Children's Books discussion
Banned Books: discussions, lists
>
Discussion of censorship, equity, and other concerns.
More restrictions for Florida PUBLIC librariesThirty-thousand children could face new restrictions on what they can borrow from Hillsborough County libraries under expanded parental controls to begin early next year.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/2023/10...
The plan, blessed unanimously by county commissioners Wednesday and previously approved by the their library advisory board, is in response to Commissioner Michael Owen’s call in the spring for better monitoring of what materials children can obtain at the library branches.
“We’re not looking at removing materials, we’re just providing a few extra tools,” said Andrew S. Breidenbaugh, director of library services for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library. “Whatever you and your child have access to today, you and your child will have access (to in the future) if that is your choice.”
Under the new system, which expands some controls already in place for DVDs and internet access, parents can choose one of three library cards for children age 12 or younger. Depending on the card selected, the child would have access to just juvenile materials, or an expanded list to include classics and general nonfiction or else all materials in the library. The county currently has 18,000 card-holders ages 12 or younger.
Card-holders ages 13 to 16 also would have access to graphic novels and young adult fiction or R-rated or unrated DVDs if their parents choose. Similarly, they also could have unrestricted access to all library materials if parents allow it. There are 12,000 card-holders ages 13 to 16.
The county previously dropped its affiliation with the American Library Association when its membership expired. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1876 and promotes libraries and library education internationally. But county staff said previously they saw little return on the county’s annual dues of $2,111.
Owen had targeted the membership in March, saying the association had “gone radical.” He pointed to association’s then-incoming president, Emily Drabinski, an academic librarian at the City University of New York, who called herself a Marxist in a tweet posted after she won the office last year.
The parental control plan drew just one public comment Wednesday. Debbie Hunt, executive director of Hillsborough County Citizens Defending Freedom, commended the board for terminating the American Library Association membership and for letting the staff devise the new access rules.
Also in FloridaPanel advises removing two books from Hernando schools
‘It’s So Amazing’ and ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ challenged
https://www.suncoastnews.com/news/pan...
At the next school board meeting, two books are listed as being challenged and — in both cases — the recommendation is for removal.
The book “It’s So Amazing: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families,” by Robie H. Harris, was challenged and its removal is sought from Hernando County’s Schools, according to agenda materials released for the Tuesday, Oct. 24, school board meeting.
It was first published in 2014.
The second book is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Steven Chbosky, first published in 2010.
Julia Thomas, committee chair for the Curriculum and Materials Review Committee of the Hernando County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, made the challenges.
“Eastside Elementary School’s Review Committee met on September 18, 2023 and September 28, 2023 to discuss a citizen’s request for school reconsideration of the book, ‘It’s So Amazing.’ The committee voted 7-0 to recommend to the Superintendent that the book be removed from Hernando County Schools,” the executive summary said.
, “Central High School’s Review Committee met on September 22, 2023 and October 2, 2023 to discuss a citizen’s request for school reconsideration of the book, ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ written by Stephen Chbosky. The committee voted 4-1 to recommend to the Superintendent that the book be removed from Hernando County Schools based on statute.”
OklahomaThe Will Rogers Public Library's board meeting was packed with observers Thursday at 3:30 when, after input by local citizens, the decision was made to keep the book “My Footprints” on the shelves without alteration to its cover.
https://www.claremoreprogress.com/new...
The board voted 5-0 to keep the contested book on the shelves, without marking it “for adults only” and without rescinding the facility's association with the American Libraries Board.
An earlier challenge had asked that a specific book be taken off the library shelf, be marked plainly and clearly as an LBGTQ+ book, and be set aside from easy access.
The request had suggested every book in the library should be read and marked, and that the Library Board should resign from the ALB.
A Claremore couple had sent e-mails to City Manager John Feary, and one following to Will Rogers Library Director Sherry Beach, telling them of the disappointment and feelings of hardship they and their child had experienced when their child had checked out the book. They wanted the book removed, or at the very least, identified and shelved with adults-only books.
Approximately 64 people turned out for the meeting, with several speaking out to keep the book uncensored and ready for reading.
Jill Andrews, a Claremore High School English teacher, spoke about the book and its authors.
“I find nothing troubling about the book ‘My Footprints.’ It is a book that presents an uplifting and positive message about a young girl named Thuy, and how she is able to overcome the bullying she experiences by using her imagination and by experiencing the loving support of her parents," Andrews said.
The book is written about a Vietnamese girl whose parents are two women who try encourage the girl to use her imagination to escape the bullying from other students.
Several other teachers, community members, parents and grandparents of Claremore children also expressed their opinions about the attempted censorship.
“What I object to is book-banning activists using self-proclaimed criteria to limit reading materials available for all of us," said Ken Siedel, past CEO of Claremore Hospital and former teacher at Claremore High School. "I do not want a library subjected to censorship. I could attempt to read every book on the shelves of this library, and I can tell you my biases are not the same as yours, and I guarantee, you would not be satisfied with my selections. I leave that awesome responsibility to those trained in this profession.
“Censorship in reading materials restricts exposure to different perspectives, stifles critical thinking, hinders the understanding of societal and cultural issues limiting brain development and what it means to be human. Censorship reduces innovation, reduces creativity driving us to an undereducated society strongly committed to conformity that reduces freedom of expression and most of all reduces opportunities for new ideas needed to solve challenging problems in these uncertain times.”
The library published its Collection Development Policy, a three-page document that was upgraded April 1, 2021.
The policy addresses “Challenged Materials” and met each criteria of the challenge put forth on “My Footprints.” The matter was even considered to be a “four-part challenge,” according to those protesting the book, and all four segments were handled individually, with each being rejected by the entire board.
ColoradoDiscussion over effort to restrict certain books at Garfield County Libraries unfolds at Rife’s Ute Theater
https://www.aspentimes.com/news/why-a...
An ongoing regional effort to restrict graphic novels within Garfield County Libraries turned its next chapter on Wednesday, as Rifle’s Ute Theater and Events Center hosted a packed-house community discussion.
The event offered book-restriction proponents and opponents a three-minute window for public comments.
“To me, libraries are places of knowledge, far-reaching ideas, limitless creativity, opportunities to see the world in different times and through other eyes, and to find words in sync with thoughts in my own head,” Rifle resident Christy Wright said during the comment period. “I believe the public library is the most American institution that we have … Whether or not you personally approve of the content is not the question.”
The issue came to head in early September, when a petition emerged requesting age restrictions be placed on Japanese manga novels, which opponents argue are too sexual in nature. The petition also calls for placing the manga novels in a separate section of Garfield County’s libraries.
Opponents outnumbered the proponents in the number of speakers present at Wednesday’s discussion, which at times triggered heated arguments.
Book-restriction proponent John Lipkowski, a U.S. Army veteran and retired pilot who joined in on leading the petition, spoke about how he was not trying to ban books.
“If you have a rat in the house, you do not burn the house down,” he said. “The only people who would like these books are p___hiles or wanna-be p___philes. Why are these books accessible to children?”
Silt resident Robin Pruett echoed this sentiment, saying “words matter.”
“Exposure to obscene materials can cause trauma and impair a young person’s social and interpersonal development,” she said.
She said images in the manga novels are violent and obscene and that the content is the most vile. While she was saying this, some of her fellow proponents walked around and showed images to the crowd, where some children were in attendance.
She said these images can lead to addiction and cause damage to a young person’s future. She also said former serial killer Ted Bundy has blamed pornography for some of his crimes. Bundy infamously made this claim during a taped interview conducted a day before he was executed in 1989. [seriously? She's citing Ted Bundy?!]
Garfield County Libraries Executive Director Jamie LaRue, a supporter of libraries not restricting book access, started off Wednesday’s conversation by highlighting the First Amendment.
“People not only have the right to speak, but people have the right to access the speech of others,” he said.
He pointed out that libraries carry books upon request, and all books they carry must meet certain criteria. Books on the shelves must be officially published, reviewed and recommended by readers, then requested.
He went on to say that “The Grapes of Wrath” was once labeled pornographic.
“Nothing in the library is required,” he said. “It is all volunteer.
On Monday, Garfield County commissioners openly referred to manga novels as “p___graphic materials” before directing the county library system to implement restrictions. In the same meeting, commissioners chose not to appoint a new library board member, Hanna Arauza — a local scientist — after she told them parents are responsible for monitoring content for their children.
The Garfield County Commission has no authority to force the Library Board into a certain policy decision, as the library board is an independent body. But County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said the BOCC does have the ability to remove all members from the library board.
North CarolinaCatawba County Schools: 24 books read but challenges are not over
https://hickoryrecord.com/news/local/...
The high school reading committee has reviewed all 24 books challenged by Catawba County Schools Board of Education member Michelle Teague.
The final book reviewed was “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, which the high school committee opted to retain in high school media centers.
Teague’s mass challenge was issued in March 2022. It has taken a little over a year and a half for school-level committees to complete their reviews.
The books have been reviewed but the process is not over. That’s because Teague appealed the high school committee’s decision to retain Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Thorn and Roses,” which moved it up to a district reading committee.
Teague first challenged the books as a concerned grandparent. She has custody of her granddaughter, who is a former student in the Catawba County Schools district. Since the challenges began, Teague has been elected to the Catawba County Schools Board of Education. She ran on a platform of transparency for parents and removing inappropriate books from school libraries. Teague received the most votes of any candidate in the 2022 school board race.
There will be two books on the district reading committee’s list if Teague chooses to appeal the high school committee’s decision on “Nineteen Minutes.” The district committee is currently reviewing “A Court of Thorn and Roses.” The committee will meet to discuss “A Court of Thorns and Roses” on Nov. 20, and a decision letter is due by Dec. 4.
