Voters in Michigan School Board Election Reject Book Banning

First Amendment activist and bookseller Cammie Mannino, owner of Halfway Down the Stairs Children's Bookshop in downtown Rochester, Michigan, was instrumental in securing the re-election of two incumbent school board candidates. The contentious campaign, which pitted the two incumbents against two newcomers supported by a newly formed conservative political action committee (PAC), ended on May 3 with a record turnout and two-to-one victories over both PAC candidates.

Mannino, who has long opposed efforts to ban books and stifle free expression, participated in a diverse network of "open-minded people," who united around the freedom to read. The campaign, which Mannino called the most divisive she had ever witnessed in the "conservative community" of Rochester, brought out, "some of the worst behaviors by the opposition, including the distribution of anonymous campaign literature filled with innuendo and half-truths, increased personal attacks, and a very polarized constituency."

"We tried to run a very positive campaign, and I'm very proud of the job we did," Mannino told BTW. "We talked about our candidates and their qualifications. The PAC made books the major issue first, and that kind of backfired. Many people of varied political and religious groups don't like other people telling them what to read." Eventually the group "dropped the book issue -- it wasn't working for them," she said.

Although Mannino always opposes any forms of censorship or book banning, she told BTW that efforts to "tighten up" the procedures by which books are selected for use in the schools have been acceptable to most. "Some of the ideas resulting from the PAC's activity were good ones -- such as including more parents on the [book] challenge committees and having parents sign off on the reading lists at the beginning of the year. But I object to the negative, destructive approach. I was even a target of one board member," said Mannino.

"The controversy over certain books has led to some wonderful outcomes -- one school board meeting had 150 people attending, including senior citizens and high school kids. Kids made impassioned statements about their right to read. It was a great night for books -- a real celebration of reading."

The campaign has taken its toll on Mannino and others. Attending meetings, developing extensive e-mail trees or "fan-outs" to spread information around quickly, and encouraging people to write letters to the editor of local newspapers are time-consuming and exhausting. "This is the hardest thing I've ever done besides opening a bookstore," Mannino said." --Nomi Schwartz