Alachua County School Board votes 4-1 to keep “Melissa” in elementary school library

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 6 Alachua County School Board meeting, the board voted 4-1 to keep the book Melissa in an elementary school library.

The book’s publisher describes Melissa (previously published as George), by Alex Gino, this way: “BE WHO YOU ARE. When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl. Melissa thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part… because she’s a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte — but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.”

Dr. Crystal Marull objected to the book’s availability in the school library at Terwilliger Elementary School in November 2023, and the School Library Advisory Council decided to keep the book on the shelf. Marull asked to escalate the decision to the district level, and the District Library Advisory Committee also made the decision to keep the book on the shelf. Marull again requested escalation, and Dr. Bessie Jackson, the Hearing Officer selected by the school district, recommended keeping the book after a January 23 hearing. The next step was for the School Board to enter a Final Order on the book.

Marull’s objections, according to a presentation posted in the meeting backup, included references to “dirty magazines” and “porn,” indoctrination into gender ideology, and references at the back of the book that provide contact information for organizations that support “young people who are in crisis” instead of encouraging children to talk to their parents. Marull’s presentation included passages that introduce ideas like learning to hide browser search history and sharing underwear and reinforce ideas about stereotypical behaviors of boys and girls.

Marull’s presentation points out that library books are supposed to align with state educational standards, and this book does not align with Florida Statutes 1000.071(1), which says, “It shall be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution that is provided or authorized by the Constitution and laws of Florida that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”

Dr. Marull’s comments

Chair Diyonne McGraw announced that Marull would have 10 minutes to make her case to the school board, followed by 10 minutes for Susan Seigle, the school district’s attorney, to make the case for keeping the book. Marull appeared surprised and said it was “never communicated to [her]” that she could speak for 10 minutes or that there would be a counter-presentation. She said, “So there’s quite a lack of clarity of parents’ rights and privileges throughout this process.”

Marull began her presentation by stating that she has three children in Alachua County Public Schools and is a professor at the University of Florida who holds a master’s degree in education; a master’s degree and PhD in bilingualism and second language acquisition; K-12 Spanish teaching certificates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida; and a Florida certificate as an educational media specialist. “As a media specialist, I’m professionally trained to understand the legal standards that govern both selection and the use of library books and educational materials in my children’s school,” Marull said.

Marull also said she is not “affiliated with any group or organization that is challenging age-inappropriate and sexually-explicit books forbidden by Florida law. Rather, I stand here as a concerned parent to challenge a book in my son’s school library.” She said she was “appalled by the school media specialists’ and the district media specialist’s open refusal to follow the state criteria for library book selection.”

Marull said the recommended order from Hearing Officer Bessie Jackson “does not reflect my evidence and argument which I presented at that hearing. And more specifically, it contains outright misrepresentations of my primary objections to this children’s book.”

She said she did not object to the book because it contains pornographic material, but “rather the passages in the book where a 14-year-old comments to his 10-year-old brother about his pornographic interests; those passages could open a door in a child’s mind to inquire or seek out more information about, quote, ‘dirty magazines’ and ‘pornography,’ keywords that a 10-year-old should not be contemplating or be instructed about from a book in their school library.”

Marull said, “It has become apparent that the personal opinions of the district and school media specialists are motivating them to openly disregard the state selection criteria for library materials… This is not about personal opinions. This is a professional opinion about the criteria set forth in the statutes, which must be applied objectively by a trained media specialist such as myself.”

Marull concluded, “Once you become familiar with the contents of this book, I believe you will conclude this book should not be reviewed by any children before the 9th grade, and his or her parents or guardians should definitely be involved. Under state guidelines, gender identity may not even be discussed in the classroom until 9th grade, and one of the considerations for selecting library books is the degree to which a text supports state academic standards and aligns with curriculum, as well as the academic needs of students and faculty. It’s clear that the criteria for instructional material are more restrictive than for library material, yet the purpose of the school library is to, quote, ‘supplement the basic reading assigned through the standard curriculum,’ end quote.”

McGraw cut her off, saying her 10 minutes was up, and Marull asked for an additional three minutes since nobody had told her before the meeting that she would be limited to 10 minutes. Board Attorney David Delaney responded, “I think this process has provided a reasonable opportunity under the statute for this presentation to challenge the prior due process afforded during the hearing.”

Marull argued that she had not been given a “fair and adequate” opportunity to address the board, which is required by statute, but McGraw told Seigle that she now had 10 minutes to present the district’s case.

