Three weeks after voting to let Superintendent Sharon Jones handle challenged titles in the Fremont (Calif.) school system, the board of trustees changed direction and decided October 14 to rule on book complaints themselves. The vote came after three-and-a-half hours of "the most impassioned testimony the board has heard in recent years, in a meeting packed with nearly 200 people," according to the October 16 San Jose Mercury News.
Under the new policy, when a parent files a complaint about a book, a panel of teachers, librarians, parents, and community members will be set up. The group will read the book, listen to the complaining parent, then send a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the superintendent, who will forward it to the school board for a final decision.
Proponents of the policy called it "censorship in the positive sense," but teachers worry that complaints will increase and the trustees will get bogged down in endless debates.