Supporters, opponents of Loudoun County Public Schools' diverse libraries come out in force
By John Battiston, jbattiston@loudountimes.com Oct 24, 2019 Updated 23 hrs ago

Tuesday night’s Loudoun County School Board meeting ran for nearly six hours, thanks in part to massive community participation in the debate surrounding diverse classroom libraries.

“I think that that’s probably the longest meeting we’ve ever had, or pretty dang close to it,” Chairman Jeff Morse (Dulles District) said before motioning to adjourn at approximately 12:22 a.m.

More than 70 Loudoun County Public Schools parents, students, staff and community members participated in the evening’s public comment, the vast majority commenting on the recently added diverse book collections.

Earlier this year, LCPS implemented the program in an effort to “diversify the books available to students, understanding that the prevalent culture is already represented in our collections,” according to the LCPS English Language Arts website. Newly added books include titles relating to “diverse race, culture, language [and] religion,” as well as disabilities and LGBTQ-related subjects.

Starting last month, however, concerned citizens have publicly addressed content in certain titles that they believe to be gratuitously sexually explicit or graphically violent, referencing works that are available to students as young as kindergarten age. In the weeks since, more and more people have voiced support of maintaining the collection as it currently stands.

The board room was packed Tuesday, with many attendees dressed according to their stances on the matter: those supporting the preservation of diverse classroom libraries dressed in purple; those against the new collection or in favor of its modification wore green.
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A video of the full Tuesday meeting is available online at vimeo.com/368135621.