The Somerset County Board of Education voted 3-1-1 on August 19, 2026 to approve Policy 500-19. The policy moves books written for young readers onto a restricted, adults-only shelf, and it requires a full Board vote before any school library can buy a new book. State Superintendent Dr. Carey Wright issued a 60-day stay of the policy on or about August 21. She said she wants to check it against Maryland's Freedom to Read Act, a 2024 law that requires libraries to serve all students, protects librarians from retaliation over book choices, and keeps a challenged book on shelves until a local committee reviews it. The stay runs through roughly October 20. The Board says the policy just defines a child as anyone under 18. Critics say it puts most young-adult literature out of reach of anyone who isn't legally an adult.

1. The Board Says It Only Defined "Child" (Chair Matthew Lankford, Attorney Gordana Schifanelli)

The Board says this is local control over age-appropriate content.

The policy doesn't ban a single book, the Board says. Attorney Gordana Schifanelli called press coverage "misleading and deliberately drafted to create chaos and division in Somerset County," and said Policy 500-19 "simply defines terms that everyone should already understand: A child is a person under the age of 18."

The Board's attorney says the classics-ban claims have no legal basis. Schifanelli said attempts "to make 11 year olds to be 18 year olds simply cannot stand on any legal grounds," dismissing the idea that the policy reaches books like Harry Potter, Anne Frank's diary, or To Kill a Mockingbird. The Board's own statement says it "has not banned Harry Potter or any educationally suitable literature" and "has not directed school libraries to remove books based upon an author's identity or protected characteristics."

The Board chair accused the teachers' union of lying about the policy. At the August 19 meeting, Lankford pressed Somerset Education Association President Phaedra Spencer on a union Facebook post that said the Board wanted to "ban Harry Potter," demanding she "explain why you chose to lie to the public."

2. Civil-Rights Groups Call the Policy Censorship (ACLU of Maryland's Deborah Jeon)

The coalition says the policy blocks student access far beyond adult content.

The policy sweeps up nearly every young-adult book. ACLU of Maryland Legal Director Deborah Jeon wrote that it reaches far beyond explicit content and could punish librarians who let students under 18 read those books, and that it violates the Freedom to Read Act.

This fits a longer pattern, the coalition says. In 2025, the ACLU, the Somerset County NAACP, the Caucus of African American Leaders, and the Watchmen with One Voice Ministerial Alliance sent a letter accusing the Board of "an unprecedented pattern of enacting policies aimed at book banning, curricular obstruction, and power consolidation." The letter demanded the Board rescind an earlier draft of the policy.

Critics tie the policy to who sits on the Board. The Banner and Washington Blade reported in 2025 that the all-white, five-member Board sits in a district where more than half of students are students of color. Maryland's Inspector General for Education warned in 2025 that removing books "for ideological or religious reasons might seem to be a constitutional violation," in a report on the same Board's earlier actions.

Librarians and unions say this is a legal and professional problem, not an ideological one.

The policy won't survive a legal challenge, the state teachers' union says. Maryland State Education Association President Sean Johnson said in July that it "would not withstand scrutiny and challenge under the Freedom to Read Act."

The policy weakens library access for most students, librarians say. Maryland Association of School Librarians President Jacob Gerding said the plan "demonstrates that the board is willing to sacrifice the educational development of its students."

The Board is now targeting Somerset's own librarians for speaking up, the union says. SEA President and school librarian Phaedra Spencer said the union "did not choose to lie, nor did we lie to the public" after Lankford confronted her. The union's attorney, Jamie Sapia, called the confrontation an attempt to intimidate Spencer and a possible unfair labor practice.

Where This Lands

Superintendent Carey Wright's stay freezes Policy 500-19 through roughly October 20 without ruling on whether it's legal. The Board says it only defined "child" as under 18 and banned nothing. Civil-rights groups and education unions say the practical effect is the same either way: young-adult literature becomes off-limits to anyone who isn't legally an adult. No source spells out what happens automatically once the stay expires.

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