Arizona district faces book-removal backlash

The board asked district personnel to arrange a roundtable discussion for community members to weigh in on the policy, although a date for that hasn't yet been set.

The district faced backlash when it announced that books would be banned from the respective sixth, seventh and eighth grade curricula. The district cited three policies that led to the elimination of the books: curriculum adoption, instructional protocols for controversial topics and prohibition of diversity, equity and inclusion.  

The school board at an Aug. 13 meeting faced more criticism from the public, who raised concerns about the district's anti-DEI policy and the importance of the books.

But some district personnel maintained they were simply following protocol outlined by the board to develop the curriculum, leading to some questions about the district's curriculum adoption process.

Interim Superintendent Tahlya Visintainer said the purpose of the anti-DEI policy is to ensure that instructional materials reflect academic rigor and factual accuracy. The district is still meeting requirements under federal anti-discrimination statutes, she said.  

For grade six, Visintainer said “Summer of the Mariposas” by Guadalupe García McCall was pulled because the committee identified it had profanity, depictions of abuse and references to sexual innuendos and prostitution.  

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, which was meant to be part of the grade seven curriculum, was pulled because it has references to alcohol abuse, unintended pregnancy and abortion and racial slurs. The book is still available in Advanced Placement language arts classes and is still available in high school libraries, Visintainer said.  

For grade eight, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass was taken out of the curriculum because the book contains racial slurs, sexual references and graphic descriptions of abuse inflicted on enslaved people. Visitinainer said lessons about Frederick Douglass are still taught in grades five, seven and eight, and that the book is also available in high school AP courses and high school libraries.  

Board member: 'Our community already did not trust us'

Board President Jeff Tobey maintained that the books did not get removed because of the anti-DEI policy, but rather the age appropriateness of the materials.

Board member Heather Rooks, the former president of the board and a leading supporter of the anti-DEI policy, maintained that she did not ask for any books to be removed.

She said she was made aware of staff members’ concerns about profanity and sexual content of the books. Rooks said she asked Visintainer in July to go over the library portion of the curriculum, but was never able to schedule a time to see it.  

Rooks also said that she has concerns about the age appropriateness of the content, and that fifth graders learn about Douglass in their history class. Rooks criticized the way the district handled the situation, saying the district should have mentioned the concerns around age appropriateness, as opposed to placing blame on the anti-DEI policy.

Board member Becky Proudfit said the board needs to revisit the policy with community members.

"Good policy should not lead to ambiguity or gray areas," Proudfit said.

Proudfit also expressed concerns about teachers being afraid to teach the wrong thing in the classroom.

"What is not OK is for us to create policy that puts handcuffs on our teachers and creates a situation where they're afraid to teach for retribution from any of us on the dais, or from district, or from anyone else," Proudfit said.

Board member Melissa Ewing also said the district needs to revisit the policy, and that the directives given to the textbook committee and to the administration came from the board. Ewing was the lone board member to vote against the anti-DEI policy when it was passed in late 2025.

“I think our board needs to take responsibility for the harmful rhetoric that we have had up here against a lot of marginalized communities. If we didn’t have that harmful rhetoric that has come from the dais, I don’t believe that we would have had such a backlash,” Ewing said.  

Ewing said the board should engage in conversations with the community about what should be in the curriculum. She said the anti-DEI policy should be made less vague if the board won’t get rid of it.  

“I think our community already did not trust us to be able to make good judgments,” Ewing said.  

Parents question board policy

Several parents spoke out against the policy and the book removals at the meeting. Some questioned the district’s reasoning about appropriateness, saying kids are already subjected to things like violence in TV and movies.  

Kerry Cooper with the West Valley NAACP spoke at the meeting and said Peoria Unified's anti-DEI policy has been escalated to the state and national NAACP.  

“We want to know why books were removed by Black authors. We want to know why books were removed by Latino authors. We’re not here to debate any of these books would run parallel with Mark Twain’s 'Huckleberry Finn,’” Cooper said.  

Sherry Piazza, the district’s director of teaching and learning, said there are few English language arts standards in literature at the middle school level.

The standards are set by the Arizona Department of Education, while the district can choose the novel or textbook to teach a specific standard. Those can be revised over time, Piazza said.  

Piazza said a textbook selection committee reviewed each book page-by-page to ensure that all of the materials were in alignment with governing board policies. New people were added throughout the process to ensure different perspectives, she said.