There is a possibility of up to seven more book hearings based on recent district committee decisions, challenger appeals and predictions based on trends. The maximum number is seven if all books are tried separately but could be fewer if several are lumped into one hearing.
Teague appealed the district decisions to retain “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer. Hearings for the two books will be discussed at the Oct. 23 Catawba County Schools Board of Education regular meeting.
The district committee recently voted to retain “Real, Live Boyfriends” by E. Lockhart, “l8r, g8r” by Lauren Myracle and “The Carnival at Bray” by Jessie Ann Foley. Teague has not yet appealed those decisions. If she does, they will progress to the school board level.
If the district committee choses to retain “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and Teague appeals the decision, it will also progress to the school board level.
If Teague appeals the high school committee’s decision on “Nineteen Minutes,” it will progress to the district level. If the district votes to retain the book and Teague appeals the decision, it will then move to the school board level.
Good news from Mass.Easthampton council moves to oppose book bans
https://www.gazettenet.com/Easthampto...
School Committee member Sam Hunter, a transgender person, remembers searching for children’s books at the public library that represented queer families like his own after he and his wife had a baby in 2016.
To Hunter’s surprise, those books were located in their own section on a high shelf, not easily accessible to children.
“I spoke with a librarian about it, there’d just kind of been a misunderstanding about where those books were supposed to go, because obviously they’re supposed to be where children can reach them,” Hunter said at a City Council Rules and Government Relations subcommittee meeting on Oct. 11.
“I remember being really happy with the outcome of that, and I think that a lot of people don’t realize how librarians really hold themselves to extremely high moral standards,” Hunter said.
In an effort to make space for diverse stories and voices, and therefore foster inclusivity and intellectual freedom, the City Council last week resolved to oppose book banning and other attempts to limit access to information at the public library and schools.
“It’s a shame that we have to defend the First Amendment in this way,” said School Committee member Megan Harvey at the Oct. 18 City Council meeting. “But I also think it’s incredibly important that we have done so and we’re sending a very clear message about the values in our city.”
At the meeting, city councilors voted unanimously to pass two resolutions: the first supporting the mission of Easthampton Public Library to provide patrons with a diverse set of uncensored resources, programming and technology; and the second opposing book banning and other threats to freedom of expression in schools.
Both resolutions also called on the City Council to implore other cities and school districts to address challenges to books, as well as send a copy of the motion to state Rep. Dan Carey and state Sen. John Velis, both representing Easthampton.
Iberia Parish (LA) just pulled several LGBTQ+ books from shelves. https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/...
The guardian sent an email on Oct. 2 to New Iberia Senior High Principal Emanuel Harding complaining about three books - "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe, "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson, and "Flamer" by Mike Curato.
The email's subject was "Library scavenger hunt" but it is unclear what the scavenger hunt was for or who promoted it. The guardian attached images from "Gender Queer," "Flamer" and a PDF of the American Library Association's list of most challenged books in 2022. All three books were on that list.
"I have a problem with the library promoting the books listed above and essentially rewarding kids for researching sexually explicit books," the guardian wrote in the email.
"I do not believe that any of the books would be supported by Iberia Parish School Board and/or other parents."
The guardian said there were two copies of "Flamer" at New Iberia Senior High.
"I'm sure many other parent (sic) will find this unacceptable. We are not only making it accessible to MINORS but now rewarding/promoting it with this sick scavenger hunt," they wrote. "This is absolutely unacceptable."
The book was pulled from New Iberia Senior High for review after the email was sent, a district representative said. It is one of the first times a complaint has been filed about a book at one of the Iberia Parish School District libraries.
The book will then be reviewed by a committee that includes district librarians, according to district policy. The committee's findings will then be returned to the superintendent who may choose to give the review to the school board.
The decision of either the superintendent or school board will be sent to the person who filed the complaint and anyone else affected by the decision.
That committee has not yet completed its review, a district representative said.
Horry County Memorial Library (SC) restricted access to Tiffany D. Jackson's Monday's Not Coming to only those 18 and younger with parental permission. The Moms For Liberty contingent is not happy the book wasn't completely removed from the public library.https://wpde.com/news/local/horry-cou...
The Horry County Memorial Library says the book includes subjects like physical and emotional abuse, class differences and social themes.
Parent and Mom’s For Liberty Group Chair David Warner said the book also contains s---ually explicit content.
"This is a book that, you know, a parent would not be able to just look at it and decide okay or this is not okay. You need to be able to read the book and understand this book does have s---ually explicit material in it," he said.
Although Warner wanted the book to be removed completely, the board decided to stick with their original ruling and continue to only restrict "Monday's Not Coming."
QNPoohBear wrote: "Same old same old. Louisiana
Book restriction debate comes to St. Tammany School Board. Will book challenges follow in schools?:
Follow-up is goodish news
St. Tammany library board reverses course on pulling challenged books from shelves
https://lailluminator.com/2023/10/24/...
MANDEVILLE — The St. Tammany Library Board of Control rescinded a controversial policy that segregated over 150 challenged titles pending review, a practice First Amendment advocates say was unconstitutional.
The board voted 5-0 to reverse course at its regular meeting Monday night.
The policy was adopted in December amid pressure from the St. Tammany Library Accountability Project, a small but vocal group of conservative activists responsible for the vast majority of the challenges.
Keeping the books, most of which feature LGBTQ+ themes, separated from the rest of the collection created tension between the board and anti-censorship advocates whose opposition persisted even as the interest of the Accountability Project faded.
Board members said they received letters condemning the practice from the Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic and the ACLU of Louisiana.
In the 10 months since it first adopted the policy, the St. Tammany library board has worked through less than two dozen of the over 150 challenge titles, a pace that meant the books were likely to be kept sequestered for years. The pace frustrated patrons, some of whom expressed at meetings that asking library staff to wheel out the challenged books for them to browse while under watch felt stigmatizing.
“Simply put, one person controlled what 270,000 people got access to on our shelves,” board member Bill McHugh said prior to the vote.
The books currently sequestered will be returned to their original spots within 30 days, and any further challenged materials will remain shelved as usual pending review.
“Make them innocent until proven guilty,” anti-censorship advocate Roxanne Newman said of the books during the public comment period.
The board’s vote to rescind the policy was met with cheers and thanks from those in attendance.
Members also adopted a new challenged materials process that more closely resembles its original policy.
Under the new policy, a panel of librarians and staff would make a decision on challenges, but patrons would have the option to appeal that decision to the library board, which would then vote to affirm or reject the original decision.
Any decisions to challenged materials will be valid for five years, meaning the board cannot be inundated with repeat challenges.
The board also took action on two challenges, voting to keep both items where they were originally shelved.
WyomingSilent Protesters Read Controversial Books During Cheyenne School Board Meeting
A group of Cheyenne parents and students held a silent protest of the Laramie County School District #1’s proposed change to its library books policy by reading controversial books during Monday’s school board meeting.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/10/...
“We’re here to remind them that people are free to read freely,” said Meg Varhalmi.
LCSD1 is in the process of taking public comments on a proposed new policy that will remove the district’s current “opt-out” policy and replace it with an “opt-in” policy for checking out certain books from school libraries.
Some of the books that have been brought up aren’t in circulation in the school district.
Meg Varhalmi said she and others at Monday’s meeting feel that actually restricts parental choice by requiring them to opt-in their children to check out books from the school district they support with their taxes.
Varhalmi said she thinks the LCSD1 board does not represent a majority view of people in the school district and promises more civil protest, but the majority of the board has shown support for the proposed policy.
Not one of the book readers spoke during the two public comment periods at Monday’s meeting. Although the board never directly acknowledged them, Board of Trustees Chairman Tim Bolin made a comment that it was the first time in three years that they hadn’t had a public comment.
“When you don’t protest they think they’re in a bubble,” Meg Varhalmi said. “It’s a way of telling them the majority doesn’t actually agree with restrictive book banning. It’s the job of the board to provide a quality education.”
Suzan Skaar was reading “This Is One Summer” by Mariko Tamaki. This book has been singled out because it includes LGBT characters, drug use, profanity and is sexually explicit with mature themes.
Skarr said it’s not that she disagrees that the book deals with those themes and imagery, but that her view is it’s important for young adults to not be shielded from some of those harsh realities of life.
“It’s a book that will show young kids what life is really like,” she said.
What the new policy is centered around is the parental choice to decide whether they want their children to have no access to sexually explicit content, limited access with parent/guardian approval, open access or no access at all.
“The district recognizes that each parent or guardian may have different concerns when it comes to what they believe is or is not appropriate for their own child to read and encourages parents and guardians to work with the school’s library/media center staff and principal to create a customized list of reading materials for their child,” the policy reads.
Under the policy, themes of “sexual conduct” include (view spoiler)
The policy also establishes new procedures for identification of s___ally explicit content in the library catalog.
A parent of a child from any school in the district can nominate a book in any other school as explicit. Once a nomination is made, it will be sent to a district committee to rule on, which will then make a recommendation to the superintendent. The superintendent will rule on the matter, but that ruling can be appealed to the Board of Trustees.
OMG Texas... I can't even... It is just a story about a cute kitty who feels like a unicorn. They're reading way too much into it. Shannon Hale is a mom, and a Christian just like the censors! She just doesn't happen to believe in right-wing extremist ideology. ______________________________
On Thursday morning, the Abilene City Council voted 6-1 in favor of accepting the Kitty-Corn/Unicorn Sculpture as a part of the Storybook series in Abilene. The members of the Visual Arts Jury had accepted the sculpture’s design a few weeks earlier.