District Attorney Susan Seigle’s comments

Seigle said she first wanted to “correct a misunderstanding perhaps Dr. Marull has: The hearing officer, Dr. Bessie Jackson, was appointed by the board, not appointed by the Superintendent.” She went on to say that although Dr. Marull has a media specialist certificate, “she’s never curated a media library or so forth.” She said, “All that’s required for a library book… is it to be free from pornography and material prohibited by one of the criminal statutes on deviant sexuality and that it’s suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented and that it’s appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the materials are used.”

Seigle said Marull was using language from a slide used to train media specialists (shown below), “and the problem is, the training slide was just enacted last year, and a number of slides have been, and they are, undergoing change this year because they don’t follow the statute.” 

Seigle continued, “Library books, by their nature, are optional rather than required. A library book that encourages kids to read voluntarily is supplemental to their education… [Reading] is not confined to the curricular material of a specific classroom course.” Seigle said the district has a process parents can use to stipulate that their child cannot check out specific books: “If her son or daughter comes up and says, ‘I’d like to read that book,’ they will steer the child to something else. But she should not be permitted to come in here and tell every other parent in this district what their child should not read… I would suggest that the appropriate thing would be to go ahead and approve Dr. Jackson’s recommendation.”

Member Tina Certain made a motion to accept the recommendation from the hearing officer, and Member Sarah Rockwell seconded the motion.

Public comment

Five people spoke during public comment, with four speaking in favor of keeping the book and one speaking in favor of removing the book.

Rockwell: Melissa is an amazing book

Rockwell said she had invested quite a bit of time into understanding “how this statute worked for classroom materials and library materials, and they are in fact very different. I also promised myself that I would not vote on a book I have not read, so I purchased Melissa, and I read the entire book… Melissa is an amazing book.”

“Telling my child that she can’t have access to an age-appropriate book that does not violate state statute violates my parental rights because not every parent can just go to Amazon and purchase ‘Melissa’ if their child wants to read it and they’re okay with that.” – Member Sarah Rockwell

Rockwell said she enjoyed the book, “but that’s not relevant to the hearing. What’s relevant to the hearing is–does it violate state statutes? And it does not.” She said that, in her opinion, it does not violate state statutes for library materials, but it could not be used as instructional material in a classroom. Rockwell said there was nothing in the book that she would find objectionable for her fourth-grade daughter. She continued, “I support parental rights. Parental rights, to me, means my rights to parent my children and your rights to parent your children. Telling my child that she can’t have access to an age-appropriate book that does not violate state statute violates my parental rights because not every parent can just go to Amazon and purchase Melissa if their child wants to read it and they’re okay with that.”

Abbitt: “I would not want my child to go into a library and pick up that book and start reading that. “

Member Kay Abbitt read an excerpt from the book: “‘She immersed her body in the warm water and tried not to think about what was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in front of her.’ ‘Hey Rick. It looks like someone is finally starting to grow some balls.’ This is in a library for kindergarten through fifth grade. ‘Nothing makes her more uncomfortable than when boys talked about what was in her underpants.’ Now, do most kids in elementary school have conversations with boys about what’s in their underpants? ‘George had been reading websites about transitioning since Scott taught her how to clear the web browser history on Mom’s computer.’ ‘… what she has between her legs was nobody’s business but hers and her boyfriend.'”

Abbitt said, “I would not want my child to go into a library and pick up that book and start reading that. And it has nothing to do with a child that’s unsure about her sexuality, that may be trans. I would not like it if it were about a kid who was very sure of her sexuality. That has no place in a library.”

Abbitt continued, “I believe in parental rights. I am going to tell you that I’m very offended by the way that Dr. Marull has been treated… Everybody needs to be treated with respect. I’m going to vote not to keep it in the library because I’m old-fashioned.”

She pointed out that she had voted to keep A is for Activist “because I read it… You don’t have to worry because I’ll be outnumbered, but… I would not want my child who’s a second-grader, third-grader, or even a fourth-grader to be reading sexual passages in a library book at school.”

“I don’t think we should have things that indicate to fourth-graders, third-graders, and second-graders that boys are trying to get into your underpants and that nobody but the boyfriend should be able to do that. I’m just telling you how I feel. I’m old-fashioned.” – Member Kay Abbitt

Rockwell objected that Abbitt had read “two separate passages that were connected together… The way it was read, it made it sound like there was someone else in the bathroom when Melissa was taking a bath, and there was not. The comment about ‘someone finally grew some balls’ was because Melissa stood up to the class bully, and that comment was made as a colloquialism, not in reference to actual genitals.”

Abbitt said, “I don’t think we should have things that indicate to fourth-graders, third-graders, and second-graders that boys are trying to get into your underpants and that nobody but the boyfriend should be able to do that. I’m just telling you how I feel. I’m old-fashioned.”

The board voted 4-1 to keep the book, with Abbitt in dissent.