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Public commenter urges board to remove explicit materials from school libraries
Summary
A public commenter cited a 2019 literature review and urged the district to remove sexually explicit and violent materials from school libraries or move them to public libraries or used-book outlets as a first step.
Vince Monahar delivered public comment urging the Forest Hills Board of Education to review and remove explicit and sexually violent materials from school libraries. He cited a 2019 review published in the Journal of Trauma, Violence, and Abuse summarizing research on media exposure and adolescent attitudes and behaviors.
Monahar argued that school libraries can be a "low-hanging fruit" compared with policing internet content and said media specialists and principals have the authority to move materials off campus. He urged the board to act on its mission by removing or relocating materials to public libraries or used-book stores and said doing so would limit exposure that the cited research links to riskier dating attitudes and victimization.
The board thanked the speaker; the transcript does not record a staff or board response to the request within the provided excerpt.