The public was given the chance to comment on the acceptance of the statue by city council, and a number of people stepped to the podium to have their voices heard. Over 30 people spoke at the city council meeting with the greater part of them in favor of the sculpture.
In the words of Councilman Kyle McAlister, “the majority has spoken.”
For those in opposition to the sculpture, their arguments stemmed from accusations that labeled the book as grooming young children to the story’s alleged promotion of transgender ideals, while others stated the city should select a less controversial book because of those allegations.
One speaker cited the book as being pro-transgender by promoting a celebration of claiming and affirming new identities, while others said the Kitty-Corn book is on numerous LGBTQ+ Rainbow lists for accepted reading. They also said the city of Abilene should have stopped the process when the first red flag was raised, and warned that the controversy will continue even after the day's city council meeting.
The sole member of the opposition on city council was Councilman Blaise Regan who noted that this is a hotly contested issue both statewide and nationally, and that the city should instead “focus on things that unify us.” Overall, he was concerned about taking a great project and importing controversy; and that instead the sculptures in the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden “should embody what the community agrees upon.”
For those in support of the statue, the overwhelming responses were that the book was more about imagination and friendship, and not transgender issues. The upcoming holiday of Halloween was referenced several times as a time of pretend, and how it is okay to pretend to be something you are not without having a nefarious plan backing it.
Members of the public were particularly passionate about the issue but emphasized that everyone has a right to their own opinion. They also pointed out that the controversy has sparked unnecessary diversion from what is important. Members of the public noted that the Visual Arts Jury chose an illustrator who is diverse and celebrates love and friendship.
Regan was the sole vote on the council against accepting the statue with Councilman McAlister noting that the overall community response had been positive. He remarked that he had received over 50 positive emails just before the city council meeting, and that with 23 speakers in favor (as opposed to the 6 in protest), the majority had spoken.
Councilman Shane Price added that the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden is a “way to promote Abilene,” and that imagination is healthy in helping children to be empathetic to others.
Artist Steve Neves will present the finished statue to the city in the spring where it will be installed before the 2024 Children's Art & Literacy Festival, with a grand unveiling after the opening day parade. It and the other storybook sculptures will be in the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden which is located on the east side of the Abilene Convention Center.
thank you Yahoo for picking up the paywalled story.
https://news.yahoo.com/controversy-ab...
Scroll down to see the proposed design of Kitty and Unicorn! SO sweet! I really liked this book even though I don't like pink or cats.
Ohio library faces losing funding.https://sanduskyregister.com/news/486...
PORT CLINTON — Supporters of a proposed levy for Port Clinton’s public library are facing an unusual obstacle: An organized “vote no” campaign.
Library levies in Ohio usually pass by wide margins, and organized opposition to library levies is quite rare.
But in Port Clinton, where the Ida Rupp Public Library is attempting to pass a 0.8-mill replacement levy, a group that calls itself “Clean Up Ida Rupp” is campaigning to get voters to reject the levy.
The group’s efforts include “vote no” yard signs and messaging on social media platforms such as Facebook.
Ordinarily dull library board meetings have been enlivened by the controversy. A recent meeting was packed with library supporters and opponents.
“It’s disheartening, having an attack on our institution,” said Lindsay Faust, the library’s director since 2018. “A lot of the campaigning seems to be lacking a basis in fact.”
Greg Fox, a leader of the group opposing the levy's passage, said letters to the board have gone unanswered, and board members have said little in public meetings in response to questions.
"None of us ever dreamed we would oppose a levy for our library," Fox said.
Voters who live in the Port Clinton, Danbury Township and Put-in-Bay school districts are being asked next month whether to OK a five-year levy that would provide the library about $1.25 million a year. That’s a hike from the nearly $1.06 million the library currently gets from the levy.
The millage would be the same if the replacement levy passes but the levy would bring in more money because of a hike in property values. Hence, it's a replacement levy, rather than a renewal levy with the same level of taxation.
Last year, the library got 54% of its money from the levy, with the rest coming from state funding.
If the library lost local funding, it would have to slash staffing, library hours and popular services such as Hoopla, which allows library users to stream movies, audiobooks and music.
The library’s website, idarupp.org, spells out the effects of passing the levy and rejecting it.
Fox is a retired public school music teacher who now teaches at Immaculate Conception School of Port Clinton.
His group’s website, cleanupidarupp.org, spells out the group’s demands.
The group says it wants to:
• Move “harmful, obscene and s--ually explicit” books to the adult section of the library
• Stop displaying such books
• Put warning stickers on such books
• Carry out a new policy that bans such books from being checked out by kids and teens unless parents approve it
Rupp recently made the decision to Gender Queer from the teen collection to the adult collection but otherwise has not changed library policies. Anyone with a library card may check out material from any section of the library.
Passages from books that offend the Clean Up Ida Rupp group are posted on the group’s website and Facebook page.
The group also apparently objects to content and programming aimed at gay people, including presentations at the library that have been made by Kaleidoscope, a group that describes itself as an organization “supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in Ohio.”
Fox said:
• His group is not asking for the library to remove any books and is only trying to ensure kids won't check out certain materials unless parents approve.
• It's not accurate to say his group advocates book banning or censorship. [liar]
• The library believes parents should decide what their children should be allowed to check out. The library has no intention of trying to replace parents in such decisions, Faust said.
• Parents should be the people making the decisions.
Faust said:
• The library has an established procedure for handling complaints about a book or other library item. The patron is invited to fill out a form listing objections to a book. Faust then makes a decision.
• If the patron is unhappy with Faust’s ruling, then the director’s decision may be appealed to the library board, whose members are appointed by Port Clinton’s school board.
• The anti-library group has not taken advantage of that avenue.
“We have not had any forms filled out since I’ve been here,” she said.
Fox said he only recently became aware of the form and said he believes parents have begun filling them out.
After the library published claims about the books, which it said are available in the kids and teen sections of Ida Rupp, a library supporter, Port Clinton resident Kristina Smith, published a fact-check document in an Oct. 3 posting on Facebook, noting that much of the group’s information was false.
“I made the fact check public, and a bunch of people started sharing it,” Smith said.
The Ohio Library Council’s communications director, Angie Jacobsen, said she hasn’t heard of any other organized “vote no” campaigns in Ohio opposing library levies.
Jacobsen said she’s also never heard of any other such campaign, other than the one in Port Clinton, in the seven years she’s worked for her organization.
“Ohoans seem to love their libraries. I’m disappointed to hear this,” Jacobsen said. “Ida Rupp is a fantastic library.”
Good news from Maine (again) Woolwich Central School (ME) will not be removing It's Perfectly Normal.The parent of a Woolwich Central School fifth grader asked the Regional School Unit 1 board to remove the puberty-focused book "It's Perfectly Normal."
TIMES RECORD Posted October 24 Updated October 24INCREASE FONT SIZEResize Font
Bath-area school board rejects proposed book ban
The parent of a Woolwich Central School fifth grader asked the Regional School Unit 1 board to remove the puberty-focused book "It's Perfectly Normal."
BY JASON CLAFFEYTIMES RECORD
Share7 COMMENTS
The Bath-area school board at its meeting Monday. In blue, leaning into the microphone, is board Chairperson Lou Ensel. RSU 1 / YouTube screenshot
The Bath-area school board Monday night unanimously rejected a parent’s request to remove the puberty-focused book “It’s Perfectly Normal” from the Woolwich Central School.
Alysia Coats, mother of a fifth-grade student at the school, said the book “has no place” in the school due to its sexual content and nude illustrations. The book is kept at the school, which includes students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, for use by teachers only in developing classes on puberty and sexual health.
“The book ‘It’s Perfectly Normal’ is, in fact, perfectly normal,” Coats told the board. “It addresses topics that are important to learn about when the time is right. But who should be deciding when the time is right?
“Is school really an appropriate setting for children to learn about topics such as (view spoiler)
Coat added that the book’s illustrations are “borderline p____graphic."
Regional School Unit 1 Board Chairperson Lou Ensel said the book is appropriate for developing health curricula.
“It’s not controversial to the mainstream medical, psychological or any other association because they’ve all backed it,” he said. “This is a way of addressing very important topics so children can be safe and learn about this in the best way possible.
“For some kids, this is the best opportunity they’re going to have, in a nonjudgmental place, to hear about some of these topics.”
Ensel emphasized the school district, which covers Bath, Arrowsic, Phippsburg and Woolwich, sends letters home to parents giving them the option to opt their student out of classes containing sexual content.
Woolwich Central School Principal Jason Libby said a school committee reviewed the book’s material and recommended it stay.
“This material does promote the mission of RSU 1,” he said. “(It) gives comprehensive and accurate information that staff can use at their discretion to develop units of study.”
No other parents spoke for or against the book Monday. Last year, Coats asked the board to remove the book “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” from the Woolwich Central School library, arguing its subject matter is inappropriate. The board unanimously decided to keep the book.
https://www.pressherald.com/2023/10/2...
In the comments section below the article someone stalked Coates and discovered
In 2021, the woman complained to the school board about masking in schools.
In 2022, she tried to get Beyond Magenta banned from the school library. Her request was denied. She appealed, and was denied again.
In 2023, she tried again with this book.
Her Instagram is private, but this appears next to her name:
Alysia Coats
"They want to take away my freedom because they know I'll never let them take away your freedom."
- President Donald Trump
Chilling news from my mom's home state of PennsylvaniaPa. Senate passes ‘explicit content’ legislation after heated debate over whether it’s a book ban [It is]
https://www.penncapital-star.com/educ...
