A resident’s request to remove the young adult fiction book “Boy Toy” from the high school library was unanimously rejected by the Dover School Board in early November.
But debate about book banning continues to simmer in New Hampshire, with civil liberties and LGBTQ+ rights advocates now criticizing the Department of Education’s comments on two of the books in question and its guidance on the topic.
The ACLU of New Hampshire and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, warned that removing books would violate the First Amendment, and they sent a letter to school superintendents on Monday urging them to reject such requests.
They said the letter came “in response to the recent uptick in demands by a vocal minority of individuals that schools remove certain books,” pointing to recent incidents in Bow, Milford, Bedford, and Dover. Milford temporarily removed “Gender Queer” from circulation, but the book was later restored and the challenge was dropped, the New Hampshire Bulletin reported.
These demands “track politicized and partisan narratives in the larger culture, and regularly target books that discuss or depict the experiences and history of members of the LGBTQ+ community and/or communities of color,” said the Dec. 4 letter to superintendents.
The ACLU and GLAD also raised concerns about the department’s guidance on removing books, after learning the department told the Dover School District that both “Boy Toy” and “Gender Queer” raised questions about being “developmentally inappropriate.”
A written statement from the New Hampshire Department of Education acknowledged receipt of the ACLU’s letter, but did not respond to the specific concerns raised in the letter.
“The New Hampshire Department of Education received a letter from the ACLU on Monday morning and is now reviewing the letter’s content,” the statement said. “We appreciate the opportunity to speak on this matter, if warranted, once a thorough review is complete.”
State Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut first wrote to Dover School District Superintendent about “certain reading materials in the Dover school district” on July 6. He said the department had received inquiries about the developmental appropriateness of materials available in Dover school libraries, and mentioned “Boy Toy” and “Gender Queer” as two examples.
“These materials have received ratings and warnings from various systems that raise questions about the developmentally appropriate nature of the underlying instructional materials,” he said, pointing to assessments from the American Library Association, BookLooks, and Common Sense Media. He asked the superintendent to explain how the district determines what materials are appropriate.
An attorney from Drummond Woodsum, Meghan S. Glynn, responded on behalf of the superintendent on July 31, noting that the district selects the material in accordance with state law, and that the process is overseen by the Dover School Board.
On Aug. 16, Edelblut wrote back with additional questions, but didn’t receive a response. Following up in an Oct 16 message, he said, “If you have not yet been able to make a determination of the developmentally appropriate nature of instructional materials, the prudent action would be to suspend their usage and/or restrict access appropriately until such a determination can be made.”
On Nov. 1, the Dover School Board unanimously rejected the effort to ban “Boy Toy” from the high school library, the Portsmouth Herald reported.
Attorneys at the ACLU and GLAD said the department had effectively insinuated that the district should consider whether to ban the books, and called the communication “alarming and extraordinary,” noting that it should be a matter of local control.
“Any suggestion that books be banned frays the bonds of trust and cooperation among parents, schools, and students,” they said in a Dec. 4 letter to Edelblut.
Both letters were signed by Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for the ACLU of New Hampshire and Chris Erchull, an attorney at GLAD. In the letter to Edelblut, the attorneys said book bans raise free speech concerns and that “developmental appropriateness” cannot be a proxy for discrimination based on the books’ viewpoints.
“Boy Toy” by Barry Lyga describes a high school student grappling with his experience of sexual abuse by a female teacher who manipulated him into a sexual relationship when he was 12 and is about to be released from prison. The ACLU and GLAD said it could help young victims cope with the trauma of abuse and called the department’s concerns about the book “invalid.”
In Edelblut’s letter to the Dover superintendent, he said, “Exposure to developmentally inappropriate materials has the effect of exacerbating those mental health issues that students are struggling with.”
“Gender Queer” is a debut graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe about coming out as nonbinary, which became the most banned book in 2021. It discusses sexual identity and includes some nude characters and sexual scenarios. The ACLU and GLAD argue this representation of LGBTQ+ themes “can be of obvious value to youth facing questions about gender identity.”
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.