Lack of Clarity About Removal of Books at CCS

By KRISTIAN CONNOLLYCOOPERSTOWN

Classic dystopian novels such as Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and George Orwell’s “1984” often describe societies in which books are either thought to be threatening and dangerous to the dominant social structure and should be destroyed, or they are useful tools employed by those who hold power in an effort to control the population at large. Or both at the same time.

So it comes with some amount of irony, and wonder, that the library of the Cooperstown Central School Jr./Sr. High School was the setting Wednesday, August 14, when both titles were among the thousands of books—both recent and older titles—unanimously approved for removal from CCS libraries and classrooms by the Board of Education. 

Also ironic? One of the main topics of discussion at last Wednesday’s BOE meeting was Universal Pre-K and whether the program is financially feasible for the district. The list of books to discard that was approved by the BOE after the UPK discussion contains a lot of titles that any children’s library would want for their 4-year-old patrons and their families.

But eliminating those titles for good may not be the whole story, said CCS District Superintendent Sarah Spross in an e-mail to a couple of days later. 

Spross indicated that district materials are reviewed annually, and when asked whether a title appearing on the list meant that it no longer is available to students and educators in the district, Spross said, “Not necessarily, as some of the materials are being discarded because of their condition.” Spross later added that “in regard to the library culling process, I will need to defer to the librarians and will provide more information once they return to school in September.”