To the Editor:

I would like to respectfully address the letter of my friend, Andrew Buzzi, Jr in last week’s Newtown Bee that perhaps unintentionally omitted important content, context and law.

No one asserted that Board of Education doesn’t gets the final vote on banning books. Likewise, no one asserted that the consideration of community standards cannot play a role in the decision making (though the courts have made clear that the divining of such standards are less applicable to books in school libraries than in curriculum.)

What Andy omitted was

1) that the decision must be within the parameters of the 1st Amendment; and

2) in be accordance to the 14th Amendment laws of Due Process applicable to State and State agencies.

Island Trees School District vs. Pico, 457 US 853 (1982) is the sentinel case on the subject and constantly referenced by other Courts. Pico is clear, here are some of its instructions: a) Local school boards may not remove books from libraires 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; b) Offended social, political and moral tastes does not equate to, taken as a whole, lacking in educational value; c) We think the 1st Amendment rights of students may be directly and sharply implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of school libraries. Our precedents have focused on the role of the 1st Amendment in fostering individual self-expression, but also on its role in affording the public access to discussion, debate and dissemination of information and ideas, and, d) In brief, 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.

The BoE members expressed that the books are not pornography (C.G.S. Section 53a-193), have literary and educational value, and may save children’s lives. Even if community standards were permitted to be the sole basis to ban a book, would Newtowners find more important the literary and educational value that saves children’s lives, or salty sexual language that is contextually necessary for the power of the message (the language and illustrations are familiar to nearly all teenagers through classic works, social media, music and video games.)

I suggest overwhelmingly the former.

Finally, 14th Amendment Due Process requires the creation of a standard. The only standard in existence is that created for the Special Committee of expert professional educators. The BoE members are not experts so have no ability to weigh the expert standards. Consequently, the only discretion the BoE has is whether the Special Committee’s decision was an abuse of discretion, or a lack of foundation for its decision. The Court in Pico found the motive of the school board highly suspicious in rejecting its Special Committees decision.

Thank you,

Jim Gaston

Newtown