Most Democrats regarded Senate Bill 7 as a book ban, but Republicans said it would improve parental control over what their kids read.
The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday voted to advance legislation that purports to give parents more insight and control over what their children are reading in school. But opponents vigorously argued the measures are a de facto book ban, and a redundant effort to exclude content by and for marginalized communities.
Senate Bill 7 passed 29-21, with state Sen. Lisa Boscola, (D-Northampton), voting with the Republican majority. It would require schools to identify sexually explicit content in school curriculum, materials, and books, create an opt-in policy to notify parents of the sexually explicit content by including a list of the book titles on a form, allow parents to review the materials, and require parents to give direct consent for their children to be provided or have access to sexually explicit content. It was advanced by the Senate Education Committee last week.
The bill’s prime sponsor Sen. Ryan Aument, (R-Lancaster), has been working on similar legislation since 2021, and has insisted that SB 7 is not a book ban, an argument he reiterated on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday.
“We are not seeking to ban books and we are not seeking to censor any group,” Aument said. “We are simply seeking to empower parents to make decisions about their own child, not anyone else’s. One must only look at local school board races and local school board meetings all across this Commonwealth to see that this is an issue that concerns many parents.”
Aument said he had taken a “measured approach” to crafting the legislation. “We listened to families. We listened to school administrators, teachers and librarians. And we worked hard to draft a proposal to make sure all sides could feel heard and respected,” he said, adding that what resulted was a proposal that closely resembles legislation recently passed in Virginia.
State Sen. Amanda Capelletti, (D-Delaware), said SB 7 is a book ban. She called it part of a “stunning and increasing trend of censoring books in schools and libraries,” and “a direct attack on the right to read and our freedom of speech.”
Capelletti said the “extreme vocal minority” pushing book bans was missing a “glaring” reality.
“We all like to believe that every child grows up in a family that loves and values them for exactly who they are. We know that unfortunately, is not true,” she said, adding many kids are left needing a support system and information outside their families, which they can often find in books.
“The kids who need books that explore gender identity and sexual orientation, are the most likely ones whose parents are denying them and their communities the right to learn from these books,” she added. “Exploring human relationships, sex and love are some of the most challenging and rewarding obstacles that we will face in life. And we need the right education and materials available to ensure people can explore those spaces safely and with the right knowledge to be able to interact with the world around them compassionately.”
Sen. Nikil Saval, (D-Philadelphia), said the bill was not specific enough in its definition of what was “explicit,” and cautioned that its present language could exclude works of literature like Milton’s Paradise Lost, St. Augustine’s Confessions, or The Song of Solomon, all of which contain explicit references to sexuality. He noted that Paradise Lost was one of 150 books recently removed from the shelves of an Orlando, Fla. school district.
“The experience of many states that have adopted similar ordinances shows these invidious distinctions are not so easily drawn, haplessly and clumsily though the bill tries,” Saval said. “Let us be sober and clear about what this bill, if passed, would do. The standards of liberal education for which our founders fought would be decimated. SB 7 would destroy the educational system it purports to uphold.”
Boscola, who broke with Democrats to vote in favor of SB 7, said she had worked with Aument on a previous version of the legislation she voted against, and thought the latest version was a marked improvement.
“Senate Bill 7 strikes the needed balance between parental control over their child’s exposure to sexually explicit content,” Boscola said. School boards, she added, are in an impossible position of having to make decisions about books, holding meetings where parents show up to protest that grow heated.
“There are some groups that want to ban all books that have even the slightest reference to sexually explicit content. And groups on the other side that see all sexually explicit content as being OK,” she said. “This General Assembly needs to lead. It needs to set forth a statewide policy that balances those radically different viewpoints of parents on both sides of this issue. We cannot leave this up to 500 different school boards.”
Sharon Ward, senior policy advisor at the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, said the state already has strong protections in place, and SB 7 will only further encourage book-banning activities at the school district level.
“The bill will divert educators from their work with students, requiring them to search through thousands of volumes to find a single word or phrase that could offend a parent, regardless of the merit or popularity of the book, ignoring two decades of court decisions that have rejected this form of book banning,” Ward wrote in an email to the Capital-Star.
Senate Bill 340, sponsored by state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), requires school districts to post on their website a link or title for every textbook used by its schools, a course syllabus, and the state academic standards for each course.
Several Democrats objected to SB 340 on the grounds that it is redundant. Sen. Art Haywood, (D-Philadelphia), cited several school districts’ policies that already allow parents to review reading materials. “School districts already provide for significant parent, guardian or student input on the materials that are in the library and in the curriculum,” Haywood said.
Sen. Jay Costa, (D-Allegheny), called SB 340 “an example of a solution in search of a problem with political motives behind it,” adding it would only serve to add more mandates to already overburdened school districts.
Mastriano said there was “nothing nefarious or political” behind the legislation. “This is definitely something we need to do to build trust with parents,” he said.
SB 340 passed along party lines, 28-22.
“The Pennsylvania Senate approved two bills today that unnecessarily impede student learning and create a burdensome mandate on educators and school librarians,” Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) president Aaron Chapin said in a statement Tuesday. “These bills are completely unnecessary mandates on educators and school librarians who are overworked and underpaid.”
South Carolina is trying to follow Florida down the path of FascismSC superintendent wants the state, not local districts, to pick school library books
The state Department of Education wants to take the authority to choose books and other materials away from local school boards. A September notice from the department proposed a new regulation for school and classroom library materials to align them with the state’s instructional program and standards. The effort comes as some school libraries books have become a flashpoint for some parents and conservative groups. It also comes months after state education Superintendent Ellen Weaver publicly split with the state school librarians association over books in libraries. It’s unclear what the policy will be. But at an Oct. 10 meeting with the S.C. Board of Education, Weaver said that she is looking at a “regulatory process” of library materials based on “age-appropriateness” and “alignment with the South Carolina instructional standard.” “I’m certainly a proponent of local control, but I also know that half of our state education budget comes from the state, and with that investment comes responsibility,” Weaver said at the meeting. “It is well within the purview and the responsibilities under state law of this board to advise on the age-appropriateness and alignment with the South Carolina instructional standards ... that is what we will be bringing before this board.”
“Given the context and the deteriorating relationship between the state superintendent’s office and school librarians, it seems like cause for alarm,” said Paul Bowers of the ACLU. “Anything that centralizes power, centralizes control over books is cause for alarm.” The ACLU asked the public to write to the state board of education to oppose the policy. The period for initial public comment ended Friday evening. Tamara Cox, acting president of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians, said she is concerned about the policy because she doesn’t know of any librarians involved in crafting the new policy. “We already have local policies in place. School library funding comes from local money. To me, it would only make sense to (use) local policies. What a school in rural Chesterfield wants to purchase might be different than a school in Columbia,” Cox said. “It gives the local elected school board and local parents more say.”
Weaver wrote to the South Carolina Association of School Librarians in August to say that the state Department of Education was cutting ties with the group after a 50-year partnership. In the letter, Weaver said the organization had created a “hostile environment” using “politicized rhetoric” to oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries, citing an advocacy toolkit by the American Library Association posted on its website, testifying about library censorship before the teacher recruitment and retention task force and sending letters to school board members across the state. “Parents are entirely justified in seeking to ensure educational materials presented to their children are age-appropriate and aligned with the overall purpose of South Carolina’s instructional program and standards,” Weaver wrote. “When SCASL labels those efforts as bans, censorship, or a violation of educators’ intellectual freedom, the result is a more hostile environment which does not serve the needs of students.”
Read more at: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/e...
Also in SCBERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) — A committee for the Berkeley County School District will continue its review on Thursday and provide recommendations on whether multiple books should be banned from the district.
https://www.counton2.com/news/local-n...
This comes after a parent challenged 93 books based on objections to age-inappropriate sexual content and obscene language. The school district recently released a list of materials that could be removed from some or all schools.
The upcoming public meeting will review 10 of the 93 books being challenged; this is one of many meetings that will take time to review each book to decide if the title will stay on the shelves.
Those titles include:
A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J. Maas
Burned – Ellen Hopkins
Home Body – Rupi Kaur
House of Earth and Blood – Sarah J. Maas
House of Sky and Breath – Sarah J. Maas
Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur
More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera
The Art of Racing In The Rain – Garth Stein
The Sun and her Flowers – Rupi Kaur
The Truth About Alice – Jennifer Mathieu
The first meeting was held at the beginning of the month, and 10 other books were reviewed at that time. Committee members voted on recommendations of whether or not to ban titles, and after they are all reviewed, the superintendent will make the final decision.
According to the district’s policy, these 93 titles will not be removed during this reconsideration process.
News 2 spoke to Paul Bowers, the communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union about the matter. The group opposes book bans, and Bowers said the process of reviewing these 93 titles takes a lot of time from school staff.
“They don’t need a mountain of extra paperwork and busy work but that’s what they’re being given,” he said. “So, we know that if you add up the length of these 93 books, we’re talking about more than 37,000 pages of material to review. On top of that these are books that were already reviewed by librarians.”
The book reviewing process has led to some controversy and concern in the community. At the state level, according to the state register, education leaders are also bringing forward a regulation that will address issues like this regarding school and classroom library materials.
In Kentucky, The Daviess County Public Library (DCPL) actually reshelved 3 books from the Young Adult section to the Adult section as a result of the recent review, contrary to what DCPL officials have previously indicated. However, DCPL Director Erin Waller said the books were moved to shelve them with other titles by the same author, not because of any content concerns brought forth by the Daviess County Citizens for Decency (DCC4D) group.
https://www.owensborotimes.com/news/2...
