Mat-Su school district agrees to pay $89,000 in book removal settlement

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su School District has agreed to pay $89,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated students' constitutional rights by removing 56 books from library shelves early last year.
• The books were removed after some parents and community members flagged them as "challenged.“ An 11-member citizens' committee reviewed the books, leading the school board to order the permanent removal of seven titles. The rest were returned to school libraries by late summer as part of the district's review process. A preliminary injunction by a U.S. District Court judge also ordered those books returned to the shelves.
• The ACLU of Alaska and the Northern Justice Project filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of parents and students. The seven books permanently removed include titles by Andre Aciman, Caroline Kepnes, Colleen Hoover and Sarah Maas.

The Matanuska-Susitna School District has agreed to pay $89,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated students' constitutional rights by removing 56 books from library shelves early last year, district officials said Friday.

Under the settlement, seven books will remain permanently off district library shelves, officials said. The remaining titles were returned to shelves late this summer at nine high schools, four middle schools, and a correspondence homeschool program.

The settlement does not include an admission of guilt, district spokesperson John Notestine said in an interview.

Administrators removed the books from library shelves early last year after parents and community members flagged them as “challenged.” An 11-member citizen library committee reviewed the books over 10 months to determine whether they violated state obscenity laws. Following the review, the school board ordered seven of the titles permanently removed from shelves and circulation.

The lawsuit, filed late last year by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and the Anchorage-based Northern Justice Project on behalf of six parents representing their minor children and two students over 18, argued that the removals violated students' First Amendment rights. It asked the court to declare the removals unconstitutional and order the district to return the books to school libraries.

In August, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason issued a preliminary injunction ordering most of the books back on shelves, a step district officials said was partially completed before the order. The order did not address the seven titles the board permanently removed.

District officials said they believe the settlement indicates the ACLU and Northern Justice Project knew they could not win in court.

"The District believes the plaintiffs filed a case, recognized that they would not prevail, and then asked to recoup attorney’s fees from the MSBSD instead of pursuing their case.” the district said in a statement. "The School Board and the District firmly believe no errors were made and the judge's order in August seems to support this belief.”

The district chose to settle to avoid further fees, officials said.

“The board and the district have a duty to prioritize the funds they receive on educating children and not defending themselves against lawsuits,” they said in the statement. “The board and the district have decided to pay the Northern Justice Project and the ACLU $89,000 now to end litigation that would have cost much more than that to defend through trial.”

Northern Justice Project officials said they settled because the August order achieved their goal, not because they believed they could not win at trial.

“We got the books that were never problematic to begin with back on the school shelves, and the seven books they removed, we agree upon a review finding that they weren’t age-appropriate; that’s fine not to have them in school libraries,” Savannah Fletcher, an attorney with the Northern Justice Project, said in an interview. “We hope, even though the district press release may not sound like it, that the school district has learned that you can't just ignore people's free speech rights. And if you do have a concern about a book, you should read it first before you jump to conclusions.”

The permanently removed titles are: "Call Me By Your Name" by Andre Aciman; "You" by Caroline Kepnes; "It Ends With Us," "Ugly Love" and "Verity" by Colleen Hoover; and "A Court of Mist and Fury" and "A Court of Silver Flames" by Sarah Maas. The titles have been placed in a district warehouse in Palmer with other surplus supplies, where they will be auctioned, donated or trashed, Notestine said.

-- Amy Bushatz can be contacted at abushatz@matsusentinel.com