The Plymouth School Committee Race & the Unconstitutionality of Public School Library Book Bans
The Candidates and the Case Law
(PLYMOUTH) —In the campaign for Plymouth school committee, there are four candidates running: the incumbents, School Committee Member Michelle Badger, and School Committee Member Robert Morgan, are being challenged by Dan Sullivan and Mike Spellman.
(The candidates at the May 4th League of Women Voters Candidate Forum, from left: Dan Sullivan; Mike Spellman; Robert Morgan; Michelle Badger. Photo credit — J. Benjamin Cronin.)
The Candidates
At the May 4th League of Women Candidate Forum, Ms. Badger, a proud Plymouth South alumna, put forward the case for her reelection to a fifth term on the Committee.
“It’s been an honor to have the opportunity to be involved for the last twelve years —to see the support that our local community gives to our schools, from Town Meetings, to local businesses. This support has allowed our schools to stay at the forefront of education,” she said, pointing to work on, and achievements in, health education, English language learning, school safety, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and beyond.
Mr. Morgan made his case to voters that he should be returned to office: “During my tenure on the school committee, I championed full day kindergarten, served on the building committee during the construction of Plymouth North High School — which was done on time and under budget,” he said.
“I have a record of listening to stakeholders and the community, bringing their ideas, concerns, and questions to the School Committee,” said Mr. Morgan. He pointed in particular to his advocacy for a full-time return to the class room in late 2020.
Dan Sullivan advocated for what he called a “back to basics” approach, saying: “We need a common sense, back to the basics education. In our primary grades, we need to refocus on teaching learning ‘the Three ‘r’s’ – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. And in our middle and high schools, we need to refocus on STEM – Science, Technology, Education [sic], Arts [sic], and Math.” (Note: STEM is usually understood to denote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. — Ed. )
“I believe that in order to improve our results, and improve our rankings, we need to teach our children how to think, not what to think. There’s a lot of schemes out there that really emphasize the latter, and do not promote the former,” said Mr. Sullivan.
In support of his candidacy, Mike Spellman said: “I think I’ve long had a passion to invest in future generations….” He adverted to his lengthy experience coaching youth sports, and his decision to teach in the public schools of a sister Town, Marshfield, after a career in marketing. He also noted his leadership of the young adults’ ministry and as a Sunday School teacher at New Hope Chapel, in Plymouth.
“It’s really the investment in young people — I feel that there there’s no place we should really be sinking our money and our time better served than young people,” said Mr. Spellman.
“I’d like to see less sexualization of children in our schools,” continued Mr. Spellman.
“We’ve all seen stories in the news that are a bit concerning about — and I love books, I’m not gonna’ say that — but there have been books found in public — in school libraries that I would not want my children at the age those children were reading. So, I think that’s something we need to kind of take a step back on, and I would love to see like the members of the community maybe even help with some of those choices that are made, of what’s allowed into libraries,” said Mr. Spellman.
The Unconstitutionality of Public School Library Book Bans
A few things must be noted.
First, let me say at the outset that Mr. Spellman was gentlemanly, courteous, and civil at the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum on May 4th. Let me also note that I am not a Plymouth resident, and therefore cannot vote in this election; and I, of course, properly defer in this decision to the people of Plymouth. Finally, I am not a lawyer.
With all that said, I am a passionate believer in freedom of expression, and in libraries — these are not only veritable temples of our civilization, where a curious child can make herself acquainted with the entirety of the corpus of our civilization, from Cervantes to Cezanne, the Battle of Waterloo to the Beatles ; they are also supremely levelling, egalitarian institutions, both democratic and republican (with lower-case letters on both words), opening knowledge of the wider world to every citizen — to all members of our society, irrespective of circumstance. Their motto, in short, could be that which Immanuel Kant attributed to the 18th century Enlightenment as a whole: aude sapere — “dare to know.”
I therefore thought it important to further note the following: that we do have laws, and a State and a Federal Constitution; and we do have precedents, and their weight is overwhelming: people cannot simply ban books from school libraries because they don’t like them.
This article will examine some of the relevant precedents that support that argument.