Policy 6241 – Challenged Materials

The Board has the ultimate responsibility for establishing the curriculum and for purchasing
instructional and/or media materials to be used in the District. While the Board recognizes the right of
students to free access to the many different types of books and instructional materials, the Board also
recognizes the right of teachers and administrators to select books and other materials in accord with
current trends in education and the established curriculum.

It is therefore the policy of the Board to require that books and other instructional materials shall be
chosen for values of educational interest and the enlightenment of all students in the community.
Instructional materials shall not be excluded on the basis of the writer’s racial, nationalistic, political, or
religious views. Every effort will be made to provide materials that present all points of view
concerning international, national and local problems and issues of our times. Books, or other
instructional or media materials of sound factual authority, shall not be prescribed, nor removed from
library shelves or classrooms on the basis of partisan or doctrinal approval or disapproval. The Board
will strive to provide stimulating, effective materials that will be appropriate to the community’s values
and the students’ abilities and maturity levels.

Instructional or media materials used in the District’s educational program consist of various types of
print and nonprint materials. Despite the care taken to select those materials deemed to be
educationally useful, occasional objections to the selection of instructional materials may be made by
the public. However, the principles of academic freedom and the freedom to read must be defended,
rather than the materials.

If a challenge is made, it should be properly channeled through guidelines and procedures established
by the Board of Education.