KCS eyes changes to book ban rules

Caitlyn Meisner

Knoxville News Sentinel USA TODAY NETWORK – TENNESSEE

Board to discuss what’s approved for students

Members of the Knox County school board will come together next week to discuss what books students can access in the wake of national backlash against the district’s decision to ban “Roots,” which was reversed by the superintendent.

Before Superintendent Jon Rysewyk handed down his decision May 26 to reinstate the historical novel, board members drew a line in the sand and announced plans to advocate for change. Two meetings next week give them the space to sort through what those changes might look like.

Rysewyk told board members the ban “weighed heavily” on him. He said he consulted with legal experts who came to different conclusions in applying the state law to “Roots.”

“Removing any book from circulation is – and should be – an immense decision. Our intent will always be to err on the side of access, which is the decision I have made with regard to ‘Roots,’ ” Rysewyk wrote.

Several school board members – including GOP nominee for Knox County mayor Betsy Henderson and Democrats Katherine Bike and Anne Templeton – put pressure on the district. Henderson and Templeton have filed resolutions encouraging Knox County Schools to consider a book’s historical significance before removing it from library shelves.

A resolution requests formal action from a governing body. Bike sent a memo to the board, which is less formal than a resolution and encourages discussion rather than action.

It’s unclear what will come out of the resolutions after Rysewyk’s reversal. Here’s what the board actions are all about.

Henderson

Bike

Templeton

Betsy Henderson’s local call to action

Henderson’s resolution affirms that “sexually explicit material inappropriate for minors” should not be purchased with taxpayer dollars, but novels like “Roots” were not meant to be caught in the crosshairs.

“The Tennessee laws and policies regarding age appropriate instructional materials and school library content were never intended to apply to historically significant literary works such as ‘Roots’ for high school students,” Henderson states. “The law should not be overinterpreted or misrepresented in a manner that results in the removal of historically significant educational works that have long been recognized as appropriate and valuable for student learning.”

Her resolution asks for “Roots” to be put back on shelves and for the board to affirm its commitment to maintain access to historically and culturally significant works.

Henderson told Knox News on May 28 she likely will withdraw the resolution, but left it on the agenda to see how discussion unfolds.

Anne Templeton looks to statewide reform

Templeton is asking her colleagues to urge the Tennessee General Assembly to amend the Age-Appropriate Materials Act.

A 2024 law removed a district’s ability to consider a book its in entirety for artistic and historical value. If a passage has “sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse,” it must be banned. It also required districts to remove the banned book from its entire collection instead of removing it only from certain grades or schools.

The “Roots” passage administrators considered described the rape of an enslaved woman.

Templeton wants her colleagues to urge legislators to change the law in three ways:

● Allow books to be considered as a whole instead of a single passage.

● Let local school boards be the final authority on book bans.

● Distinguish between grade levels so a book can be removed from elementary schools and allowed in high schools, for example.

“This amendment would preserve the legislative accountability to local communities, ensure democratic oversight of library curation, and restore the professional authority of school librarians and district educators,” Templeton wrote in her resolution.

Why the board is uniting on ‘Roots’

“Roots” is not just another book for Knox County residents.

Its author, Alex Haley, called East Tennessee home during the later years of his life. He built a home in Norris and later bought a home in Sequoyah Hills.

His legacy in East Tennessee is everlasting. A sculpture of Haley was erected in Morningside Park in 1998, and that part of the park is now dubbed Alex Haley Heritage Square. He donated his personal papers − including drafts of “Roots” − to the University of Tennessee. There’s a permanent exhibit in the Museum of Appalachia dedicated to Haley.

“Alex Haley’s story is part of our nation’s history and he is part of East Tennessee’s story. High school students should have the opportunity to read, learn, and engage with this important work,” she wrote in a May 26 Facebook post. “We can uphold age appropriate standards while still ensuring our students have access to meaningful educational materials that help them better understand our country and our history.”

Bike’s May 20 memo called on her board colleagues to join her advocacy.

“Removing ‘Roots’is not a neutral act. It sends a message to our students − particularly our Black students − about whose history is worth protecting. I don’t believe that is the message any of us intends to send. Intent and impact are two different things,” Bike wrote.

Other board members have publicly opposed the ban, including Stephen Triplett and the Rev. John Butler, who is the board’s lone Black member.

How we got here

“Roots” is one of over 100 titles KCS has banned in the past two years after Tennessee law directed schools to review the contents of their libraries.

KCS evaluates books to ban on a regular basis, and the district committee that makes the decision reviews only specific passages, not the totality of the work, to make its decision. The KCS book banning committee previously reviewed an excerpt from “Roots” and did not recommend banning it.

District spokesperson Carly Harrington told Knox News the district does not “track or document the original source” of complaints.

How to get involved

The school board is slated to meet next at 5 p.m. June 1 and 4 at Summer Place, 500 W. Summit Hill Drive. The board will hear a presentation on the Age-Appropriate Materials Act on June 1.

To speak at the meeting, call 865594-1623 no later than 4 p.m. May 31 or register with Vice Chair Travis Wright before the start of the meeting Caitlyn Meisner is the K-12 education reporter for Knox News. Email tips and story ideas to caitlyn.meisner@knoxnews.com.