Clyde-Savannah school board votes to place books they banned back in library

WAYNE COUNTY, N.Y. — There was a big turnout at Wednesday night’s Clyde-Savannah Board of Education meeting in Wayne County — all over some banned books, due to sexually explicit material.

The board voted 6 to 2 to place five books back on the library shelves. The books were removed from the junior and senior high school libraries.

The back story: A taxpayer raised concerns he has about five books in the school library. The school board voted to remove the books. Two school staff members who disagreed with the books being removed filed an appeal with the state to intervene and hopefully have the books placed back on the library shelves. So the board voted Wednesday on whether the books would stay or go.

Some Wednesday were in favor of keeping the books off the library shelves, and some were against. Jacob Marchitell was at the board meeting and says these books are inappropriate to have in the school’s library. He challenged the school board after they voted to overturn their previous vote to remove the books off the shelves.

Renee Shrimp — who has two teens attending the school district, one in junior high and one in senior high, says the board did the right thing by voting to keep the books in the library.

“Very happy that they stood their ground amidst all the taunting, being called shameful to be voting to keep the books in, being called a predator — I’m very proud of them for being strong and standing up for our community,” Shrimp said.

Jennifer Williams said she doesn’t agree with the board’s decision Wednesday, but was not surprised.

“There was probably enough votes that it was going to pass anyway and to face the wrath of the people who want the books here, it was just too much. Even though morally she knew that the books should not be here, she voted to put them back in,” Williams said.

Theresa Edwards, whose child is a senior at the high school, expressed her stance in favor of returning the books to the shelves.

“I feel like kids have more at their fingertips already than what was in the books that were discussed, and I don’t think most kids even knew about these books before — and this is just bringing it to their attention,” she said.