DIXFIELD, Maine — In August of 2022, RSU 56 in Dixfield became the first and only school district in Maine to remove "Gender Queer: A Memoir" from its school library.
And while all other districts in Maine that attempted to remove the book failed, that same district is now considering a proposal that would remove all material in school that contains sexually-explicit material.
The proposal, submitted by board member Kathleen Szostek, raised questions from the Maine Writers and Publishers Association and the district Superintendent Pamela Doyen.
Szostek confirmed with NEWS CENTER Maine over the phone Tuesday she did write the proposal, but refused to answer questions about the scope of the proposal along with her inspiration behind it.
Szostek campaigned for school board this year on a message similar to other candidates who wish to remove books from schools.
"Women's sports are in danger. Biological males should not be competing against females," Szostek wrote in a Facebook Post.
"Regarding gender... the question is this: Is there an objective reality? Or not?" Szostek said in another post.
These posts along with her campaign posts she also shared, show a message of parental rights, which is something the Maine Writers and Publishers Association's Executive Director Gibson Fay Leblanc said is a message spreading nationwide through groups such as Mom's For Liberty.
"These school board top-down bans are really problematic," Fay Leblanc said. "It's clear there are these small groups around the country trying to stoke fear."
Fay Leblanc said libraries, districts and the state already review material and carefully select books that end up in libraries. He added most, if not all, districts in the state have a way for parents to restrict what their own children can read at school.
There's also another concern, according to the RSU 56 superintendent Pamela Doyen. She said such a broad measure can bring on legal challenges.
"I think a policy that is that stringent needs to go through legal fist... I think this could put us in a legally compromising situation," Doyen said. "It could be hard to enforce or put you in a corner."