COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Co-chairs of the Cobb County Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl sent out an email to some educators in the county, announcing that "out of an abundance of caution, and in light of recent events," they are unable to offer the competition this year.
It's a state-wide, optional quiz bowl-style competition-- run fully by volunteers, that tests students' knowledge of a list of books they have to read.
Jeff Hubbard with the Cobb County Association of Educators said this was not an easy decision for the media specialists who volunteer to run this event every year.
“I had two highly accomplished media specialists on the phone with me this morning in tears because of what's happened," he said. "When you censor the ability to read and to think, you're in a deep and dark place with public education and it's so frightening."
Teams compete first within their county and move up to regionals, divisionals, and state competitions. Melissa Amerault's son took first place in the Cobb reading bowl in 2018-- when he was in fifth grade.
"His team won the state championship as an elementary team his 5th-grade year, I’ve seen the middle school teams do well, the high school teams do well. They're really good books and they introduce them to concepts and people that are totally different from them," she said.
Students who participate-- read at least 10 books chosen from an annual children’s book award ceremony held by the University of Georgia.
Hubbard explained that after the district began banning books, educators worried they would get in trouble with two of the 10 books on the list: "Attack of the Black Rectangles," which is about book censorship of sexual materials, and "Too Bright to See," whose main character is a transgender boy.
“Quite honestly, because of what happened here in Cobb County with the Katie Rinderle termination last Thursday, the media specialists and even the teachers who were helping to sponsor as volunteers decided they can't do it," he said.
The full list of books for this year can be found here.
"If you can’t take children’s book award winners and think these should meet the standards, then you maybe need to reevaluate your definition of standards," Amerault said.
The Cobb County School District sent 11Alive this statement Friday morning:
The District is aware of an inaccurate email which indicated Cobb students would not be participating in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. The specifics of that email are currently being investigated. While there is currently no change to Cobb student eligibility for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, all District partners are expected to use books, videos, or other forms of digital content which are in accordance with District policy and the Law.
Amerault read the statement, and told 11Alive, “'Are Cobb County students technically still eligible to participate?' Sure. 'But where are they going to participate if there isn’t a bowl in their county?'"
Hubbard explained that because the bowl is run fully by volunteer media specialists and teachers outside of their school day, whether the bowl happens is not up to the school district.
“This is not done under the auspices of the Cobb County School District. Therefore, they may say that it's not been canceled, but 'How are you going to run it when nobody's willing to run it?'” he said.
Amerault, who has three children in Cobb County schools, said she has read several of the books that make part of the competition, with her children. She said in the past, there have been books that would have been deemed "controversial" by the school district.
"Our media center specialist notified us," she recalled. "She said, 'If you don't want your children to read these books, that's fine. We'll just deal with not being able to answer the question.' But the Cobb County Bowl self-censored those books out. There was never a question about those books in any round."
She wished the same would happen this year for the students.
Hubbard agrees that in the end, the children will be the ones who will be affected the most by this decision.
"Reading brings us the world," he said. "And we've got people trying to close that world in, and that is just plain wrong."