WESTOVER — Two more high school library books are being challenged as inappropriate after the parent of a Crisfield High School student cited the unsuitability of their content in a video presentation to the Somerset County Board of Education.

In a continuing series he calls “Exposing the Truth,” Matt Lankford pieced together discussions during virtual board meetings and said board members “blindly trust the superintendent and his staff with the selection of books.”

#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil is described by the author as a “near future” tale of a time when the public can watch executions of convicted felons streaming live on an app. It was read by two staff members for an informal review, but now since it is being formally challenged at CHS it has been sent to the administration for another look, said Somerset County Public Schools spokesperson Victoria Miele by email.

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely is a Coretta Scott King Honor Award novel about two teens, one of them Black, who is accused of shoplifting and beaten by a white cop. A white classmate, who after his father died in Afghanistan was raised by the officer, is placed in a position to take sides as the truth comes out. Ms. Miele noted that this book was previously challenged as part of a classroom’s curriculum and remained in the CHS library, however, now it is being formally challenged as a media book.

Near the start of his latest presentation Mr. Lankford gave a warning that the material from these books is adult in nature and “viewer discretion is advised.”

Then a clip of a woman reading an excerpt sexual in content with vulgar language from #MurderTrending followed.

After that, text from both books and the page numbers where it appeared was shown. Mr. Lankford said, “They are offensive to me, what about you?”

He questioned media center staff, the superintendent, the board attorney and board members for not getting it right and allowing this type of content into the schools. “Some of us always wondered what schools would be like after God was taken out of them. Now we know,” he said.

Mr. Lankford said children are “very vulnerable. They can be deceived, brainwashed and easily taken advantage of,” and cited Biblical passages and the words of Jesus Christ.

“You know, at one time, even people that weren’t Christians, cared about protecting the innocence of school children. Does it matter to you anymore? Do you really want your children reading these dirty books?

“School board, where is your sense of urgency? You have the power to end this. You could ban all of the pervasively vulgar books from the libraries,” reminding them that the library materials policy was amended and clarified in October.

Citing the Maryland School Law Deskbook, Mr. Lankford said it’s up to the board to set policy and that the Somerset County board relies too much on the superintendent.

The video ended with the audio of one of the top movie quotations of all time, “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate,” from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. There was again no comment from the board as is its practice.

Mr. Lankford said based on a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Board of Education v. Pico it would not be unconstitutional for schools to remove books if they are “pervasively vulgar” or “educationally unsuitable” and that these texts “can and should be removed” from school libraries.

At the November meeting Mr. Lankford brought to the board’s attention the book Monday’s Not Coming, and how it is inappropriate for students. In a video parents from the Loudoun County school district in Virginia were shown reading excerpts that described kidnapping, assault, false imprisonment, underage drinking and raw content of sex acts.

As one woman tells the board in the video, “If this is inappropriate for me to read to you, this is inappropriate for our children.”

That book was removed from the shelves for review but is back in circulation at CHS and will be back in circulation at Washington High School this week, Ms. Miele said. Out of respect to parents CHS implemented a permission slip requirement for checking out the book, which Mr. Lankford described as a step in the right direction.

The Board of Education will meet again Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. and Mr. Lankford said he will expose another book — this one used as part of classroom curriculum.

Eight days before the filing deadline of Feb. 22 candidates for the non-partisan school board seats are Darci W. Wilson, District 1, and Bill McInturff, District 3. Penny Nicholson who is the District 1 member has said she does not plan to run. Mr. McInturff was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Bobby Wells and this will be his first time before the voters.

No candidates had filed for District 5, a set held by long-time incumbent Margo Green-Gale.

One board member, District 2 representative Caleb Shores, who was elected in 2020, has filed to run as a Republican candidate for County Commissioner.

In 2020 Mr. Lankford was candidate in District 4 but was defeated by incumbent board member Troy Brittingham Jr., who is now chair.