all right Miss sap we are now live streaming thank you Dr Lawson thank you thank you for joining us today for the District library book objection committee meeting the purpose of today's meeting is to review an objection to the book titled the great cow Race by Jeff Smith school-based and District staff as well as parent and community volunteers are invited to participate on each committee today's meeting will result in a recommendation that will be forwarded to Mr foron St John's County School District superintendent the committee meeting is public record and therefore subject to Sunshine Law it is being live streamed for public viewing committee members are not required to have their camera on during the meeting we are committed to Civility and decorum please assist us in maintaining a constructive meeting environment by remaining respectful of each participant during the meeting and afterwards additional discussion of the objecting party or committee members outside the meeting is discouraged disparaging comments are contrary to District expectations regarding character and civility committee members received several resources in advance of the meeting the resources included the objecting party request for reconsideration a copy of the book Florida Statutes Florida Department of Education guidance for library media Services professional Source reviews St John's County school board rules the library Bill of Rights and the school library media material evaluation checklist I'm Don Sapp associate superintendent for the St John's County School District and I will serve as the facilitator for today's committee meeting the process for today is as follows first the objecting party will have the opportunity to address the committee they will provide any information they deem compelling or new regarding their request next the committee will have a discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist finally the committee will determine a recommendation for superintendent forson there are two options one retain the book for a designated level or two remove the book from all St John's County School District Libraries for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome and we look to forward to attaining consensus are there any questions before we begin okay okay let's begin Ashley Hamlin is the objecting party for the great cow race Ashley this is your time to address the committee you have up to five minutes to share your objection go ahead good afternoon to miss sap and all the attendees of this meeting and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address my concerns regarding the graphic novel in question the great Cal R I did my best to keep this brief and it sounds like I need to however I do feel it is imperative that you all have the relevant context and information in order to come to a determination I would first like to provide some context as to why we are here today and also some additional background on what led me to submitting this book to the committee for reconsideration regarding the age level and grade level that have access to this book my son Joseph is six years old and attends Patriot Oaks Academy in the first grade he is an advanced reader and most recently scored 98th percentile on the standardized star early literacy assessment just this past December this test states that he is reading at a fourth grade level but does not yet possess the same critical thinking and maturity level as a typical fourth grader for obvious reasons he is a very bright inquisitive and intelligent young boy who enjoys learning and reading and readily absorbs practically all information that he comes across especially when explained to him early and in detail he is always willing to ask questions to get the answers that he seeks and is certainly not a shy boy in Joseph's first grade classroom the children are permitted to choose 10 books from the classroom library for their book box and they are able to access and read these books after they finish their classwork in order to pass the time until the other students are finished with their work the classroom Library includes first grade reading level books and also approved higher level book books for children who may be Advanced like Joseph one afternoon last fall I received a startling phone call from the POA dean of students detailing to me how Joseph sat on the rug in his classroom with his peers during a sharing activity and responded to one of his classmates kill your mom the dean was inquiring whether I had insight as to where Joseph had heard this term why he might have said it and if there was anything that the school needed to know regarding Joseph and the use of this frightening statement our children only watch age appropriate shows with parental supervision so at that point I was able to rule out that that rhetoric did not originate from something we exposed them to we don't even expose them to the local or Global News broadcasts up until that point we had not felt it appropriate to introduce to our children some of the concepts that are detailed in the great Cal race for various reasons and I will detail some of these Concepts shortly I was not able to explain to the dean why I thought Joseph was using that word but assured him that I would speak to Joseph explain to him the meaning of what he said and why he cannot or should not throw around that term loosely at school or in general unless he has a specific question about something after school Joseph explained to me that he read about the word kill in one of the books in his classroom Library which as you can imagine I was not quite able to initially digest and was even a bit reluctant to believe him he went further and was able to describe to me the Bone series which prompted me to do a quick Google search and we were able to narrow down the book in particular that he was referring to I downloaded an electronic version of the book so I could