PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Pinellas County School District will discuss changes to its process for challenging books at Tuesday’s board meeting. 

Proposed Changes to Book Challenge Process:

The district states these policy updates are in order to align with the new legislation in House Bill 1069, which outlines requirements for age-appropriate instruction.

If approved by the school board, the process for challenging a book title would have some significant changes. The proposed policy update states the two-tiered process would now become a single districtwide process, and that objected materials will stay in use during the review process unless state law says otherwise.

The policy update also states the review committee must be composed of two instructional staff members, three parents of students who have access to the materials, a media specialist, an executive director of education, and a district administrator to serve as the chairperson.

After the committee reviews a book and makes a decision, their determination would represent the school board’s final action and apply to all schools districtwide.

Reagan Miller has both a 6th and 9th grade student in the district and says she likes how parents of affected students will be a part of the decision process, but has mixed feelings about other changes.

“I do like keeping decisions as local as possible and I do think that the people who know what’s best for the kids are the parents and teachers at that particular school. But I do understand why the district is taking that to a district level policy,” said parent Reagan Miller.

To date, a handful of books have been pulled from Pinellas County schools without ever getting a formal complaint.

Over the summer, a school board member flagged a number of books for the review committee to look at. In August, more titles were flagged after a group of residents read graphic passages out loud during a school board meeting.

The expansion of the Parent Rights in Education Law that was passed earlier this year states that if a school board does not allow something to be read aloud during a meeting, it must be removed.

Following the review, ‘Traffick,’ ‘Lucky,’ ‘Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey,’ ‘Damsel,’ and ‘When Good Kids Kill,’ were all recommended for removal. ‘Push’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’ are still under review.

Eleven proposed changes to the challenge process will go before the school board during its regularly scheduled meeting today.