Controversial Book Removed From Sartell High School Library

(KNSI) — Controversy has erupted in the Sartell St. Stephen School District after an adult romance novel was discovered lying on a shelf and available for checkout at the high school.

The book “Him” by Sarina Bowen describes in graphic detail multiple sexual encounters between two friends.

Some parents and members of the group Kids over Politics 748 brought the book to the district’s attention at Monday’s school board meeting. Sixth-grade parent Kelsey Yasgar read aloud passages from the book which she described to KNSI as “nothing but straight-up hardcore pornography. And this obviously raised some pretty big concerns for our group and for many community members.”

She says a book like this should never be allowed in a public K-12 school. “It’s almost completely filled with descriptive sexual acts. Material like this does not have any place in my daughter’s education at Sartell.”

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Ridlehoover agrees and says school staff acted as soon as they learned there was a problem. “The book is not in circulation and hasn’t been in circulation for the better part of a week and a half. The book itself has never been checked out of the bookshelf that it had been on.”

Ridlehoover says he is still determining how the book ended up in the school, and the district is now reviewing its processes for how it allows reading materials. “That protocol was not clearly understood or clearly followed. I believe it was a mistake that was made by staff members who were simply looking for some books, and this book ended up on one of the shelves. It was not vetted in a normal way that we would typically vet books.”

The new high school does not have a traditional library space; instead, it has collections of books across the building, whether in breakout spaces or teachers’ classrooms.

The book was never part of any classroom reading assignments.

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