To the Editor:

Now that the school year is over, the heightened emotion about the book challenges has faded, and members of the Board of Education (BOE) are allowed to speak publicly, it’s time to set the record straight.

When some local parents learned about several graphic novels available in school libraries that included sexually explicit pictures, they initiated the BOE’s Book Challenge Process. The pictures, standing on their own, also disturbed other people — including school administrators. Shortly afterwards, a few people on both sides sought to cast the challenge in an extreme manner.

These extremists added to their numbers by convincing others that the issue was, for example, about sexual grooming or that “sexually explicit” was code for anti-LGBTQ+ bias. The truth in Newtown was neither. Rather, most parents’ concerns were centered on age-appropriateness of sexual content and parental input.

During the May 2 meeting, the BOE heard recommendations from a committee composed of district staff. Unfortunately, the policy governing book challenges limited the committee’s recommendation to one of two options: leaving the books as before or completely removing them from the shelves. In addition to the recommendation, Assistant Superintendent Uberti made a statement about the potential for solutions that might fall somewhere in the middle.

The May 2 meeting was also the first meeting of the process that provided voice to Newtown parents and our broader community. Members of the BOE received emails, oral comments at Board meetings, and other forms of public communication. After hearing the committee’s report and Ms Uberti’s suggestion, BOE members asked several questions. Our goal was to understand how we might better support diverse family values and cultures in a manner that would be both workable and reasonable.

In short, those asking the questions were trying to better understand options between the two extremes.

During the subsequent two meetings, a majority of BOE members focused on how to honor both the staff recommendation and diverse family values. This focus should have been clear to those closely following the meetings. There was never a motion made to remove the books. Instead, the majority simply agreed that the initial motion needed to be amended to more fully reflect the reality behind the challenge and the values of our families and overall community.

The Board’s final, unanimous, decision did just that. It augmented the committee’s recommendation to acknowledge the social, cultural, and emotional diversity of our students and families.

The process was unnecessarily difficult. The acrimony, labeling, and overt pressure on the staff, parents, and BOE members was unbecoming of our town. Thank you to those who ignored the misinformation planted by a few extremists and political opportunists. And, thank you to those who reached out with constructive input and support as we strived to do what was best for our students and community.

I am speaking for myself, not on behalf of the BOE of which I am a member.

Deborra Zukowski

Newtown