read for myself what I could not believe to be true sure enough I came across several pages in the book containing the word kill in the context of and I quote I want to kill you there is also mention of torture and the phrase one more word about aich and I'll kill you hurry up before I slip and get killed I got in touch with the dean via telephone to inform him that I found out where Joseph learned of these phrases and asked for an in-person meeting as soon as possible as I was obviously alarmed and concerned we were instead met by the principal Mr Drew Koto and brought along screenshots of the pages and question in addition to voicing our concerns regarding the book content long story short Mr Kyoto was going to make sure that a this book was an approved resource which it turns out it was and B that this book was permitted to be inside of a first grade classroom which it turns out it also was subsequently I went further to express my concern directly to Joseph's teacher and also Mr Kyoto with the understanding that just because this book is an approved resource that it does not mean that it's required to be in the classroom and available to students of that age I highlighted several points that I felt were relevant to the content of the book and how it should be at the discretion of the children's parents not the school district as to whether or not they have exposure to upsetting Concepts like kill and torture at Young ages I also mentioned how the school has the opportunity to make a difference in this instance by removing this book from first grade classrooms and reserving it for older more matur minded individuals there are many concerning headlines that occur in our schools and globally on a daily basis why add fuel to the fire and expose these young children to Concepts at such an early age and in the classroom no less Miss Hamlin I just need to ask that you try to wrap up as uh as you know in the next few seconds please thank you um our suggestion was that there are thousands of approved books that could replace this specific book but the decision was Final and it was suggested to me to fill out and submit this objection form which leads us to where we are today I this book um excuse me the use of the word Kill by my six-year-old was alarming enough to Warrant a phone call home by the dean of students which I do appreciate and believe was the right thing to do however I'm still perplexed and concerned that this book remains on the Shelf in the first grade classroom despite the adults at the school being aware of the content my request or that you please remove this title from our first grade classrooms my second request is please consider what grade levels have access to this resource at a minimum of grade six as you see fit I can't imagine the challenges and complexities regarding your decision-making process but I hope I've done an adequate job of making things a little bit easier for you all thank you for your time and please let me know if you have questions thank you Miss Hamlin thank you committee members we will now begin our discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist Florida statute states that any materials used in a classroom made available in a school or classroom library or included on a reading list may be objected to for four specific reasons those reasons include the material can be objected to if um because it is believed be pornographic or prohibited under section 847.011 of Florida statute uh if it is found to if the committee were to vote and find that a material is um breaks the tendent of being pornographic or prohibited under that section then um the material has to be removed however there are three remaining reasons and those reasons are the material depicts or describes sexual conduct as defined in eight 47.1 perin 19 of Florida statute or the material is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material or the material is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used if um the committee finds that one of those reasons um to be at play then the committee would have to determine is there any grade level for which this material is appropriate in our schools please keep in mind that our final task on the form is to make a recommendation to superintendent forson there are two options we can retain the book for a designated level or remove it from all St John's County School District classroom libraries and media centers again statute is clear that if there is a violation of question number four and the committee votes a majority we would have to remove the material the floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to to share comments will be summarized to provide an overall committee response for each question please remember that you may raise your hand at any time to provide a comment okay so we will begin on the school library meeting material evaluation checklist the first question States the objecting party's challenge of the material cites that and Miss Hamlin um clearly check mark that her rounds for objection are the material is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used so we will go ahead and um add that in in our recommendation for Mr forson so that that's recorded there question number two is so that Mr forson has a sense from the committee on whether or not the committee members were able to review the materials so for question number two we will take a vote specific pages in The materi materials cited by the objecting party were reviewed if you did have a chance to review the specific um Pages please vote Yes at this time if you did not please vote no Mr Kyoto do you have a question before you vote okay my apologies I clicked the wrong button no worries no worries I just want to make sure Miss sa that is eight yes votes for question number two you may now remove your vote thank you does anyone have any comments that they would like included for question number two okay