The Harford County Board of Education is continuing its drive to get the Young Adult novel “Flamer” by Mike Curato banned from school libraries. It is taking the Maryland State Board of Education (MSBE) to court for returning the book to the shelves.
On Thursday, the Harford County Circuit Court will hear arguments from the Harford County school board asking the court to honor their initial decision to remove “Flamer,” overturning the MSBE’s decision to put it back on the shelves, after one parent objected to its contents.
The book is a semi-autographical graphic novel telling the story of Aiden, a 14-year-old queer protagonist navigating sexuality, bullying, and suicidal ideation while away at summer camp. Common Sense Media’s review gave it five stars (out of five) and rated it for ages 15 and older.
In Spring 2025, a Reconsideration Committee convened under Maryland’s Freedom to Read Act that included a librarian, an administrator, two parents, two students and a community member based on the parent’s complaint. They had reviewed the book, per district process, and had unanimously recommended keeping it on the shelves for middle and high school libraries. They found it appropriate based on community standards and Maryland law. The schools’ superintendent supported the decision.
The parent appealed to the Harford County BOE, who voted in a closed-door hearing without public notice to remove “Flamer” from all county libraries, describing it as “pervasively vulgar.” HCPS Board of Education overrode the Reconsideration Committee’s decision and removed it in a vote of 5-3.
Holding the closed meeting, however, was a violation of the Closed Meetings policy, as the Public Meetings policy for HCPS states, “A statement of the time, place and purpose of any closed meeting, the vote by which any meeting was closed and the authority for closing any meetings shall be included in the minutes of the next public meeting.”
There was no formal public disclosure that the book had been banned, only that on the Board of Education’s website the book changed from being “Under Review” to “Removed.”
In a letter to the Maryland Association of School Librarians dated July 30, 2025, BOE president Aaron Poynton defended the school board’s vote, calling accusations of politically motivated censorship “entirely misguided and unfounded.” He insisted the decision was solely age-based.
Poynton listed ten phrases from the book containing sexual profanity and slurs against LGBTQ+ people and wrote the book’s “pervasively vulgar language, graphic sexual references, depictions of domestic violence, and language that is openly demeaning and inappropriate…exceed any reasonable standard for younger minor-aged students.”
This did not explain why it was also being removed from high school libraries, as Poynton recognized the book’s publisher designates it as appropriate for ages 14-18. Furthermore, of the five who voted to ban the book, only one said they had read it.
At a July 21, 2025, Harford County BOE meeting, 55 members of the public spoke about the book ban. Of those, 53 members were against the BOE’s decision and wanted the book reinstated.
Community members appealed to the Maryland State Board of Education, which reversed the Harford County BOE’s decision to pull the book. MSBE said the decision to ban “Flamer” was arbitrary, as it did not list any reason for rejecting the recommendation of the Reconsideration Committee and the superintendent. MSBE also said there was no evidence the local board had reviewed or read the novel before banning it.
The Harford County Board of Education is asking the Circuit Court to overturn the Maryland State Board of Education’s decision. The ACLU of Maryland and the Maryland State Education Association will argue that the State BOE’s decision is the only fair and just one based on the Constitution and Maryland’s Freedom to Read Act.
