The school board representing Redlands Unified School District in California voted Tuesday to advance a new policy on removing books from school libraries, which requires the superintendent to appoint a committee to review books parents report as having “pornographic” material.

The vote to advance the new policy passed 3-2, and the board will make a final vote on whether to adopt the policy next month. 

This policy would examine books on a predetermined rubric, judging books by several criteria for a total of 35 potential points.

The lower the number of points between 0 and 10, the fewer examples of sexually explicit or obscene material a book contains, according to the criteria. A book that is scored as 10 or below would remain in a library, but a book scoring between 30 and 35 points would be immediately pulled from library shelves.

In July, board president Michele Rendler was the deciding vote to send the policy back to the drawing board, saying that she wanted district officials to define terms such as “pornography.” The August version of the policy gained her approval, breaking a tie and advancing the proposal. 

The meeting where the vote was held was tense, as dozens of parents and community members spoke, with the majority in opposition to the new policy.

Many parents brought up board member Candy Olsen’s recent controversy, during which the community says she liked and shared several posts on Instagram from a far-right meme account.

“We’re gonna burn your books again f**got,” one post liked by Olsen allegedly read. Another allegedly showed Hitler in heaven with Jesus Christ, both complaining about Jews.

Olson denied supporting hate or discrimination in a response statement, saying the post she liked was about a meme unrelated to the hateful content and that she did not see the images about LGBT people or Jews. The board received more than 950 letters calling for her resignation. 

Some speakers were in favor of the new policy, with one saying he believes the opposition’s focus on Olsen’s social media posts was “the same” as a book ban.

Another, identifying himself as a leader of the organization MassResistance which has been “fighting the LGBT agenda for 30 years,” alleged that speakers opposing the policy were using Nazi tactics and that most Nazis were homosexual.

One parent said the policy “makes censorship of books easier. And you have a sitting board member who likes content like this [showing a picture of the post liked by Olsen about book burnings], that informs her policy decisions. And so, I don’t know how you can allow her to vote on this policy and expect there not to be litigation about this. Because the intent is here.”

Parents also raised concerns over censorship and intrusion into the school community.

“I don’t want the government or the school district telling me how to raise my child or what books they can read. They’re just trying to take away the rights of parents who want their kids to read freely,” parent Eriko Grossman said.

Another district member said the policy amounted to a “dumbing down” of the school system and an attack on critical thinking.

Another parent, identified as “Annie A,” said the ban was increasing government overreach and confusing bureaucracy, in addition to questioning Olsen’s credibility.

“I guess I’m not surprised that a person who’s excited to ban books today would also publicly align herself with Nazi ideologies. Sorry, sorry, in her terms, she follows, or used to follow, Nazi pages and likes posts that contain Nazi ideology, but wants us all to know that she doesn’t actually like the Nazi parts,” Annie continued.

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