Knox County school board urges lawmakers to change Tennessee’s book ban law

A majority of Knox County school board came together to ask state legislators to reform the Age-Appropriate Materials Act that led to the ban of “Roots” last month.

The board voted June 4 to move forward on a resolution brought by Anne Templeton that urges legislators to:

• Allow books to be considered as a whole instead of a single passage. Right now, if a section of a book has depictions of sexual conduct or excessive violence, it must be banned.
• Extend the materials review period to 90 days before a statewide commission acts.
• Distinguish between grade levels so a book can be removed from elementary schools and allowed in high schools, for example.

Board members Katherine Bike, the Rev. John Butler, Chair Kristi Kristy, Patricia Fontenot-Ridley and Anne Templeton voted in favor. Members Betsy Henderson, Lauren Morgan, Stephen Triplett and Vice Chair Travis Wright voted against the resolution.

Triplett and Henderson said they agreed with parts of the resolution, but were fearful this action could disarm the Age-Appropriate Materials Act.

“I don’t want to send a message to the General Assembly that I want the Age-Appropriate Materials Act watered down at all. That is my only fear in sending anything to them, is that they get the idea from our board that we want it watered down,” Triplett explained. “I would be content with these changes, but I’d also be content if nothing changed.”

Henderson urged the board to instead take the issue up in the fall ahead of the General Assembly’s 2027 session. Templeton said she preferred to act now because book banning is a relevant topic in Knox County.

“My request is not for us to sit down and rewrite the law. It’s to ask the General Assembly to have a conversation, to say, ‘Maybe we didn’t get it perfect the first time because we’re human and maybe in our humanity we didn’t look at all the ifs, ands and buts,’” Templeton explained. “Now we have a case study here in Knoxville that could possibly apply to make this law better. To make it different.” 

Morgan said the bulk of the work needs to happen at the local level, not with the state legislature.

“We need to do some work on (policy) and figure out ways to work within the framework that the law provides,” Morgan said. “I think before we’re asking the General Assembly to begin or substantially alter a law that was only enacted a couple years ago, I do believe we need to do our work as a local board to figure out a better way to enact it here.”

Next steps

A resolution is just the first step for the board in a long legislative process that will start again in the fall.

Tennessee lawmakers will reconvene in Nashville in January, but work happens year-round. A Tennessee School Board Association advocacy guide encourages local school boards to submit potential resolutions June through September for consideration at the organization’s convention in November.

This resolution will likely be discussed further late in the year when the board creates its annual priorities to send with the Knoxville delegation in 2027. This is an annual process and can include asks to fully fund preschools or protect public education for undocumented immigrants, for example.

How we got here

The decision to ban “Roots” was made public in mid-May, and was immediately met with backlash from the community and country.

The novel’s author, Alex Haley, called East Tennessee home during the later years of his life. He built a home in Norris and later bought a home in Sequoyah Hills. A sculpture of Haley was erected in Morningside Park in 1998, and that part of the park is now dubbed Alex Haley Heritage Square. He donated his personal papers − including drafts of “Roots” − to the University of Tennessee. There’s a permanent exhibit in the Museum of Appalachia dedicated to Haley.

“Roots” was one of 124 titles KCS has banned in the past two years after Tennessee law directed schools to review the contents of their libraries. Superintendent Jon Rysewyk reinstated the historical novel May 26.

KCS evaluates books to ban on a regular basis, and the district committee − comprising three administrators − reviews only specific passages, not the totality of the work when banning a book, to follow the law. The committee previously reviewed an excerpt from “Roots” and did not recommend banning it.

District spokesperson Carly Harrington told Knox News the district does not “track or document the original source” of complaints.

Rysewyk told board members in a memo the ban “weighed heavily” on him. He said he consulted with legal experts who came to different conclusions in applying the state law to “Roots.”

Caitlyn Meisner is the K-12 education reporter for Knox News. Email tips and story ideas to caitlyn.meisner@knoxnews.com.