Greenville Co. Schools hold meeting to discuss rating books
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenville County School board held a meeting to follow up on a discussion about having stricter regulations on library books.
In May 2022, the boards advisory committee wrote a letter calling on federal legislators to require publishers to rate books similar to how movies, TV shows and video games are rated.
This would allow parents to monitor the content their children are reading.
Board member Chuck Saylors said all media has a rating based on language, adult content, violence, drugs etc. and publishers should follow the same requirements.
He also said letters were sent to Senator Graham, Senator Scott, Congressman Timmons and Congressman Duncan.
This idea was brought up after parents raised concerns in 2022 over what they believe to be inappropriate content in some books in some school libraries.
On a state level, he said he wants a system put in place for better content regulation.
“Right now, the only thing that we have to go by when we receive those books because the students reading level and their level of interest in the topic,” said Saylors. “So, if I have a child that’s in the fifth grade and he’s interested in racecar then we can provide that child with the books that are in his reading level and in that content area. It does not talk about content, language, violence, none of that and we want to make sure that those components are eventually in the conversation so our parents in our community can judge what’s best for their students to be reading.”
As of right now, a bill has not been assigned, but it is in the works.
FOX Carolina spoke with the Department of Education about what this would look like in schools across the state if a law is passed.
They said at this point it is “too hypothetical” to say, but potentially could look different for each district.
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