MENTOR, Ohio — For several years, News 5 has been following a hot topic among Mentor Public School families. Some families and community members are concerned about the material available for children to check out and read.
Now, the Mentor Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-0 to put a new policy in place that it said puts the power in the hands of the parents. Lyndsie Wall, a Ridge Elementary parent, is looking forward to receiving an email letting her know the books her second and fourth-grade sons are checking out at the library.
"This gives parents the opportunity to know, 'hey, this book, we have this going on in our life right now and this might actually trigger my child. So no, I don't want that book.' It's not just about one topic," said Wall.
Board of Education President Maggie Cook explains how it works, "so, parents would get an email every time their child checks out a book in the library."
Parents of students K-12 will be notified. Cook said the program even goes a step further.
"The second stage is for parents who want more restricted access. If you're opting into the restricted access system, then your child you're getting an email, and then the book that they want to choose is held in our library. They come home with a permission slip and when they return with a signed permission slip, then they can take that book home," said Cook.
Board members Rose Ioppolo and Annie Payne are in agreement about the two-tier system. However, the members are "deeply disappointed" that the board did away with its "sexual content policy," which was put in place in 2023, and the ability for community members to donate books.
The members sent this joint statement Friday afternoon:
This statement represents the views of Rose Ioppolo and Annie Payne alone and does not reflect the position of the entire Mentor Board of Education.
"The school board's recent decision (3-2) to eliminate the sexual content and book donation policy is deeply disappointing. Last year, the board unanimously approved a policy proposed by Ms. Payne that notified parents when their child checked out a book with sexual content or explicit material. The board has now revoked this policy, as well as the ability for community members to donate books, in a 3-2 vote. This effectively prevents stakeholders, including financial supporters of the district, from providing valuable input and resources. The superintendent made this recommendation after admitting the likelihood that the left-leaning board majority would only approve books that were left-leaning and would reject books that were right-leaning. "
After the removal of the policy that identified books with graphic sexual content, we requested an additional safeguard, as many parents are unaware that our libraries contain such material. Specifically, we proposed adding a disclaimer that parents would sign, acknowledging their child's potential exposure to these types of books and their responsibility to review each title. At least three board members, along with the superintendent, indicated their support for including this disclaimer in the administrative guidelines.
Current policy requires balance within our book collection. The materials should not lean one way, politically. The board and superintendent have acknowledged the need to create balance and promised to remedy this lack of compliance with policy.
We are pleased that the school board unanimously supported a new two-tiered system that allows parents the option to either approve or reject books prior to checkout. It also gives parents the option to be notified of all book titles their child may check out in the media center. This policy change, which was added to the new policy per our request (5-0), rather than kept in the less secure administrative guidelines, ensures parents have a clear voice. "
Ioppolo made this comment at Thursday's meeting, "I think allowing donation opportunities creates accountability, transparency, and trust with the community, which we desperately need."
Cook said the two-tier system goes well beyond the "sexual content policy" and allows all parents to make the call about any type of material their child is exposed to.
"We have 34,000 books in our library. It's really not feasible to look through every book to give special alerts for each of them, so let's let the parents take a look," said Cook.
Some community members think more needs to be done. "Continue to retain this harmful material and the next levy will fail. We will have an effort to ensure that it does," said Jacqueline McCormick, a taxpayer.
Wall said she is ready for the conversation to be over, the dust to settle, and her boys to get back to the classroom, "let's maybe talk about some of the real issues in our school district, like bullying and class sizes and things like that, test scores. Making sure every child is met with the needs they have to achieve academically."
