By Delayna Earley
The Island News
In case you missed it, Beaufort County School District (BCSD) was the main character in a CBS News “60 Minutes” segment that aired on Sunday, March 3.
The piece, reported by correspondent Scott Pelley, follows the process taken by BCSD of reviewing 97 books that were challenged for appropriateness of content in October 2022 and removed from school libraries.
While the piece focused on the 97 books that were challenged in Beaufort County, the segment portrayed the attempts to ban books in schools as part of a larger movement with conservative group Moms for Liberty at the center.
According to the segment, there were more than 3,000 books banned in schools across the country last year, which was an increase by more than 1,000 over the previous year.
The process of reviewing the 97 books from Beaufort’s school libraries began in October 2022 when the list was submitted to the school board.
After this, Superintendent Frank Rodriguez chose to remove the books from circulation until they could be evaluated, a process that took longer than a year.
In the segment, Pelley interviews Board of Education Vice-Chair Richard Geier, who said that librarians have reported that there are parents who have come into the school to threaten police involvement for allowing “pornography” to checked out by students in the school library.
In the “60 Minutes” piece, it was reported that Rodriguez removed the books out of fear of violence following a string of threats.
Each of the books was read and reviewed by a book review committee comprised of community members, parents and district employees, and it was during the May 2023 review sessions that “60 Minutes” producer Henry Schuster, a resident of Beaufort County, decided to participate.
It was during this review committee meeting that Schuster said that he had the idea that this would make a good story, so he pitched the idea to Pelley who agreed.
The pair, along with a production team, made their way back to Beaufort in June 2023 to film the BCSD Board of Education meeting and then the June book review committee meeting.
One of the aspects of the review process that struck Schuster as unique was how “orderly and eye-opening” the whole process was.
Ultimately, the review process resulted in five of the 97 books being removed from school libraries for five years, after which the books can be re-reviewed.
One of the people who was responsible for submitting the list, Seabrook resident Ivie Szalai, told The Island News that she wished the piece wasn’t focused on the Moms for Liberty avenue.
“I did not do what I did on behalf of them, and I was not coached by them,” she said. “Although later, I did find a sort of ‘how to’ by a supposed former member of them, but it was after I did everything on my own.”
In the segment, Pelley makes the connection between many of the book banning attempts to one website, BookLooks.org, which is a website that provides reviews of books provided by volunteer, non-professional reviewers.
Geier said that the issue, in his opinion, is not that parents have an issue with the material and want to restrict it for their own children, it is that they want to make decisions for other parents about what their kids can read.
This sentiment was shared by Lady’s Island resident Ruth James, who was interviewed following the June book review committee meeting by both The Island News and “60 Minutes.”
James told The Island News in June 2023 that while she understands that everyone has different sensitivities, and what is vulgar to some may not be vulgar to others, she would never think to tell a child what they can or cannot read but would instead allow their parent to do that.
David Louis Cook, a Hilton Head Island resident who has been vocal about the book review process, said that he feels like this segment would not shed a positive light our schools and feels that it will just highlight how “eight board members failed to uphold their oath of office.”
“We all see where [the school board members] stand morally regarding sexually explicit materials encouraging the rape of children and women and in regard to materials that lack educational suitability,” Cook said.
On the opposite side, Families Against Book Bans, a grassroots group in Beaufort who have vocally opposed removing the books from the schools, were very happy with the reporting done in the “60 Minutes” segment.
“As banning books continues in numerous communities across our state and nation by a loud-but-few-folks, we hope this “60 Minutes” piece serves as inspiration for what can be done when we come together,” the group said in a release about the segment.
Delayna Earley formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
