At the March 14 board meeting of the Hilton Central School District in upstate New York, a parent raised concerns about the book This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson. The parent wanted it removed from the school library for containing inappropriate language and graphic depictions of sexual acts, according to superintendent Casey Kosiorek.
It was the first book challenge Hilton Central had faced since book challenges started escalating across the country in 2021, Kosiorek said.
After the challenge, some community members posted their objections to the book on social media, Kosiorek said. A group of parents who wanted the book removed from the library also planned a meeting at a local restaurant.
The morning of March 22, the same day as the planned meeting, a local TV station received an email, alleging that the sender had placed pipe bombs in the district鈥檚 central office, all five Hilton Central schools, and at Kosiorek鈥檚 house because of the district鈥檚 use of This Book Is Gay.
鈥淭here is nothing more vile and disgusting than violating a child鈥檚 innocence and that is exactly what this school district has done,鈥� the threat, obtained by Education Week, said.
鈥淭hey allow and encourage children to read sexual content such as This Book Is Gay.鈥�
The email, which was full of spelling mistakes, claimed that the author had 鈥渆xperience making bombs in Yugoslavia.鈥� Media stations alerted the Monroe County Sheriff鈥檚 Office, which alerted the district, Kosiorek said.
The district evacuated all students, and bomb-sniffing dogs were deployed to search the campuses, and the bomb squad was at the district in case any devices were found, according to Brendan Hurley, the public information officer for the Monroe County Sheriff鈥檚 office.
In 2022, there were almost 6,000 school threats across the country reported to the FBI, a 60 percent increase over 2021. As both book bans and school threats have proliferated, a handful of districts like Hilton Central have experienced threats tied to book ban controversies.
The American Library Association documented about 50 cases of threats against districts or librarians as a result of book bans across 27 states, according to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA鈥檚 office for intellectual freedom.
But the vast majority of school threats are not related to book bans. The Hilton CSD threat was part of a series of hoax threats sent to districts across the country, Hurley said. Iowa City 69传媒 in Iowa also received similar emails.
Some other threats, such as one emailed by a parent to Virginia Beach educators, did not mention violence but asked school districts to remove obscene material from libraries to 鈥渁void retribution.鈥�
Threats clearly 鈥榓 hoax meant to cause panic鈥�
Although the Monroe County Sheriff鈥檚 Office suspected that the threats were not credible, Hilton Central received a second threat, also in an email sent to a local media station, later that week, Kosiorek said.
The district sheltered high school students in place, as they were already in the building. It kept younger students who were on their way to school on school buses away from the campuses, while bomb-sniffing dogs searched the schools again, Kosiorek and Hurley said.
On March 26, the that no credible threat had been found in either email.
鈥淭he investigation has been conducted with the assistance of our federal law enforcement partners, who have been able to confirm that a handful of other communities across the country had received somewhat similar email threats,鈥� the joint statement said.
This has clearly been a hoax meant to cause panic and disruption in our school community.
鈥淭he common trait amongst these emails is the use of overseas email addresses and routing the messages through overseas servers, all to conceal their identity.鈥�
鈥淚n each of these independent investigations, no credible threat has been identified,鈥� the statement continued.
鈥淲e have not found any links between these emails and local individuals wishing harm on the school. This has clearly been a hoax meant to cause panic and disruption in our school community.鈥�
The threatening emails were found to be coming from a Russian email address, and were not linked to any community members, Hurley said. The department is working with several federal agencies on an investigation into the threat, but Hurley did not specify which ones.
There have been to high schools and colleges coming from overseas last year, including threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As of November 2022, officials identified calls to about 250 colleges, 100 high schools, and several junior high schools since early June, .
These kinds of threats are called swatting, which means a false threat of violence, such as a school shooter or bomb threats, intended to cause disruptions.
69传媒 across the country are seeing an , either through phone calls or emails, according to the Associated Press.
鈥淭he FBI is aware of the continued threats being made to schools throughout the area,鈥� according to a statement sent by Jeannie McBride, the public affairs officer with FBI Buffalo.
鈥淭he FBI takes swatting very seriously. These threats put innocent people at risk and cause significant fear in the community. We have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat at this time, but we continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners and are actively investigating these dangerous and criminal threats.鈥�
The district has received an additional two bomb threats via emails sent to media stations, all with similar language. The last two times the district received threats, schools stayed open upon the approval of local law enforcement, although with heightened security.
鈥淭he social emotional toll on our students, their families, and our staff is heavy. We鈥檙e talking about someone who is looking to either kill or severely harm individuals with the use of bombs,鈥� Kosiorek said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 used to bully and intimidate, and it has frightened quite a few people.鈥�
Some families have pulled their kids out of the upstate New York district in light of the repeated threats. Even though the threats aren鈥檛 local or credible, Hilton Central鈥檚 Kosiorek spends a large part of his day following up with parents who are scared to send their children to school every time the district receives a new threat.
