Orange County school board introduces plan for elected trustees to vet books

Trustees at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Orange County want to vet books before they go to students — a move that some worry will lead to book bans and stop educators from choosing curriculum materials, the Voice of O.C. reported.

District trustees voted  3-2 Tuesday to introduce a revision to their book selection and evaluation policy that requires them to vote on books before they get tested with students. They rejected a literature review committee that would have been made up of educators and parents.

Trustee Todd Frazier, who called for the policy revision, and trustee Leandra Blades have said the change will bring more transparency and accountability to the book selection process. “There’s no oversight up till this point in the process. There has been none,” Blades said.

But Trustee Carrie Buck said the elected trustees are not qualified to make decisions about what books should be taught. “We’re not experts in this field,” Buck said at the meeting. “We should not be the five that are determining this.”