[That's not the way it works. Authors sometimes write for multiple age groups. Are they putting Shannon Hale's Kitty Corn and Princess in Black with the graphic novels in the juvenile section, or the YA section with Princess Academy and Goose Girl or the adult section with Austenland? Because some parents do object to Kitty and Princess, surprisingly NOT the Books of Bayern which I found a little violent for my liking even though I loved the stories. Guess no one checks those out anymore. ]
During the DCPL board’s September meeting, Waller provided a lengthy and detailed update on her review. While the review was still not complete, she did recommend that DCPL add an optional library card level that would restrict juveniles from checking out any material not in the juvenile section. The board unanimously approved that measure during the September meeting.
During the board meeting on October 18, Susan Montalvo-Gesser — who was elected later in the meeting to serve as the board’s next chairperson — said the library was taking two steps since the review had finally been completed. The first was the creation of that optional limited access card for juveniles (a measure she again noted was adopted during the September meeting). The second was changing the name of the “Teen” section to the “Young Adult” section, a move Waller said was made in line with industry terminology.
Regarding the relocation of any titles under review, Montalvo-Gesser said “Our director has reviewed all of the material that was asked of her to be reviewed. We have decided we support the director in her decision not to move those materials.”
Waller also said after the meeting that she emailed her recommendations — meaning the new access card and the renaming of the teen section — to DCC4D on October 16, saying that is typical practice when completing a review of materials. Waller declined to provide a copy of that letter to Owensboro Times after the meeting.
DCC4D Chairman Jerry Chapman has since shared that email with OT. In a portion of the email, Waller noted that “we have decided to move all books by Sarah Maas to be shelved with her other books in our Adult Fiction collection.”
In an interview with OT on Wednesday, Waller said the decision to reshelve the Maas books to the Adult Fiction section came after the team had begun reviewing the books as part of the request by DCC4D, but the move was not made to due the content.
“If I’m remembering it correctly, when we pulled the books to be reviewed I was working with Sarah Jacobs, who is our Teen Librarian, and she mentioned that [Maas] is an author that has books in [the] Adult [section] already, and that we could just move them over there. She would feel better about that because they would circulate better if all of her books were together,” Waller said.
Waller said that reshelving is a typical practice of the library, but admitted this move specifically was sparked by the review process initiated by DCC4D.
“We get something in front of us and it’s like, ‘Let’s just do this.’ It’s something we do sometimes. Sarah Maas mostly writes adult fantasy books and so the rest of her stuff has always been shelved in our Adult [section]. Honestly, mostly adults read her stuff, so it’s just easier for them to find it if it’s all together,” Waller said.
Chapman noted that the Maas books were on the list DCC4D had provided because they scored at least a 3 out of 5 on the BookLooks.org Book Report index, which the group referenced in part of their “audit.” That site recommends that books rated 3 only be read by individuals under 18 with parental/guardian guidance. It recommends books rated 4 or 5 not be read by anyone under 18.
[Book Looks is a M4L site not a valid source of professional book reviews.]
“We had asked for 3 and above to be reshelved, but when you look at the 3s, the sexual content is more implicit than explicit,” Chapman said. “So there could be an argument made that it’s not p____raphic. It’s not suited to children under 18 years of age, but it may not be exactly p____raphic. It’s unquestionably objectionable.”
Chapman said some books being reshelved is encouraging, but he’s hoping more action will be taken.
“It’s encouraging in that she acknowledges that there is a problem, and the fact that she moved 3s tells me that she recognizes that even the 3s are a problem. So if 3s are a problem then 4s and 5s unquestionably are a problem. It’s just getting her to the point where she can wrap her head around it,” Chapman said.
Waller again said the move ultimately had nothing to do with the content of the books.
“We relocated all the Sarah Maas books to Adult whether they were on [DCC4D’s] list or not,” she said. “Because we didn’t do it based on content, but for patrons to find them easier.”
Parents in Puritanical Southington, CT object to Native Son, which IS an adult book and may be too much for some juniors. I may have read it first at a summer enrichment program at Ivy League university when I was in Junior High. I read the Cliffs Notes in college. This book wasn't for me but I understand and acknowledge the importance of it in the canon of American history and literature. _____________________
Controversial Book Angers Some Southington HS Parents
The novel in the center of the controversy was written in 1940 and deals with racial and crime issues in an American city.
The Southington Board of Education's Oct. 12 meeting didn't, specifically, aim to discuss the Southington High School 10th-grade reading of "Native Son" by Richard Wright, but speakers during the audience, as well as multiple letter writers to the board, protested the book.
https://patch.com/connecticut/southin...
Though written in 1940 and set in 1930s Chicago, the book's content is relevant in today's politically and racially divided times.
While those opposed to the book being read offered multiple reasons for opposition, most centered on one section that contained sexually explicit content.
It was that issue, not necessarily the racial overtones of the book, that had many parents fretting about "Native Son," some urging school board review of whether it should be allowed.
Board members, as they do, did not comment on the matter on Oct. 12 and will take the input into consideration for possible inclusion on a future agenda.
Southington resident Susan Zabohonski read aloud one of the book's more sexually explicit excerpts prior to giving her testimony.
She said parents have urged the school board to review the use of the book in the classrooms and reviewing controversial books is allowed as part of board policy.
Zabohonski also pointed to the book's other "controversial" theme, racism.
"This book is political in nature and there's no doubt about it. (It is) about racism and how it affects people," she said. "And it's saying that there is a systemic issue with racism.
"That is a political view and there is also the view that there are also family issues that can cause criminal behavior and it doesn't always equate to systemic racism."
Zabohonski said 15-year-old 10th-graders are too young for such a book and it should be reserved for older students if it is to be read in high school at all.
Leslie Parmentier, a Southington resident and retired special education teacher, submitted a statement to the board that was read aloud by Zabohonski.
According to Parmentier, parents should be the ones to decide whether a book like this is taught in schools.
"Only parents know best the maturity levels of their own children," Parmentier said in her statement, as read by Zabohonski.
"Parents should be the ones to decide went to introduce sex education that aligns with their own religious beliefs and family values."
As for this book or others with similar themes, Parmentier said it is simply too explicit for teens to study in school.
"Classroom lessons that have materials that make students feel confused, uncomfortable or embarrassed are just plain wrong," she said in the statement that was read.
Others sent in letters of protest to school official.
Michael Kryzanski, a parent of a ninth-grader, said if parents want their youngster to read books like "Native Son," they can get them the book themselves.
"If parents want their children to read that book, they can easily do that outside of school. The book is available on Amazon.com," he wrote.
"And, no this is not book banning. There are plenty of other reading materials that are not allowed in a school ...and that is not considered book banning."
Said Jim and Shelly Nadwairski in their letter to the school board: "Our children should be protected in their innocence as long as they can. Don't rush the inhumanity of adulthood."
One parent did speak in support of using the book in a classroom.
Parent Effie Moutogiannis said she remembered reading the book in high school and she did not have any issues with it being given to her daughter to read.
While admitting the topics raised in the book are "challenging," Moutogiannis said her daughter's teacher did warn parents about the reading of "Native Son."
This is the second time in as many years a Southington High School lesson has come under fire amid political and racial overtones.
A year ago, an SHS English teacher came under fire, but was eventually cleared, for using a glossary of modern, pro-diversity terms in writing lessons.
Critics in the community claimed the glossary wasn't a writing aid, but a means to "indoctrinate" pupils to the teachers' own political views.
Mod
Not surprising at all that Ron DeSantis is a frigging liar. He makes me want to vomit but those who support him and would vote for him leave me even more wanting to upchuck.
More news from yesterday."Decency ordinance"? What is this 1920? Iran? We know what happens to those who violate such rules in Iran. This is complete Unconstitutional!
_____________________________________
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — Starting Jan. 1, 2024, the Rutherford County Library System will implement a new library card policy that will make it harder for minors to check out books not meant for their age group.
https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/...
Next year, there will be one library card for children up to the age of 12, another for young adults ages 13-17 and one more for anyone 18 and older. Parents and guardians will be able to sign a form at the library to allow their children to opt out of having a restricted library card.
“The other option is that they can either check the material out for their child if they’d rather do that, or they can give their child their card and say, ‘Go check it out.’ Obviously, we would prefer them either to give permission or they come in and check it out for them,” said Library Director Rita Shacklett.
Shacklett worries about what this policy will mean for kids trying to finish a last minute school report and not being able to access the book they need.
“What’s going to have to happen is when those new profiles are turned on, if you’re say a 15-year-old and you’d have to do a book report on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ that’s an adult book…when you come in to get the book and you can’t check it out because your card prohibits you from checking out an adult material without your parents permission,” Shacklett explained.
She said they plan to work with children and their parents as much as possible to prevent situations like this from arising, but she is trying to get the word out about this change to prepare the community.
Shacklett explained this new policy stemmed from the so-called decency ordinance Murfreesboro passed over the summer and the state law passed by the General Assembly last session.
“And once that happened, it affected print materials and programming displays…that kind of thing of materials,” she said.
Originally, library staff had advocated for the cards to be something parents could have their children opt-in to rather than opt-out of to make the transition easier. However, she said the library board felt this would not be in line with state and city laws.
Ozark City Council censures mayor following library funding ...The City Council voted 3-2 to officially censure Blankenship for texts he sent regarding defunding of the Ozark-Dale County Public Library.
he Ozark City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night to officially censure Mayor Mark Blankenship for texts he sent regarding defunding of the Ozark-Dale County Public Library and the fallout of those texts being made public.
