Catawba County School Board decides fate of book in libraries

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Dozens of people backed into a school board meeting Monday night in Catawba County to learn the fate of a New York Times bestseller.

The book “Monday’s Not Coming” is one of 24 books that a school board member believes should be removed from every school in the county.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty attended the meeting, and heard from a school board member who said it’s some of the language and sexual content that has stirred up controversy.

The school board decided the book will stay in Catawba County High Schools but only students 18 and older can check it out.

Board member Michelle Teague says she’s read the book and two dozen others that she believes are inappropriate for students.

“A lot of these books have heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, rape, incest, pedophilia. I feel like these books need to be age-appropriate,” Teague told Faherty on Monday.

Tiffany Jackson wrote “Monday’s Not Coming” in 2018, and spoke about her inspiration for it. She said its themes include missing children, race, and mental health.

“When white girls go missing, they’re all over the news, they’re on Good Morning America, their story is front page everywhere, but when Black kids go missing, we’re not human,” Jackson said.

The book is a story about a girl whose best friend disappears for a year, seemingly unnoticed.

Teague takes issue with the book’s profanity, mentions of teen sex, and other behavior that she calls risky.

“I don’t feel like the school system needs to be housing some of these books that are sexually explicit. They have obscenity, they got profanity,” Teague said.

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One parent who asked to remain anonymous says she opposes book bans, and she believes social media already exposes children to many of the things that Teague is concerned about.

“I’m pretty sure that most kids, depending on age range, they already know [profanity] or have used them. I’m sure they’ve heard their parents or outside,” the parent said.

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