People filled auditorium to hear book ban discussion, but local conservatives shut out

Nearly every seat in a Technical College of the Lowcountry auditorium, typically fit for college events and classroom lectures, was filled Sunday afternoon with people hoping to hear more about Beaufort County’s book ban controversy.

Noticeably absent from the panel assembled on stage by the Pat Conroy Literary Center to debate the subject, however, were members from the local conservative group that has spearheaded a campaign forcing the school district to review dozens of books in its high and middle school libraries.

When asked why there were no members from the group that pushed for the book bans on the panel, the center’s Executive Director Jonathan Haupt said that was by design.

“Pat Conroy’s viewpoint on the subject [censorship and book bans] is pretty clear, so we wanted to honor that,” Haupt said.

The panel consisted of author and College of Charleston professor Marjory Wentworth; community education advocate A.J. Davis; Josh Malkin with the South Carolina American Civil Liberties Union, and journalist Paul Bowers. The four insisted that the rhetoric surrounding book bans has historically been politically motivated instead of evaluating the literary and educational value of the material banned. Book bans, they said, are a “coordinated effort to silence marginalized groups,” like the LGBT+ and Black and brown communities.

“These actions [banning books] that are being taken now, in my opinion, are intended to make the act of having discussions about the realities of the world ... to become legal,” Davis said. “If you read the actual legislation ... it’s about the types and directions of conversations that can be had in academic environments.”

The event was created in response to the ongoing debate over school library books which started after an October school board meeting when parent Joseph Castagnino read aloud a sex scene from the New York Times bestselling novel “Tricks.” The book follows five teenagers who fall into a prostitution ring and delves into issues facing adolescents today, including drug use and sexuality.

“You get to these meetings and these folks have clearly not read the books, but they are able to read the passage they found ... and there’s a real shock and awe factor there,” Malkin said.

‘That is a part of adolescent life’

Castagnino branded the book as “pornographic.” Local Moms for Liberty member Ivie Szalai compiled a list of books that were objectionable to submit to the school district. Local conservative GOP politician Mike Covert added one more book to the list, “Stamped,” which has been likened by some to critical race theory.

Three days after that October school board meeting, 97 books were pulled from school libraries for review. Over 20 community members spoke out at another school board meeting to say these stories teach students “about the realities of someone” dealing with various issues facing young people today.

“We don’t want pornography in our libraries,” Malkin said. “But we also want to say there is inherent value to adolescents being able to access library books that contain sexual content or sexual violence because that is a part of adolescent life.”

Szalai previously told the newspapers the painstaking process of compiling the list of books deemed inappropriate took her about 40 hours over five days of research and that her decision to do so was not politically motivated.

“This was in no means guided by my religious preference or my political preference,” Szalai previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “I fully believe that we need books in our school system that are for every race, every gender, every sexual preference, as long as they are not sexually explicit.”

For Wentworth, decisions to shut out lessons like racism, sexuality and queer identities found in the books that were banned — instead of addressing and discussing them with students — “puzzles” her. Instead of sheltering children, she said, they should be exposed to these stories to create an understanding that, without, would allow for the continuation of “taboos” responsible for “so much pain and suffering.”

“To develop empathy and a full world view, it’s important to read about experiences other than your own, even if it’s uncomfortable and disturbing at times,” Wentworth said. “With that in mind, I think that we cannot underestimate the value of reading literature. Books provide refuge for those who cannot find it anywhere else around them.”

The school district is assembling review committees to decide whether the 97 books should be banned or returned to the shelves. Committees ruled that the first four books — “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Speak,” “Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “The Kite Runner” — should be returned to the libraries. Covert and Szalai can appeal the decision and if they do, the Board of Education will make the final decision.