The Lyon County Library Board of Trustees denied an appeal asking for a book to be removed from the library collection, and upheld the library director’s decision that the Lyon County Library System cannot remove four other books from the Nevada Library Cooperative network because it does not own them.
The Trustees voted 4-1 to uphold the decision by Library Director Wynne Prindle that the book “What If It’s Us” meets the requirements of the library’s Collection Development Policy and should be retained. The Trustees also approved a motion to uphold the appropriateness of the response of the library director and cease all further discussion on four other books that Lyon County does not have any control over.
Wellington resident Gwen Ernst-Ulbrich had filed the Request for Reconsideration of the book “What If It’s Us” Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. She appealed the decision by Prindle to the Trustees. In her Request for Reconsideration, Ernst-Ulrich cited profanity throughout the book and described it an “one long ongoing gay sexual conquest.” She requested the book be removed from the county library and the card catalog.
Prindle told the Trustees that after reading the book, she determined it was in compliance with the library’s materials collection policy.
During her presentation to the Trustees, Ernst-Ulrich said she believes the book meets the library board’s definition of sexually explicit and pervasively vulgar or obscene material that should not be allowed in the children’s or young adult library section. She read examples of what she called obscenity in the book and described the book as “one big, long sexual conquest between children.”
Ernst-Ulrich also cited information from studies warning against exposure to sexually explicit materials. She also cited several passages from the Bible and used the examples of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate how the country was built on a foundation of Christian faith.
“Teens exposed to sexually explicit and pervasively vulgar or obscene material can be drawn into predatory sexual behavior,” she said. “Our words and actions, how we interact with children, what we offer them, matter. We can help them, or we can harm them.”
Trustees Jan Shardt, Kay Edwards, Patti Palmer and Nora Stevens disagreed.
Shardt said after reading the book, she believes it is appropriate for the library’s collection development policies.
“I believe it should remain on our shelves and not be banned or removed for any reason,” she said.
Edwards said the library is not responsible for dictating morals to children.
“It is the parents’ responsibility,” she said.
Palmer said the book wasn’t as bad as she expected after reading the complaints about it and she didn’t find the book pornographic.
“If this was a story about a heterosexual boy and a heterosexual girl, we would not be here,” she said.
Stevens said the issue before the Trustees is not the book itself, per se.
“I believe the issue is whether we follow the collection policy and whether we follow the law about whether we can take books off the shelves or not and I believe this book is where it belongs,” she said.
Trustee Deanne Davis said she used two packs of Post-it notes to mark the pages she felt were offensive. She recited many of the 337 instances of profanity she said she found in the book’s 433 pages.
“If the things the kids do in this book happened in the workplace, someone would be accused of sexual harassment,” she said. “If kids were doing that at school, they might get suspended.”
She also argued that the book’s pop culture appeal is outdated because it takes place during Barack Obama’s presidency.
When Davis opened the meeting for public comment, several people spoke in opposition to removing the book, most of them on the grounds of individual choice and that a vocal few should not decide for everyone else what they may read. Other speakers said the sexual content in the book is not appropriate for children. However, one speaker pointed out that the characters in the book are 16 years old, and that the age of consent in Nevada is 16.
After the vote to uphold Prindle’s decision, Deputy District Attorney Illyssa Fogel told the board there was no basis for them to hear an appeal about the other four books that were being challenged - “Loveless” by Alice Oserman; “Shine” by Lauren Myracle; “Jay’s Gay Agenda” by Jason June and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson - because the people who filed the Request for Reconsideration stated on the form that they had not read them.
“The only question I think that you can vote on today is whether you uphold the decision of the director because it’s not in the collection,” Fogel said.
The Trustees then voted to uphold Prindle’s decision on those four books. Prindle said each library system purchases their own books and that patrons can request books from outside the co-op through inter-library loan. She said all public libraries in Nevada are required to participate in inter-library loans.
‘The other four items have not been owned and are not owned by the Lyon County Library system,” she said. “Libraries provide inter-library loan, that is part of our mandate, and I can’t do anything about books in other library systems.”
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