Cobb Schools Pulls Another Book for Review Process

MARIETTA — The Cobb County School District has pulled another book from the shelves of its school libraries as Superintendent Chris Ragsdale continues to defend the book removal process against a civil rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education.

"The Summer of Todd Owen" by Tony Abbott is the latest title being considered for a ban from Cobb Schools, a district spokesperson confirmed.

“The Summer of Owen Todd is currently going through the District review process and, as the superintendent has stated numerous times, if any book includes sexually explicit content, it will go through the review process. If, upon review, a book is confirmed to include sexually explicit content, it will be removed from our schools," the district's statement reads.

The novel chronicles the experiences of an 11-year-old boy who suffers sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted male adult.

It is not among the 25 other books that have been removed in neighboring Marietta City Schools which Ragsdale announced in January would also be pulled from his district's school libraries.

This puts the total count of books that Ragsdale has targeted at 26, though he told the MDJ in April that only seven books had been permanently banned thus far.

Civil rights complaint

At Thursday night's school board meeting, Ragsdale dedicated a chunk of his comments to addressing a complaint filed Monday by the National Women's Law Center with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

The complaint stated that the district practiced "discriminatory censorship" in selecting which books to ban, targeting both LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities.

"I regret, once again, that a fair amount of our school district's time and effort is consumed by responding to — quite frankly — lies spread by an out-of-state political action group attempting to impose their agenda onto our children and into our schools," Ragsdale said.

Though Ragsdale mentioned that the first books pulled from the district in August — "Flamer" and "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" — were banned after the school district was notified they were in catalogs, he did not mention that the complaint came from the New York-based conservative blog "Libs of TikTok."

The superintendent went on to criticize the work of the National Women's Law Center in advocating for transgender youth.

"The National Women's Law Center (is) a Washington D.C.-based political action organization, whose efforts in Georgia have most recently been devoted to legally and politically pressuring schools to allow male-to-female transgender students to compete in girls' sports and have access to girls' locker rooms," Ragsdale said.

Ragsdale has given impassioned speeches reaffirming his commitment to ridding the district of all "sexually explicit" content at several recent board meetings. More than once, he has called the process a "battle between good and evil," and in April, made links between the failure to remove the books from children's hands to child sex trafficking and childhood sexual abuse.

In last month's remarks, Ragsdale referenced the documentary "Quiet on the Set," which details alleged childhood sexual abuse against Nickelodean stars.

Then, the superintendent stated it was paramount that people learn from these stories to understand the connection between abuse and the sexualization of children.

"One of the lessons of the documentary was the importance of protecting children from being viewed as sexual objects, as it was often a precursor to sexual abuse," Ragsdale said.

'Reacting in fear'

Jeff Hubbard, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators, told the MDJ that the book was submitted for review by school staff and is an example of the removal process working well.

"A concern was raised at the school level," Hubbard said. "... In that regard the process worked."

But Hubbard added that fear rose among media specialists at the 10 schools where the book was identified when principals came into the libraries demanding copies of the book to turn over to the district.

While Ragsdale has stated that he is not "after anyone's job," Hubbard said librarians are still afraid of retaliation if they are found with a book that is later deemed "sexually explicit."

He cited the fact that the district failed to guarantee they wouldn't retaliate against teachers for allowing students to participate in the state-wide Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl in the fall of 2023, which media specialists suspected included books that district leadership would deem inappropriate.

The 10 members of the event's steering committee voted unanimously to withdraw from the Bowl in fear of losing their jobs.

"The media specialists are still reacting in fear right now because of everything that happened during the fall ... the question becomes 'Am I in trouble?'" Hubbard said. "... If the process is working, then no one should have anything to be worried about. I think that's the big key."