Should the public library remove two books from its collection in Old Lyme? A group of community members have sent a letter asking the library to do just that, concerned over the books dealing with teenage sex education.
The library says it’s reviewing the books.
“Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human." That’s the title of a book in the Old Lyme-Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. It talks about adolescent sex education and some want it removed from the tween and teen section.
“It’s supposed to be showing teenagers and what not about sex. There’s nothing in that book explaining about sex,” Mercedes Buckingham, an Old Lyme resident, said.
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She believes this book has no educational value, encourages bad behavior and sets a bad example.
“On the contrary, it’s encouraging pornography, kinks, and what not,” she said.
Buckingham is one of more than 130 people from Old Lyme and Lyme who signed a letter sent on June 16 asking the library to reconsider this book and another titled “You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, And Other Things."
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Lead organizer and Republican town committee member Steve Spooner says the concern stems from specific pages they feel are sexually explicit. In the letter, it says: “We do not believe that this material is in any way sex education, and it is unbecoming of our community values.”
Library Director Katie Huffman says the books will be under review after getting a letter about it last month as well.
Huffman said this was the third and fourth book challenged at the library in the last two years, with no books removed so far.
“The board is in the process of conducting their assessment and in the meantime, I’ve been asked to submit an assessment to the board and we will review that at our upcoming board meeting in July,” she said.
Huffman says when the two challenged books were obtained, they were determined to be age appropriate at the time under their policy.
“They were of topics specifically of interest to youth in our community and again, it complied with our policy," Huffman said.
Candice Fuchs, a member of the Democratic town committee, is concerned about the book challenge.
“I hope that we are a community that tries not to hide or ban that type of information. I don’t think that’s what’s conducive to being inclusive and embracing a diverse population,” Fuchs said.
She believes removing books results in a slippery slope.
“To outright ban books and try to hide this information, I don’t think that’s a sound strategy,” Fuchs said.
A public library board in Fairfield back in October 2022 unanimously rejected removing “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” from the teen section after it was challenged.
A board member said, “the removal of any book from a library is a slippery slope and could lead to decisions being made that would harm our democracy."
The library says they’ll be addressing the two books at their board meeting on July 11. One of them was checked out Tuesday and another was on the hold shelf to be checked out by someone who requested it.