Book bans leading to threats of violence
While book bans have escalated steadily nationwide, most of the bans and challenges are not accompanied by threats. However, the American Library Association is seeing social media weaponized regularly against librarians, teachers, and citizens who speak up against censorship, according to ALA鈥檚 Caldwell-Stone.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing more of these threats directed at both the personnel in schools but also the schools themselves and the safety of children themselves,鈥� Caldwell-Stone said.
鈥淭he irony of placing or threatening a bomb at a school for elementary students and middle school students to protect them from the supposed harms of reading, while threatening their very physical safety is鈥� it鈥檚 just unspeakable.鈥�
Although the threats have not led directly to violence against librarians or schools so far, they leave school staff in fear, and cause disruptions to district operations, according to several interviews with district leaders and employees, and law enforcement.
Amanda Jones, a librarian in rural Louisiana, gave a speech at her local public library against book banning, and became the target of extensive hate speech online after members of two Facebook groups posted comments about her speech.
Weeks later, Jones said she received a death threat from Texas via email. She contacted police, who she says told her they would extradite the Texas man who sent her the death threat. The Livingston Parish Sheriff鈥檚 Office did not respond to requests for comment.
The former National Librarian of the Year sued the owners of the Facebook groups over the online attacks, but her case was dismissed because the judge determined that she was a public figure.
We're seeing more of these threats directed at both the personnel in schools but also the schools themselves and the safety of children themselves.
Jones had to take time off from her school district and go on medical leave to cope with the stress of the alleged defamation and threats she faced for speaking out against censorship.
鈥淲hile the threats against librarians are spreading across the country, it seems to be consistent with only a small minority of extremists,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淭he impact of these attempts to censor books and sections of our society will be seen for decades and do irreparable harm. Nobody is putting pornography in libraries and politicians are seeking a solution for a problem that doesn鈥檛 exist, at the sake of the taxpayers.鈥�
What happened to the book in question
The author of This Book Is Gay, Dawson, spent seven years as a sex education and wellness teacher before writing the book, which is a guide to sex education and focuses on the experiences of LGBTQ+ people,
In just the last six months of 2022, the book was challenged and banned in at least 10 districts, according to PEN America, a free speech advocacy organization.
In Hilton Central, the book is currently under review by a committee that consists of building leaders, librarians, and community members. While the review is ongoing, the book remains unavailable to students, Kosiorek said. The book review was triggered by the formal challenge from the parent, not the bomb threats.
鈥淭here is a system created to challenge these books. We can use that system to go through that process to review this type of information and whether it鈥檚 appropriate or not,鈥� Kosiorek said. 鈥淏ut to move to these measures is cowardly. And it鈥檚 extremely inappropriate.鈥�
However, Kosiorek continues to believe that the book furthers the district鈥檚 mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
鈥淚 have heard from our LGBTQ+ community, the importance for having a book like this because when students are identifying with either their sexual identity or preference, that often that might be a conversation that they鈥檙e not ready to have,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd these types of resources within the library can help them understand that they were born the way that they are.鈥�
A similar bomb threat email was also sent to , according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The district responded by pulling This Book Is Gay for review, not because of parent objections but because of the disruption it caused.
Iowa City 69传媒 did not respond to requests for an interview.
A Virginia district faces threats of retribution
In Virginia Beach, Va., unlike Hilton Central, parents, and community members objecting to book bans aren鈥檛 rare. Books such as Maia Kobabe鈥檚 Gender Queer: A Memoir and Toni Morrison鈥檚 The Bluest Eye have been called inappropriate and obscene at board meetings for several months, according to Superintendent Aaron Spence.
But last September, a parent emailed some district staff members鈥攊ncluding librarians鈥攕aying that under Spence鈥檚 supervision, the district was violating federal law by distributing obscene material to minors, citing federal obscenity laws.
鈥淚 know you are aware that, under the supervision of Aaron Spence, there have been multiple books containing obscene material distributed to Virginia Beach schools,鈥� the email said.
鈥淲ould you please pass this information along to others so that they are aware of the laws and can avoid retribution?鈥�
Other community members then sent that same email to the school district鈥檚 librarians, Spence said. Librarians told their supervisors that they were concerned about the emailed threats, as well as some indirect violent threats on social media in the form of comments on posts about controversial books in the district.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 unfortunate that we would have any issues in our school environment or in our school discussions that would end up leading to such conflict if somebody felt they needed to threaten staff members,鈥� Spence said.
鈥淚 am hopeful that in public education, we can return the discourse to what鈥檚 important and that鈥檚 what鈥檚 best for our children 鈥� and that we remove these conversations from the political arena and return them to a civil discourse.鈥�
Eventually, the district formed a committee to review Gender Queer and it was eventually removed from school libraries.
As a school leader, it鈥檚 important to make sure employees know that their district supports them if they鈥檙e threatened for doing their jobs, Spence said.
鈥淥ur response was to assure our employees that they were operating within the law and that they didn鈥檛 have reason to be concerned,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that we support them and we support their efforts and we recognize them and value their hard work.鈥�
