Superintendent recommends removing '13 Reasons Why' from middle school library after curriculum review

The Little Miami Local School District superintendent told the board on June 30 that a curriculum review committee had reviewed 12 challenged middle‑school library books and recommended retaining them in the collection, but the superintendent said she would remove one title — Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why — from the middle school catalog before the next school year.

The district convened a 16‑member curriculum review committee after concerns were raised about 12 books in the middle school library. The committee reviewed the titles and recommended that all 12 remain available; the superintendent said she read several of the books herself and, after reviewing 13 Reasons Why, decided it posed a risk to students with suicide ideation and would be removed from the middle school catalog. She said the committee’s members were divided on that specific title: three of the four committee members she spoke to either disagreed with her call or did not voice support; one said she might appeal the superintendent’s removal decision.

The superintendent said the removal could be appealed under the district’s book‑challenge procedures and that she had already asked that the title be taken out of the district catalog prior to the start of the next school year. She characterized the other titles as not meeting her threshold for removal, but noted varying committee opinions and the potential for appeal.

No board vote was recorded on the matter at the June 30 meeting; the superintendent presented the committee’s minutes and said she would act to remove the one title as a preemptive safety step for students.

"When I first started reading [13 Reasons Why] ... I thought, you know what? This is a book that everybody should read," she said, explaining that the title can be harmful when read by students with suicidal ideation. "I am recommending that we remove that book from our library."