ESCONDIDO — The Escondido Union School District has temporarily closed its school libraries after a book “containing sexually explicit material” was found in one of its campus libraries.
According to a Sept. 27 statement from Superintendent Luis Ibarra, library services will be temporarily halted across the district so that library media technicians can conduct a “thorough audit” of its book collections.
“Unfortunately, it came to my attention that a book containing sexually explicit material was in one of our school libraries,” Ibarra’s statement reads. “As an elementary district that serves students from PK to 8th grade, we are committed to not introducing inappropriate material to our students.”
School officials have not released the book’s title or where it was found.
The Escondido Union School District covers 23 elementary and middle school sites.
“The careful review of book collections is a routine practice that our library media techs do often in order to make room for newer collections,” Ibarra states.
Library services will resume on EUSD campuses once the audit is completed by “no later than” Oct. 6, according to the superintendent.
Some social media posts have suggested that the book could be one of the “banned book” titles that have been recently challenged at schools and libraries throughout the nation. The Coast News is awaiting further confirmation from the school district regarding the book title.
According to Library Foundation SD, this increasingly prevalent effort to ban certain books disproportionately targets books that offer diverse perspectives, such as those from people of color and the LGBTQ community. The foundation along with the San Diego Public Library recently joined the “Books Unbanned” campaign to resist book bans and increase access to challenged books.
