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Parents urge removal of 'It Ends With Us' and 'Wintergirls' from OPS libraries; speakers read excerpts
Summary
Two public commenters asked the Omaha Public Schools board to remove Colleen Hoover’s 'It Ends With Us' from Bryan High School and to remove 'Wintergirls' from district libraries, reading passages and citing concerns about sexual content and self‑harm.
Two members of the public urged the Omaha Public Schools Board of Education to remove specific books from school libraries during the meeting’s public‑comment period, reading passages aloud and asking the board to act.
Michaela Kazer, who said she lives in the district, told the board that Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us is available to minors at Bryan High School and called the book “pornographic” and inappropriate for high‑school students. Kazer read aloud passages from the book and said the district provides access to the title without parental notification or warning labels. “This book crosses that line,” she said, adding it “contains detailed [explicit] scenes, normalizes toxic and abusive relationships and blurs the boundaries between passion and harm.”
Michelle Rogers told the board she was concerned about Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, which she said is available in 11 Omaha Public Schools buildings. Rogers described the book’s depictions of eating disorders and self‑harm and read passages she said supported her concerns. She cited mental‑health statistics she said underscored the danger to some adolescents and urged the board to remove the title from district shelves.
The board’s public‑comment rules were read at the start of the meeting and limit individual speakers to five minutes; board members do not respond during public comment. The board did not take immediate action during the meeting on either request.
Speakers identified the affected locations: Kazer said It Ends With Us appears in Bryan High School’s “most circulated” list; Rogers said Wintergirls is held in 11 district schools. Neither speaker provided a formal challenge form or referenced the specific administrative policy that would initiate a library‑material review during the meeting; board staff did not announce any immediate follow‑up.
Motion and action: no board motion or vote to remove either title occurred at the meeting. Board policy 83‑46 (public comment) governed the speakers’ time and format.
Next steps: the district’s established book‑challenge or reconsideration procedure (not acted on in the meeting) would be the forum for any formal review; the board did not announce such a review during the session.
