Creed, Ali took the fight lightly, and was knocked down by Wepner in the 9th round. Stallone was inspired to write his 1976 movie after seeing the fight. The black-white thing in the movie had nothing to do with what the authors wrote above. Ali happened to be black and Wepner was white.
Not Banning:
Removing the book from the shelves is not banning the book. Students can still buy the book, read it in the school lunchroom, do a book report on it, share it with friends or encourage others to read it. The school district isn't banning the book, it is just not having it in their libraries or their curriculum.
Conclusion:
I think the school board has a strong case if they can get their reasoning clearly down and can articulate it in deposition.