Councilman Les Perrault made the motion to approve the official reprimand of Blankenship, and Councilman Winston Jackson seconded the motion. Councilors Leah Harlow and Stanley Enfinger voted against the resolution.
Due to the split council, Council President Brenda Simechak cast the deciding vote in favor of censuring Blankenship.
A growing group of Ozark citizens has been calling on the council to censure Blankenship for over a month. The push began after Blankenship sent a message to citizen Adam Kamerer threatening to sue him for releasing texts between Blankenship and Library Director Karen Speck.
“Mayor Blankenship did in his official capacity did presumptuously misrepresent the position of the city council, while implying a threat to one of our town’s most important public resources, which he actually had no authority to execute unilaterally” Perault read from the resolution.
...
Simechak stressed to Blankenship that the council isn’t asking him to change his opinions, but to act with professionalism.
https://www.alreporter.com/2023/10/18...
Follow up to the student in West Virginia who sued the school for forcing them to attend a religious Christian Assembly.West Virginia school system mandates religious training following revival assembly lawsuit
https://news.yahoo.com/west-virginia-...
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia school district has passed a policy mandating annual religious freedom training as part of a lawsuit settlement after an evangelical preacher held a revival assembly during the school day in 2022 that some students were required to attend.
As part of a settlement finalized Thursday, Cabell County's Board of Education's policy makes clear that it is “not the province of a public school to either inhibit, or advance, religious beliefs or practices," board lawyer Brian D. Morrison said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“Students must remain free to voluntarily express their individual religious beliefs, or lack thereof, as each student sees fit," Morrison said.
Four families in West Virginia's second-largest city of Huntington sued the district in February 2022, accusing the school system in the southwestern part of the state of having a systematic history of disregarding the religious freedom of its students and instituting Christian religious practices.
The lawsuit said two Huntington High School teachers escorted their entire homeroom classes to an assembly hosted by evangelical preacher Nik Walker, who had been leading revivals in the Huntington area in recent weeks.
Students, including a Jewish student who asked to leave but was not permitted to do so, were instructed to close their eyes and raise their arms in prayer, according to the lawsuit. The teens were asked to give their lives over to Jesus to find purpose and salvation. Students said they were told that those who did not follow the Bible would “face eternal torment."
During the assemblies, students and their families were encouraged to join evening services at a nearby church, where they could be baptized. The lawsuit followed a walkout at Huntington High School where more than 100 students left their classrooms chanting, “Separate the church and state” and “My faith, my choice.”
Morrison said the event was publicized in school announcements as a voluntary event hosted by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a student organization. The two teachers who brought their entire homeroom “were either confused or misunderstood," he said.
He said the board already had a policy in place on religious freedom in school, but that it now includes more strongly worded language, a training requirement and other additions as a “safeguard against the occurrence of similar instances in the future.”
The policy requires the district superintendent and principals “to attempt in good faith” to monitor school-sponsored activities to ensure policy compliance. Principals must report potential violations to the superintendent within seven days of discovering them. The superintendent is “authorized to investigate and take remedial action,” according to the policy.
As part of the settlement, the families will also receive up to $1 each from the district, and each student plaintiff will receive a $2,000 scholarship from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nonprofit that represented them in court. Nearly $175,000 in attorney fees were paid for by the board’s insurer.
Herman Mays, the father of one student forced to attend the revival, said the settlement brought about "meaningful policy changes and enforcement and training for staff and teachers on their constitutional responsibilities to ensure that what happened in Cabell public schools in February 2022 will not occur again.”
MontanaImagineIF Board votes to remove all references to American Library Association [and a blatant attempt to discredit trained libraries, remove them from the jobs they were trained to do and install untrained right-wing extremists in their place. Pot calling the kettle black, really. Who has an agenda now?].
The ImagineIF Board of Trustees voted Thursday to clarify its position of no longer being associated with the American Library Association.
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2023/...
The vote followed a Daily Inter Lake article published earlier this month looking into the board’s decision to drop Banned Books Week celebrations. Board Chair David Ingram previously said the move was based on a vote taken years ago to strip all references to the national group, which helps organize Banned Books Week, in the county library system.
But library employees could find no evidence of that vote during a subsequent review of records.
A majority of trustees believe that the national library association promotes Marxists beliefs and pushes a political agenda.
Trustee Doug Adams brought the topic back to the board at its Oct. 26 meeting. He said he remembers voting on the matter previously, but since no evidence of it can be found, he wanted a vote on a motion and a resolution. The motion would allow trustees to adopt resolutions while the resolution pertained to removing all references to the American Library Association.
Trustee Carmen Cuthbertson broke Adam’s resolution into two motions: the first being that the library remains a nonmember of the American Library Association and the second to remove all references to the organization.
Cuthbertson’s motion changed the language in Adam’s original resolution in a way that gave outgoing Library Director Ashley Cummins pause. She said the board wouldn’t want to take away the plethora of job training resources offered through the national group and its subsidiaries.
“Anyone who pursues an [Master of Library Sciences] while on staff is eligible for state funding to do that and that degree is an ALA accredited degree,” Cummins said. “I think you're shooting yourself in the foot if you go too far with it.”
Cuthbertson agreed that they didn’t want to exclude those resources from staff. Trustees then deliberated about the language of the motion before reverting back to what Adam’s original resolution described. They settled on ensuring the county library system’s policies, print and online marketing, programming and outreach events did not include any mention or reference of the American Library Association.
Cummins confirmed with trustees that both motions allowed the possibility for staff to take part in those job training programs or to be individual members of the national organization.
Both of Cuthbertson’s motions passed, with Trustee Jane Wheeler voting no on both.
Opponents of the campaign to move away from the American Library System were outspoken at the ImagineIF board meeting. The ALA encompasses many aspects of the library sector, including professional development and promotional programs.
Along with Wheeler, who expressed her disappointment at the position of her fellow trustees about the American Library Association, residents Diane Taylor-Menke and Margaret Davis voiced their support for the organization.
A somewhat faulty survey shows nearly nine of 10 Americans oppose banning books that include depictions of slavery from being taught in public schools, but a majority feel public schools should offer Christian Bible courses as electives, a new survey finds.https://www.axios.com/2023/10/27/book...
Oh HECK NO no religious classes in public school period. My parents sent us to CCD after school so we could get confirmed in the Catholic church. Our neighbor friends, my sister's ex-husband and his brother, my little cousins all went to Catholic school instead and got their religious instruction in their religious school.
The Business of Children’s Books in This New Era of Book BanningAs the publishing industry reels from a spate of recent bans—the majority of which affect kids—schools and libraries are providing some hope.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
Mod
West Virginia school system mandates religious training following revival a..."
Honestly, forcing a Jewish student to attend an evangelical Christian meeting is in my opinion akin to kidnapping and forcible confinement. I am glad there was a settlement, but in my opinion the teachers who forced the students to attend this should have been fired or at least face a long term suspension from teaching without pay.
Yes many of the comments in the article about the West Virginia school call for punishment of the teachers. Probably not, in West Virginia, but hopefully so. I'm happy the students fought this and made a difference in their school.
More news that popped up last night.The good:
Dallas area Texas
A former Grapevine High School student called attention to his school district's censorship by starting a banned-book reading club.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/a...
The Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District has enacted some of the most sweeping changes to its curriculum and materials policy in North Texas. The changes instituted under the Classical Social and Emotional Learning (CSEL) policy sought to exclude books that discussed topics the board deemed to be objectionable.
The CSEL, originally proposed in April 2022, targeted materials that discussed "critical race theory and systemic discrimination ideologies" and "gender fluidity and gender theory," and it broadened the definition of what the district could label as "pornography."
Some were placed in what the district calls "parental consent closets," meaning students must have the consent of a parent to access them.
One of the more ironic choices was to ban Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a profoundly important satirical novel in world literature about the dangers of forced conformity in which emotions and individuality are suppressed for the betterment of society.
Tommy Rogers, then a Grapevine High School junior, loved Huxley's novel and decided to speak up at a board meeting in August 2022. Input from the public that night lasted almost four hours.
"I was upset about this, and I decided to give a student's perspective on it because I didn't know any other students who intended to speak," Rogers tells the Observer. "We read it in my sophomore English class, and one of the scenes really connected ... [is] they raised children and electrocuted them to give them an automatic disdain for books. I thought that would be good to bring up at the meeting."
"Some of you are so afraid of your children having their own identities that you stop their learning," Rogers told the school board. "You tell them lies and don't let them think for themselves. You steal freedom from teenagers in your desperate attempt to stop the world from moving. You try to fit people in boxes they don't fit in because people who are different scare you. I don't care if you live in a world of ignorance but don't force it on the next generation."
Rogers' words didn't get much attention that night outside of the meeting. Instead that honor went to a loud, angry guy named Scott Western, who went viral by bellowing [transphobic rants].
The following month, however, Rogers found a way to focus attention on the school board's policies by starting a banned book reading club as an extracurricular activity at his school.
"I figured if I could appeal to [students'] desire to stop the book banning from progressing that I could get members to join and get some momentum," Rogers says.
The club started meeting to read books that the district had removed, and "there was some pushback."
"It showed how we could read these books anyway even if we don't read them in class," Rogers says. "We could still read them anyway, but for the most part, parents complained and were very upset children were taking part in the club."
The pushback even elevated to personal attacks on his parents, "especially on Facebook."
"It was more so after my parents because they raised me to love reading," Rogers says. "It wasn't threatening or anything, just [saying] how horrible parents they were."