we're going to go to question number three we just need uh one more vote to be removed thank you okay for question number three similar to question number two um this is just each Committee Member is basically um verifying that you had a chance to look over the professional Andor crowd Source reviews so the question States professional Andor crowd Source reviews were considered if you did consider those please vote Yes if you did not please vote no Miss sap yes question number three has seven yes votes and one no vote thank you you may now remove your vote everyone is there anyone who would like to provide any comments regarding the professional or crowdsource reviews okay we'll move on to question number four is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 84 7.12 is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 84701 two please vote this time Miss saap we have eight no votes for question number four you may now remove your vote thank you does anyone have any comments for question number four okay seeing No Hands we'll move on to question number five does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 pin 19 does the material depict or describe sexual cond sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 P 19 Miss app question five has eight no votes you may now remove your vote are there any comments for question number five just need two more votes to be removed okay and seeing No Hands we'll move on to question number six is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented please vote it this time as sap question six has eight no votes you may now remove your vote are there any comments for question number six okay seeing No Hands we'll move on to question number seven on question number seven um just to give us context of could someone from Media Services tell us where is this material currently used in which grade levels oh so this material is currently used at all grade levels including Elementary to high school okay so just for context for the group it uh is currently available in all grade levels within the district so question number seven says is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used okay I do see a hand up by Matt Brown Matt you have a comment yeah I just wanted to quickly say on the subject of uh the the specific language that's being objected to I am not a librarian but a cursory search of children's literature that also includes uh phrases um that uh either are directly uh exactly the same as in uh the the contested book or substantially similar uh include The Lion The Witch in the wardrobe uh Johnny Tain uh two Harry Potter books uh several Calvin and hob strips uh at least eight or nine instances in which Garfield threatens to kill either nural or ODI and uh Charlotte's Web as well I would not consider any of those uh any appropriate for uh elementary schools and so with all due respect to the complainant uh I cannot possibly vote uh that this is inappropriate on similar grounds so thank you thank you Matt and I apologize I forgot to turn my camera back on when we finished up last time um okay I appreciate that so for question number seven is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used please vote at this time is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used Miss sa we have eight no votes for question number seven you may now remove your vote are there any comments for question number seven okay so we have reached the point where we need to make a recommendation um as a committee to the superintendent uh for this material is there someone who would like to um make a recommendation okay so given the um answers of the committee I'm going to go ahead and get us started and since the material is currently available for all grades um we will start with a vote the material is appropriate for grade prek and up if you agree that the material and and we can work our way up so just so you know this is not a oneand done vote but we'll start with the material is appropriate for grade prek and up please vote it this time Miss sap for the recommendation for prek and up we have eight yes votes okay so given that we have um complete consensus on that our recommendation from this committee will be that this material is appropriate for grades prek and up may now remove your boote everyone sorry missed up no thank you are there any comments from any member of the committee that you'd in like you'd like included in our recommendation before we close go ahead Mr kto I just wanted to take a moment to thank the committee for their time and attention to this process and being respectful to it uh and I'm just grateful for for each of you all's attention for uh this this particular challenge thank you thank you Mr Koto okay so I I also appreciate the committee's work you're being prepared for our work today I just have a few closing comments before we close down the meeting there are two final actions and the steps to conclude our work your acknowledgement as a participation on the committee is needed on the recommendation of Mr forsen the recommendation which will include notes from today's discussion will be emailed to you you may acknowledge participation by responding with an email or you may review and sign the documents in person at our Media Services office at 10 hildr in St Augustine that's step one and we do like to ask if everyone could please those emails the team gets it out pretty quick and if you could please just send your acknowledgment out um before the end of the week your second thing is we need everyone to return your book and any notes from your work to prepare for the meeting and you can return those to the location where you picked um picked up your book and we also ask if you could please go ahead and get that taken care of before the end of the week that helps us out to keep everything moving are there any questions before we close the meeting this concludes the meeting thank you