Despite receiving approximately 500 community complaints about pornographic material in the public-school library, the Fairbanks School Board refused to revise school library policy. School Board Member Loa Carroll-Hubbard proposed the revision in a school board meeting on November 18, 2025: “There should be no sexually explicit material in our libraries. Period.” As of now, current policy permits pornographic literature.
Superintendent’s Response
Superintendent Dr. Luke Meinert responded to the request for revision by emphasizing the current policy’s provision of parental rights: “Parents do have the full rights and responsibilities. If they don’t want their student to check books out from our library, they certainly have that right. They can also restrict certain books that they don’t want their children to have access to.”
Caroll-Hubbard addressed Dr. Meinert’s argument, stating: “I get that parents have a right to decide, but not all parents are engaged.” She points out that even highly successful parents with demanding jobs may not have time to monitor their kids’ choice of library books. Furthermore, she says, “I don’t know that I ever shared my library books with my mom and dad.”
Real Harm to Children
According to the American College of Pediatricians: “Consumption of pornography is associated with many negative emotional, psychological, sociological, and physical health outcomes. These include increased rates of depression, anxiety, acting out and violent behavior, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased risk of teen pregnancy, child sex abuse, sexual trafficking, and a distorted view of relationships between men and women.”
Despite the real harm pornographic literature causes children, the majority of Fairbanks School Board Members stated they support the library policy as written.
Prioritizing Sexual Content Over Proficiency in English, Math, and Science
Board President Bobby Burgess and Vice President Meredith Maple defended two books with sexually explicit content: Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Both Maple and Burgess contended that books like these help children process life’s complexities, and that the books taken as a whole offer valuable lessons.
Burgess argued that John Green’s intention in Looking for Alaska was to argue “really in a rather pointed way that emotionally intimate kissing can be a whole lot more fulfilling than emotionally empty oral sex.”
He also explained Toni Morrison’s intention in The Bluest Eye: “[The book] was really about humanizing people, understanding patterns of violence and the internalized racism and systemic racism that leads to additional harm.”
The lessons highlighted by Board President Burgess seem strange to prioritize, considering the majority of kids in Fairbanks public schools test below proficiency levels for English, Math, and Science.
Children need proficiency in reading, writing, math, and science to succeed after graduation. Public schools have a responsibility to impart to students the basic knowledge they need to succeed, not to burden their still-developing brains with literature that contains sexually explicit, intense, adult concepts.
Failed Motion
On Tuesday, December 2, the school board revisited the issue, listened to public comments, and voted on a motion to review library policy and poll the community for input.
School Board Clerk Morgan Dulian highlighted concerns regarding legal ramifications: “Mat-Su school district is a perfect example. They paid out $89,000 and had a long legal battle and a lot of time (and time is money) and had to return the books to the library.” She admits, “there are obvious concerns from the community on certain books that are in the library;” however, she contends that the legal battle would cause more harm than good.
The motion failed 4-7. Yes votes: Post Representative Colonel John Campbell, Base Representative Timonthy Foster, Treasurer Loa Carroll-Hubbard, and Board Member Audra Hull. No votes: Board President Robert Burgess, Vice President Meredith Maple, Clerk Morgan Dulian, and Board Member Timothy Doran, Board Member Naomi Hewitt, Regional Student Council Representative Liam Wade, and FNA Representative Melissa Charlie.
November 18 Regular Meeting
Board Discussion: 2:20:18-2:42:24
December 2 Regular Meeting
Relevant Public Testimony: 26:12:00-29:11, 32:50-43:21
Board Discussion and Vote: 2:20:00-2:41:11
Destroying the lives of children is the primary profit center for public sector unions.
Pornographic material is not the Educational tool for teens and younger!
Biological books explaining the biology of the Human Body, how the reproductive organs develop, what causes the body to become hermaphroditic, cell splitting, anatomy books of the internal structures that show the biological differences between males and females, etc, ET AL, IS the proper and correct educational format!
These Anatomy and Biology Books are the proper stimulus for questions and answers that further the research that hones skills and perhaps you may make a Doctor Of Medicine out of some!
You are promoting indecency. You are not protecting children. Rather, furthering a desire that they won’t know how to approach properly and cautiously. Allowing pornography throws out all the rules of decency. This pornographic material furthers your personal and inappropriate attitude towards sex. Not reproduction. Sex.
You should be thrown out on your arse.