[Hmm I thought it wasn't a ban because it's on Amazon and parents can buy it for their kids?! Proof the censors are LYING and a ban is a ban.]
The club met to read and discussed the theme in novels removed by GCISD and by other districts, including Brave New World, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. Rogers says more than 30 students joined the club to protest the district's policies.
The creation of the club attracted local and nationwide attention to GCISD.
"I was highly concerned because we were removing books with topics about racism, sexual identity or any form of discrimination really ...," Rogers says. "It's like they're teaching us not to think any more, and that's why they were banning books."
More from Dallas, proof the censors are banning books about ideas they disagree with and it's not just about schools!The Right's Latest Book-Ban Target: Texas Plantations
Conservative white activists hope to control the narrative at Texas historical sites. They might be getting help from the Texas Historical Commission.
Meet Michelle Haas, chairman of the board of the nonprofit Texas History Trust. In emails to a commissioner at the state’s historic preservation agency, she lambasted the literary offerings sold at Brazoria County historic plantations.
Works caught in Haas’ crosshairs include White Rage, which she noted in a December YouTube video was available in Varner-Hogg Plantation’s gift shop. She also mentioned titles at nearby Levi Jordan Plantation, such as Roots, an Afro-vegan cookbook and “children’s books about diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Instead of just, like, walking away and not buying the books, Haas decided to go on the offensive. And critics allege that her pressure campaign seems to have worked.
“Hey… remember those politically charged books being sold to the public at state-run history sites?” the email says at one point. “Those are gone now. We worked hard to make that happen.”
Haas argues that these books have little to do with Texas or the history of the places at which they’re being sold.
Detractors are blasting Haas’ efforts as yet another attempt by conservatives to gloss over the ugly parts of Texas history, one deeply rooted in racism.
The Observer reached out to the Texas Historical Commission to ask which, if any, books have been excised as a result of Haas’ campaign. We also asked for specifics on the book-challenge process.
An agency spokesperson confirmed via email that some titles have been removed but denied it was because of Haas’ complaints.
“However, staff removed those products to facilitate upgrades to our sites' point-of-sale cash register system; the decision to remove a specific item was driven by poor sales or its lack of connection to the agency's mission or the specific interpretative focus of a site,” he continued.
Benjamin H. Johnson, a history professor at Loyola University Chicago, noted that nearly all those books are by Black authors. To him, it seems that it took only one person — out of a state population of more than 29 million — to complain, and “authorities head[ed] to the hills.”
Among professional historians, the literature on the list is considered to be credible and important, he said.
“So, to have somebody who has no professional standing, who is clearly uncomfortable with discussions of racism, come in and have this kind of apparent impact on a state agency, it’s really depressing to me,” Johnson said.
But Haas’ complaints go beyond books. She has also railed against a video about the history of Varner-Hogg that has been shown at the plantation’s visitor center.
[The 1930s WPA slave narratives are controversial. Some scholars believe the transcriptionists wrote down what they wanted to hear based on their racist assumptions about formerly enslaved Black people. See Wikipedia for more]
The harrowing memoir detailing Solomon Northup’s kidnapping and enslavement was subjected to fierce scrutiny by Haas, who came out with a counter-narrative after “[s]everal years of fact checking [sic] every line” of the book. Her title? 200 Years a Fraud.
John R. Lundberg, a history professor at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, noted that Haas is attempting to debunk firsthand accounts of slavery that have been authenticated by historians and scholars. “It's just madness,” he said.
Johnson and Michael Phillips, a historian at Texas A&M Commerce, filed a records request that uncovered correspondence between Haas and the commissioner.
In Texas, Phillips said, “There’s a war on history.”
Take, for example, what Phillips calls the “right-wing takeover” of the Texas State Historical Association, which is helmed by an executive director who backs a narrative of Lone Star exceptionalism. Phillips also noted that Haas gave invited testimony before The 1836 Project Advisory Committee as it worked to provide a “whitewashed version” of Texas history, summarized in pamphlet form and distributed to folks when they get their driver’s license.
Many people in power would rather erase the past, casting racism as the moral failings of a few bad apples rather than as a systemic issue, he said. Blaming it on individuals requires no heavy lifting, no broader societal restructuring.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/t...
Over in Houston, the news is betterBanned books made available at Houston event, organizers advocate for literary freedom in Texas
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/ban...
Two prominent national organizations visited Kindred Stories, a bookstore in the Third Ward neighborhood, fervently advocating for the importance of book choice in educational institutions.
The American Federation of Teachers along with The New Republic and African American Policy Forum said the purpose of this nationwide tour is to ensure students and school librarians have the freedom to teach and authors have the freedom to write.
Renowned author and activist Renée Watson whose own children and young adult books have faced bans, emphasized the importance of addressing this issue. She believes that not discussing it is a way of silencing entire communities and erasing critical aspects of history.
"Reading is a form of listening," Watson said. "The problem with banning books is that we're telling a whole generation of young people that it's okay to ignore other people's stories and not listen to them."
While some attendees of the book tour, who brought their children along, acknowledge the need for some level of censorship, they emphasize the importance of scrutinizing what is being restricted and understanding the motivations behind such actions.
Brittany Hyman of Houston pointed out, "What gives them the right to say what is good for everyone else? It reminds you that at one point, reading was illegal for me, and we know why. So if that's the future that we want, then keep doing what you're doing."
Former kindergarten teacher creates flashcards to teach Black historyhttps://6abc.com/marvin-dutton-abc-fl...
These will likely be banned in Florida schools.
Good news!Colorado Public Radio: Garfield County residents rallied against the American Birthright social studies standards in their schools — and won
https://www.cpr.org/2023/10/27/garfie...
In an unexpected move that surprised parents, educators and community members, the school board in a small Garfield County school district Wednesday night suddenly voted 3-to-1 to adopt the state social studies standards that were backed by a diverse committee of district residents.
Community members had been expecting the board for Garfield County School District RE-2 to institute the controversial American Birthright social studies standards after this November’s election. However, Board President Tony May pulled the discussion item from the agenda after learning a local committee was going to recommend the board instead adopt the state social studies standards. Pulling the item from the agenda enraged community members who packed the boardroom Wednesday night.
Twenty-nine speakers spoke in support — two did not — of the state-adopted standards. One called the Birthright standards “religiously and politically charged,” and many spoke of their fatigue over political battles at school board meetings.
“Over the last year I’ve watched the priorities change from doing whatever it takes to help every child to fighting meaningless culture wars and pushing radical agendas that do not benefit or even reflect the interests and needs of the community,” said Celeste Kratzer, who grew up in Rifle and now teaches at Rifle Middle School.
But what most struck community members was how a social studies review committee composed of residents from different political and economic backgrounds, faiths and beliefs agreed on recommendations for the board.
Garfield County is a conservative county on the Western Slope, and the school district student body is more than half Latino.
“Everyone came together to hash it out, to really figure out what the community of this district really wanted,” said Jay Puidokas during the comment period. “And it was extremely eye-opening to see the values align.”
State law requires each school district to host a local forum about the new social studies standards. Garfield chose to create a 59-person committee to review how well three sets of standards — the adopted state social studies standards, revised state standards, and the American Birthright standards — aligned with several Colorado laws and how well the standards aligned to community values.
“Our entire goal has been to work collaboratively with the school board and with our community to understand what the community values are,” said Jacob Pringle, secondary school curriculum director.
Last year the state board of education passed new social studies standards to align with several state laws. The most controversial called for social studies standards to reflect the history, cultures and social contributions of diverse peoples. The law names specific groups: African American, Latino, American Indian, Asian Americans, and LGBTQ people.
Some Garfield board members pushed back on the state’s adopted standards.
But the community, alarmed that the option could be the American Birthright standards, began to rally. Several parents said they were afraid the district was going down the same path as the Woodland Park school district, where a conservative board adopted Birthright standards and instituted several dramatic changes, including the elimination of many mental health counselors and social worker positions. An estimated forty percent of school staff left Woodland Park last year.
District leaders in Garfield led an exhaustive community review process that involved public surveys, community and staff meetings as well as a social studies curriculum committee to identify the core values the community wanted to see embedded in the social studies standards, such as students becoming independent problem solvers and being a critical thinker.
Still, despite many in the community backing state standards, curriculum leaders said there is wariness among some in the community around LGBTQ topics in school.
“If a 4th grade student asks what LGBTQ is,” asked board member Jason Shoup, “is that instructor obligated to get that in-depth? Or in the (district) training (for state adopted standards), does it give avenues of an out?”
Simone Richardson, elementary curriculum director, gave an example of how such an issue might arise according to state-adopted standards: a teacher is reading a book about mom and dad taking their children to the zoo. If a child raises his hand and says, “I have two dads who took me to the zoo!” the teacher acknowledges the child and moves on, she said.
“Much of training would be around how does a family carry out those conversations and not an educator,” said Richardson, meaning teachers could encourage students with more questions to ask their parents.
Bad news in Alabama. Another one leaves ALA.State Library director Nancy Pack concedes to Ivey, dissolves state board membership with American Library Association
https://1819news.com/news/item/state-...
Yet ... good news in Alabama
Cullman Library Board declines to move challenged books
The books were all challenged by one resident for LGBTQ+ content. [two picture books and one MG/YA novel)
[book:Prince & Knight|34204247]
Heather Has Two Mommies
Lily and Dunkin
All three books were challenged by resident Shirley Arnett.
https://www.alreporter.com/2023/10/23...
According to The Cullman Times, Arnett took issue with the “alternate sexualities” and gender ideologies in the books, and also expressed disapproval of a portion of profits from “Prince and Knight” being donated to LGBTQ organizations.
