Central York tried to intimidate book ban protesters, students say. They won't back down.

Central York High School juniors Favor Gabriel and Laura Littlejohn, two opponents of their school district's book ban, were in the same class Friday when their teacher's classroom phone rang.

"I already know what it's for," Gabriel remembered thinking. Littlejohn said she sometimes jokes that, when a classroom phone rings, "it's for me, guys." This time, she said, "the phone was really for me."

Earlier in the week, the classmates sat down with The York Dispatch to discuss their frustration with Central York administrators, who seemed to be dragging their feet arranging a meeting.

Now, suddenly, the meeting was happening.

The teacher told the pair to gather their belongings and head down to a conference room. Thus began an hourlong meeting in which Gabriel and Littlejohn, along with three other teens, said they listened as district officials harangued them for speaking out publicly.

“The way it was executed was so poor that one might think it was an intimidation tactic,” said senior Zachary Smith, who joined the rest of the student activists a few minutes after the meeting began.

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Smith's mother, Darla, told the district's school board Monday night that she wasn't notified of the meeting. She went on to ask for the administration's policies for such confrontations with students.

In an interview late Monday night, Superintendent Peter Aiken — one of the officials present for the meeting — demurred when asked about the tone of the meeting. He added that he spoke "sternly" to the students, telling them they could protest if they chose to.

“If that’s what they want to do — that ultimatum — that’s what they want to do,” Aiken told The York Dispatch.

The students say they plan to do just that — once they get permission from the school to protest on high school grounds. If they don’t get that permission, they may take their protest off the property. The five teens who were called to the office only hesitate because they don't want to face further disciplinary action.

Last week, students from two different student activist groups — the Panther Anti-Racist Union and the Panther Cultural Celebratory Affiliation — announced plans to protest at the school until the district returns the two banned books to the high school library.

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Two of the students' parents, meanwhile, plan to meet with the superintendent. As of Tuesday, there are no plans to pursue civil litigation against the school for the unplanned meeting with the students.

No immediate plans to return books: “Push” by Sapphire and “Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah Maas were removed following complaints from a community member, officials said. A district spokesperson told the Dispatch last week that there are no plans to return them until new policies — possibly including a rating system for every book in the school system — are implemented by the school board.

Lauri Brady, president of the labor union that represents the district’s schoolteachers and librarians, said Monday night that a review committee asked for other options to review books but was told that the existing policy was all that was available. The union, she said, supported returning the books.

Zachary Smith said the students, who'd previously been attempting to meet with administrators on the book ban, said the Friday meeting seemed unplanned. No one told any of the students' parents, nor were the students told before being called to the office.

Junior Tristan Doud said he felt uncomfortable — like the student activists had been backed into a corner. They'd wanted to speak to Aiken, but not during class time.

“I don’t feel like that should be a place I should be put in unless I did something wrong,” Doud said.

Freshman Naomi Smith added: “We’re not stupid. And I know they’ll say they didn’t mean to come off as intimidating or that it was just a meeting. It wasn’t just a meeting.”

Naomi Smith said she didn't speak during Friday's meeting because she wanted to observe the words and actions of administrators closely. On Monday night, after a weekend to reflect on the situation, she said she believed administrators were trying to interrogate the students.

Aiken told the Dispatch that the students had asked for a meeting — and they got it. He added that he believes one of the students was informed of the meeting but must not have told the others.

The five students felt that Friday's meeting didn't resolve any of their grievances.

Gabriel said the conversation went in circles, with some of the district officials raising their voices.

"[No one ever] yelled at me that stern — like ever," she said.

Once again, Gabriel said, the students felt like the adults in the room.

“We are sitting calm and civil with you and having a conversation about what we need — which is the books back — and you are acting like a child, throwing a tantrum,” she said, as she directly addressed the school board Monday night.

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The five students said administrators repeated beseeched them to "trust us." But the students don't believe the tone of the meeting instills much trust, nor any attempt at compromise.

“What about the trust?” Zachary Smith said.

Aiken, when asked about the meeting, said the district can't speed up its policy review. He hopes to review the books removed from the library by the end of this summer.

“Doesn’t seem like a compromise,” Zachary Smith said, adding that Friday's confrontation was "an abuse of power, whether they meant it or not."

You can watch Monday night's meeting in its entirety below:

— Reach Meredith Willse at mwillse@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @MeredithWillse.