Parents, students, and teachers rallied ahead of the Central Bucks School District’s vote to remove books perceived to have sexualized content from their libraries outside the district’s headquarters in Doylestown on July 26, 2022. (
Emily Rizzo is WHYY News’ suburban reporter covering Bucks and Montgomery counties. Previously, she covered education for Keystone Crossroads.
Prior to becoming a journalist, Emily, from New Jersey, was a documentary film and audio documentary producer. She studied English, film, and intergroup relations at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Kimberly Paynter / WHYY
Parents, students, and teachers rallied ahead of the Central Bucks School District’s vote to remove books perceived to have sexualized content from their libraries outside the district’s headquarters in Doylestown on July 26, 2022. (
District administrators said in a written statement to WHYY News on Tuesday that they initially checked out the books from district libraries so that review committees could read them to ensure that students are not exposed to “age-inappropriate sexualized content.” Those books have “since been returned” to the libraries.
Now “as part of the review process, the district will purchase additional copies of the books as needed,” district administrators said. District administrators did not answer WHYY News’ questions about how many books the district is buying and the cost of those books.
The district formed one reconsideration committee for each of the five books, according to a district email to librarians dated Dec. 1, 2022.
Superintendent Abe Lucabaugh said no one “challenged” the books, but the district “is taking a look at books that were raised throughout the debate about this policy as part of the district’s due diligence as educators,” to “guard against the sexualization of children.”
This would be the first test of the district’s controversial library book policy, which aims to ban books deemed “inappropriate” for including “sexualized content.”
Lucabaugh said the review committees are made up of the library coordinator, school librarians, administrators, teachers, and the K-12 language arts supervisor. The district’s policy says a committee will review each book and produce a “findings report” for the school board. The Republican-majority school board will make the final decision on whether to keep the book in libraries.
The library book policy does not require the committees to review the books in their entirety, evaluate their “literary merit,” nor consult with specific professional reviews and journals such as Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal to determine suitability for readers.
It defines in some detail what would be considered “inappropriate” content, including definitions of “visually implied depictions of sexual acts” and “implied nudity.”
The district’s relationship with the Independence Law Center has called into question the separation of church and state within a public school district.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups in the United States, says the FRC’s specialty is in “defaming LGBTQ people” and erroneously linking LGBTQ people with pedophilia.
The Pennsylvania Family Institute’s website states: “Family starts with a healthy marriage between one man and one woman, who raise their children in an intentional and loving home.”
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.