Harford school board president Aaron Poynton wants to change the county school system’s process for removing library materials after school leaders received what he believes is misplaced backlash recently for removing a book from schools’ shelves.

Poynton’s move to change the district’s Evaluation and Selection of School Library Material procedure stems from the Board of Education’s decision to remove “Flamer,” a young adult graphic novel by Mike Curato that’s been the target of nationwide debate because of its sexual content, from Harford Schools libraries.

“By its own publisher’s recommendation, ‘Flamer’ is designed for grades 10 through 12. Yet it was sitting in middle school libraries, accessible to children as young as 10 or 11,” Poynton wrote in a letter to the editor of The Aegis. “That placement directly violated our standards. Enforcing those standards is not censorship. It is responsible governance.”

Dozens signed up to speak and more than 100 residents rallied outside of the board’s Aug. 18 meeting to voice opposition to the book’s removal after the local chapter of Together We Will — a national group supporting grassroots progressive activism — in particular urged residents to oppose the book ban.

Poynton said he stands by the board’s decision, but said he thinks the school system’s should be changed.

“Some have called it censorship. Others have claimed it was an attack on the LGBTQ community, or that the Board acted improperly. Let me be clear: those claims are false,” Poynton wrote. “This decision was not about politics or identity. It was about standards, accountability and parental rights.”

Poynton said the current procedure — implemented in May 2024 — does not allow the board to “tailor its decision” on whether or not to remove a book.

He said the board opted to remove the book since it violated the district’s policy on age-appropriate material. The book was on middle school library shelves despite the fact the book’s publisher, Henry Holt and Co., rated the book for 10th-12th grade students.

“I think the board would have reached a different conclusion if the board had options to tailor that would allow us to do something like keep the book in the library but restrict it to certain age groups,” Poynton said.

In his comments at the board’s meeting on Aug. 18, Poynton said if “Flamer” was a film, it would “unquestionably be rated R” by the Motion Picture Association. He said Flamer has more than 50 “foul words” along with “other explicit content” middle school children should not be accessing in school.

Poynton said he wants to add “quantifiable metrics” to the consideration process for school library materials in order to avoid leaving decisions “open to interpretation” by committee or board members.

The district’s 27-member Library Materials Reconsideration Committee reviews and rules on the removal of challenged library materials. The committee is split into three sub-committees made up of two parents, one community member, one teacher, one school administrator, one school librarian, two students in 8th-12th grades and one curriculum supervisor or specialist.

The subcommittee had ruled to keep “Flamer” in school libraries, but the petitioner appealed the decision to Poynton, per the evaluation and selection procedure, which led to the Board of Education ultimately removing the title from school libraries.

“The fact that every single person on the committee thought the book should remain in schools — especially middle schools despite it being against the procedures — means we likely had a group-think situation where people were more worried about reaching a consensus rather than doing their own critical thinking,” Poynton said.

His goal is to create a process where members with “diverse voices” can “speak freely without fear of retribution or public shaming.”

“When you get into these group dynamics with sensitive issues and no one has the courage to speak up or speak out, you reach this group-think and sub-optimal decisions rather than critical thinking or in this case, looking at the standard itself,” Poynton said.

He also wants to set a deadline of 30 to 60 days for the reconsideration process, since the decision to remove “Flamer” took more than six months to reach.

Poynton anticipates the school board will have a list of proposed changes for the book removal process ready for a vote within the first half of the school year.

Harford public schools open on Sept. 2.

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