New reaction to Hoover City Schools decision to ban two eBooks

HOOVER, Ala. (WBRC) – There is new reaction following a decision and discussion by the Hoover City School system to remove two eBooks from the system after a review of their content.

Thursday, we heard from the State Library Association and multiple school districts about their policies when banning these books.

Hoover City School leaders aren’t releasing the name of the books, and several parents voiced their concerns about transparency. The specific books are being rereferred to fall under the LGBTQ+ category, nonfiction, and fiction.

Jon Kerr, a Hoover parent, said, “What does this district plan to do about that content? Whose job is it to vet that content? Or is it nobody’s job and we just wait for parents to complain?”

The process to ban books varies for each school system. According to the Hoover City Schools’ policy manual, if you have a book that you are concerned about, you can tell the board and they will review it.

“But there’s nobody vetting the current content on Sora, and if they are, they are just not telling us about it,” Kerr said.

Sora is an app that students use to read books.

WBRC spoke with the president of the Alabama Library Association, Matthew Layne, who says it’s important for schools to have policies in place to address concerns such as these.

“It can be a tricky process, and again, I think that reconsideration policy is really, really important for a librarian and for library patrons,” Layne said.

Other schools like Mountain Brook and Vestavia have their policies posted online about the reconsideration of library materials.

WBRC reached out to the Hoover City School system and they had no further comment.

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