Cheatham County School District in Tennessee has instituted a policy where, if any one parent complains about a library book in the school system, that book will automatically be removed from the shelves for 48 hours while a committee reviews whether the material is offensive. The policy came into effect after one parent complained about an award-winning book about HIV/AIDS, Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette.

This is a failed policy. One, it infringes on First Amendment rights and institutionalizes a policy where books are removed from the shelves even before a committee has a chance to weigh in on whether said books are appropriate or not.

But second, it also creates a system where good, necessary and important works are removed from the shelves solely because of one complaint. Indeed, Borrowed Time is considered an important work in the history of HIV/AIDS, and while the book does discuss sex and has some coarse language, it is largely seen as capturing the reality of what living with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s was like. Do we really want to be hiding that information from students, solely because one parent complains? Wouldn't a better policy keep material like this available for students who want to read it -- perhaps with their parent's approval if they are under a certain age?

Removing books from the shelves should be seen as a last resort, not a first step. Send Cheatham County School District a message that their new policy is harmful to learning, and should be revised.