By Reese Meister
A ban on a number of diverse educational resources in the Central York School District (CYSD) in Pennsylvania was rescinded on Monday, Sept. 20, as a result of protests from students, parents and other members of the district.
The Central York Diversity Committee had originally come up with a Diverse Resource List for teachers in response to events including the George Floyd protests; however, this list sparked concerns for some parents, who brought their complaints to the CYSD Board of School Directors in summer of 2020. The ban began when the board unanimously voted to put it in place on Nov. 9, 2020.
“[People in favor of using the Diversity Resource List] are bound and determined to teach children that they’re racist if they’re white and [that] they need to be changed so that they won’t be,” board member Vickie Guth said.
Parents spoke against having an anti-racist curriculum over the same concern that it will make white children feel guilty, and they worry that, in the the diversifying of classroom materials, their children will be taught what they have inaccurately labeled as “critical race theory,” the teaching of race as a social construct and the belief that racism is rooted in the foundation of the country. Critical race theory is not taught in the CYSD.
“Schools are not the place for politics or identity to be shaped,” a parent said to CNN.
After continued complaints from parents, the board “froze” the list of over 200 books and other resources, with titles including “Me and White Supremacy” by Lalya F. Saad, “Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism” and “Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls’ Rights” by Malala Yousafzai.
President of the Central York School Board of School Directors Jane Johnson labeled the materials as “frozen,” not banned, as the board waited to “vet” the List. However, these resources have remained so for almost a year without being reviewed or approved for use.
“Importantly, this was not a ban on books…The intent was to create a process for collaborative discussion of list resource concerns, as raised by parents. The list was compiled by the Diversity Education Committee; the board neither formed the list nor selected authors,” Johnson in a statement on Sept. 20 said.
While Johnson purposefully avoided naming this act as a ban, many news sources continued to refer to it in this way. The materials were restricted in a way that made the “freeze” fit under the widely accepted definition of a ban, which Merriam-Webster describes as a “legal or formal prohibition.”
Many students disagreed with the decision, saying that it did not reflect the needs of the diverse student body. They felt that the materials had no issues.
Many parents in opposition to the ban also felt upset about lack of diversity in the current resources as well as that only few parents seemed to be heard by the board. Multiple parents’ angry with the ban called for board members to resign.
Not only did this restriction have a personal effect on students and parents, it also required teachers to edit their plans and materials to prevent backlash from certain parents or board members. Additionally, the situation in York has inspired several other states to look into similar restrictions on educational materials regarding race and how the topic is addressed in classrooms.
Five Central York High School students began the first protests of the ban, speaking out in front of their school everyday under the name Panther Anti-Racist Union (PARU). Hundreds of new members have joined this student group since. The group views education about racism as essential for the conversation about diversity.
The district board stood by their decision at a meeting on Monday, Sept. 13, despite an increase in protests from students and community members during the week leading up to the meeting. At this same meeting, Dr. Peter J. Aiken was officially announced as the new superintendent of the CYSD board following the retirement of Dr. Michael Snell. Snell has not yet developed plans to handle the ban or future conflict.
A group of around 100 students, teachers and parents protested the ban outside of the Central York Educational Service Center with speakers, signs and chanting the same day, prior to the meeting.
Others are pushing back against the ban through different means. Individuals have been challenging the ban on social media and two women collected the listed banned books to distribute throughout York’s Little Free Libraries. Author of two banned books from the List, “I am Rosa Parks” and “I am Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Brad Meltzer voiced his support for the movement through social media and encouraged donations.
“Race is a hard subject, but nothing good comes out of not talking about hard subjects. If we’re saying we can’t discuss race, we’re doing our kids a disservice,” Meltzer said to the Miami Herald.
The most recent protest occurred outside the CYSD administration building on Sept. 20, a week after the board members voted to keep the “freeze” in place. Close to 200 people showed up asking the board to reconsider their stance on the ban. The protest succeeded when the board unanimously chose to reverse the list ban and “unfroze” it the same day.
“We are agreeing to immediately release the list until this review process can be coordinated with our incoming Superintendent,” Johnson said in her statement regarding the decision.
Some believe that this abrupt reversal may have been a result of the sudden media attention and nationalization of the situation. No matter the reason, the retraction of the ban opened up conversation about diversity for both the CYSD and educational institutions around the nation.
The board will continue to review its stance on the curriculum, and further discuss the matter. People with differing viewpoints regarding censorship of materials will continue to express their opinions, especially during Banned Books Week, which took place from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2 this year.
“Even though it is important to celebrate this victory, we acknowledge that discrimination in the district did not disappear,” said Edha Gupta, a member of PARU, to the Washington Post.
