Radnor bans three books in response to a parent’s challenge, including ‘Gender Queer’
The district said the removals followed a committee’s review. Some in the community criticized a lack of transparency.
Radnor High School has removed three books from its library, including Gender Queer and another LGBTQ-themed book, after a parent alleged they contained child pornography.
An ad hoc committee convened by Radnor’s superintendent reviewed three books, which also included Fun Home and Blankets, and determined by a 5-1 vote that the challenged books “are not age-appropriate for our students,” said Radnor spokesperson Theji Brennan. The books — all autobiographical graphic novels — were removed Friday, she said.
Brennan did not name the members of the committee, but said they were an administrator, a principal, a librarian, a school board member, a classroom teacher in the subject area, and a parent, as specified by Radnor’s library policy.
The committee members “were asked to sign confidentiality agreements to safeguard their anonymity, ensuring they could speak openly and candidly about the challenged books without fear of retribution or external criticism,” Brennan said, adding that members “may share their participation on the committee if they so choose.”
The removals have drawn backlash from some community members, who say they were not aware books were being challenged and accused the district of a lack of transparency in the review process.
“No one is being told this is even happening,” which allows for the spread of misinformation, said Sherry Luce, a Radnor parent and state director of Red Wine and Blue, a political organization focused on suburban moms that advocates for progressive causes. Luce said she learned about the removals from chatter that local Moms for Liberty members were celebrating them as a victory rather than hearing the news from the district.
Luce addressed the school board on Feb. 25, demanding an emergency review of the district’s library policy, a public vote by the school board on any book removals, and the establishment of an appeals process for removal decisions.
“What they’ve done is absolve the board of any accountability at all in the book-banning process by leaving it so vague,” Luce said, adding that board members are “good people,” but “this is a case where bad policy has created a bad situation.”
Luce said that Superintendent Ken Batchelor met with teachers at the high school Thursday to discuss the decisions.
Gender Queer, a coming-of-age memoir, has topped national lists of most-banned books for several years and has been the subject of school board battles locally. The book depicts author Maia Kobabe’s experience as a young person grappling with gender identity, and includes illustrations depicting oral sex. Under the former Republican-led school board, the Central Bucks School District banned it in 2022; the next year a political action committee featured images from the book in campaign mailers targeting Central Bucks Democrats, accusing them of trying to sexualize young children. In Radnor, the school board is controlled by Democrats.
Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, has also come under fire; it focuses on Bechdel’s coming-out story and explores her relationship with her closeted gay father. The book also includes sexual illustrations.
In Blankets, author Craig Thompson depicts his childhood in an evangelical Christian household, including sexual abuse by a male babysitter. Illustrations from the book included in the challenge form submitted to Radnor appear to allude to the abuse.
Brennan said the challenges were submitted by a parent, whom she did not name. In each of the challenges, the parent — whose name was redacted by the district — said there was “perhaps” something of value in the material. “However, child pornography disqualifies the entire book,” the person wrote.
Rachel Skrlac Lo, a professor of education at Villanova University and a Radnor parent, called the removals “a really sad moment in our communities, when we know LGBTQ students … are in such a precarious position.”
“We’re valuing potential harm” to students whose families don’t want them to read a particular book “over real harm that is done” when stories about LGBTQ people are excluded, further marginalizing vulnerable students, Skrlac Lo said.
As Moms for Liberty and other conservative groups have pushed to restrict access to the books nationally, Skrlac Lo said, the Radnor book challenges did not feel “like an authentic engagement with ‘what does our current population need,’ but more like a political action to crumble our confidence in public education. That’s really problematic.”
In 2022, Radnor also considered a challenge to Gender Queer. In that case, a committee of reviewers was split, and Batchelor cast the tie vote to keep it, according to the Delaware Valley Journal, which said a group of parents at the time filed a police report over the book’s presence in Radnor’s library.
Asked how that decision differed from this year’s, Brennan declined to comment on the former committee’s composition. “What’s relevant is the board policy was followed exactly as it was followed three years ago,” she said. The library policy was adopted in 2008.
In addition to finding the books age-inappropriate, Brennan said, the committee noted that Gender Queer had been in the library for six years and had never been checked out by a student, “except for the time it was checked out to be challenged.” Blankets, meanwhile, has not been checked out by a student since 2022, Brennan said. She did not say whether Fun Home had been checked out.