“I assure you my commitment is only to protect our children,” Arnett said. “I persevere and am here to ensure that our taxpayer-funded public library has clear guidelines in place to protect our children from the p___graphy creeping into our Alabama libraries.”
None of the challenged books have p____graphic content.
The library board voted unanimously to keep the books in their current locations, minus the vote from newly elected board member Jill Meggs, who abstained since she had not had the opportunity to review the books. The Cullman County Commission voted unanimously to install Meggs on Tuesday.
“I think one common ground that every person in this room has is that we all feel very strongly that literacy is super important. It is the thing that bonds each person here together. We believe that education and reading is the key to the future for children specifically,” Meggs said. “I am extremely conservative, I’ll put that out to the world. I’m not ashamed of that, but my personal opinion is that it is a parent’s right to choose.”
Commissioner Garry Marchman, who appointed Meggs, is on the record stating that he’d rather not have any LGBTQ content in the library.
“They’re trying to politicize what we’re doing at the library a little bit, and that’s the wrong thing,” Marchman told the Cullman Tribune after all county commissioners signed onto a petition by Clean Up Alabama. “That shouldn’t be politicized. I don’t believe we should have a single book in that library, period, that covers anything to deal with LGBT, and I know that’s a strong statement. I’m not going to say it’s OK and that we’re censoring; you can take your censorship somewhere else. If you think we’re censoring, then let’s vote on it and see if we’re censoring.”
Arnett also noted she looked for a list of 100 books in the Cullman library that she would take issue with, but had not been able to find those books in the library.
Cullman resident Krysti Shallenberger, head of Cullman County’s chapter of Read Freely Alabama, said this is an unprecedented attack on the library.
“In the decades I have spent living here in Cullman, Alabama, never have I seen such a concerted effort to remove books targeting a specific community despite the baggage this town has carried from its past,” Shallenberger said.
She also read an email she said she received from another Cullman resident who said her children have faced discrimination over having two moms.
More from AlabamaI still don't understand why these brainless people can't look at subject headings and call numbers! Read the jacket flap/back of the book for more description.
__________________________________
Athens-Limestone County Library board meeting sidelined by censorship discussion
https://whnt.com/community/athens-lim...
One woman, Elizabeth Stewart, referenced Gov. Kay Ivey’s letter and read excerpts to the board. Stewart said, “Statewide and also nationwide there’s been concern over materials that are placed within the young adult section, and that goes from children to all the way to juvenile and young adult.”
Stewart said she wasn’t there to get the board to ban books, but rather to have the board look into updating policies.
“There’s not really a lot of books in question at this library,” she said. “But what I did notice, is that like most libraries in the country, and the state of Alabama, we have outdated policies.”
“Unfortunately at this time, the Director of the American Library Association, she’s been very public that she wants LGBTQ and queer material available to all ages of children,” Stewart said. “My current concern with a lot of those materials is that much of it includes explicitly sexual material, some of it graphic in the fact that it’s pictorial in nature, and we do not have a policy at this library that is objective and goes into specific material based on ages.”
“I’m asking that this policy be addressed,” Stewart said. “A.) to remove the wording” she continued.
“I think you should have a section on sexual content, I think it should be objective and in accordance with what the Governor said,” Stewart said. “It should be easy for parents to point to criteria and know that this is the section of the library that this book should be in.”
“No one is asking for a books to be banned, but if a parent has a concern, should they have to wait for the next Board of Trustees meeting?” she said.
Stewart said rather than removing books from the library entirely, books are moved to a section where age limits are in place.
“It’s not censorship to have age-appropriate guidelines for access, we have age-appropriate guidelines for when you smoke,” Stewart said.
However, that brought up the topic of having to define what is and isn’t appropriate for what ages and what books would need to be moved.
Board Chairman, Chris Anderson, this is a subjective topic, and not all parents will agree.
“It’s hard to legislate taste,” he said. “There are certain TV shows that I wouldn’t let my child watch, but maybe she would.”
Other people who spoke at the meeting said they were concerned that censoring what is available would be harmful to people of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I feel like it’s pretty clear that there’s not a lot of sexually explicit books in the kids section,” Courtney Greene said. “My concern is that the real poke here is to eventually want to limit LGBTQ stories, even if they are written at an age-appropriate level.”
Greene said he hopes the library will consider diversity when looking at any policy changes.
“When the library board is considering updating this policy, I just hope that it is with a mindset that the library is for everyone, diverse stories are for everyone and everyone deserves to see themselves on the shelves,” Greene said. “For some kids, seeing themselves represented that way is like life and death.”
Christopher Reese, a librarian at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, had concern that taking certain books out of the children and young adult section would be a disservice to people learning about their own cultures, religion, family heritage, or race.
“The library must be open not just to Mrs. Stewart’s family, but to every family,” Reese said.
Now walking through the Athens-Limestone Public Library, it is clear that it has made some recent changes to help ease the concerns of some parents who were worried about their young children wandering into the young adult section.
It recently moved the young adult section further away from the children’s section.
In addition, the library also recently moved two books by author Ellen Hopkins because they contained material about drug use and sexual activity. “Crank” and “Tricks” were previously in the young adult section, and have now been moved to the adult section, after a library member challenged the content of one of the books.
While those books were previously in the young adult section, Anderson said they were rarely checked out.
“We want to make this clear – we do not believe that our children’s section has graphic images of p____graphic material,” he said.
Since this discussion was started by Stewart during the public comment period, the Board of Trustees was not voting on any related matters.
Louisiana- Fair news. This seems like a reasonable policy. Come on kids, check out those books for all your friends!________________________________
AG Landry’s guidance on minors’ library access already shaping local decisions
A controversial new Louisiana law does not mean libraries have to restrict minors’ access to materials deemed “sexually explicit” before checkout, Attorney General Jeff Landry is advising library administrators.
The guidance, which a Northshore library board cited this week in a policy decision, comes as a blow to some far-right activists who have been using the law to push libraries to create restricted sections for challenged books. Library administrators have until Jan. 1 to implement the law and many are currently weighing how to best implement the necessary policy updates.
“Whether a book is appropriate for a particular collection is controlled by the collection policy of the library,” Landry wrote in his opinion. “Before relocating a book to a different collection, the library should consider whether relocation is appropriate under the library’s collection policy.” The law also does not require the books to be pulled from circulation pending review, according to Landry.
The law, which Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, created earlier this year with strong support from Landry, prohibits minors from checking out books classified as sexually explicit if their parents haven’t approved their access to such material. Libraries must develop a card system for younger patrons to show whether they have parental permission.
Landry’s interpretation of the law leaves a pretty big loophole for young readers with a restricted card; librarians can’t stop minors with unrestricted cards from checking out sexually explicit materials for their friends.
Librarians do not have to do a full review of their collections to determine which materials meet the law’s definition of sexually explicit, Landry said. They do have to review books challenged by patrons who live within the library’s service area, although library boards have the right to evaluate materials that have not been challenged.
The law’s local-only challenge provision, coupled with Landry’s opinion that one library’s determination an item is sexually explicit does not apply to others, means activists who have sought to ban the same books across the nation will have their work cut out for them in Louisiana.
While Landry says decisions of whether an item is sexually explicit should be guided by the definitions of the law and not board members’ ideological views, library board members are political appointees who have, in some cases, been open about how their personal beliefs guide their votes.
If a library board determines a book is sexually explicit, which several paragraphs in the law defines, it does not mean the book has to be moved to the adult section, only that minors with restricted cards — which libraries are required by the new law to set up — can’t check them out.
Mod
Manybooks wrote: "I should not be thinking such thoughts perhaps, but I am seriously afraid that in Florida, Texas, Alabama and the like, soon, it will perhaps even be illegal for "banned books" to be present in peo..."They really can't do that. They would have a huge legal battle and most of the judges so far have ruled in favor of first amendment rights. That would be the fastest way to get booted out of office so the governors can certainly TRY but from what I've read and heard, the censors are a small vocal minority. However, with the Speaker of the House being an election denier, a homophobe, etc. etc., dark money funneled into the Supreme Court and Donald Trump poised to become president again, the Constitution could become a moot point. In which case, everyone of sense will try to leave the country and let the USA burn to the ground.
Mod
Sometimes I wonder if Canada and Mexico need walls to keep Fascist America out.
Manybooks wrote: "Sometimes I wonder if Canada and Mexico need walls to keep Fascist America out.."Then what do they do with their own fascists?
There's some good news of a sort today.
In Wisconsin
Democratic members of the Wisconsin Legislature are fighting back against a rising tide of demands to ban books by proposing a law that would cut off state and local funding for schools, libraries, universities, and certain other institutions that “ban or unreasonably restrict access” to books and media based on the authors’ political views, historical accuracies, and racial or sexual content.
“In a democracy, we must preserve our right to access a wide array of ideas and perspectives,” say the bill’s authors in a memo seeking co-sponsors. “Such freedoms are integral to the democratic values of freedom and self-governance upon which our nation was founded. Unfortunately, instances of government institutions attempting to censor or restrict access to certain books or other educational materials have been on the rise, stifling the open exchange of ideas that is essential to an open and informed society.”
The bill was written up by Assembly Reps. Jodi Emerson of Eau Claire, Dave Considine of Baraboo, Christine Sinicki of Madison, and Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison.
https://upnorthnewswi.com/2023/10/19/...
Representative Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) issued the following statement:
“I am proud to have authored and introduced an Anti-Book Banning bill during Free Speech Week. This bill prevents government funded institutions from banning access to books or other media on the grounds of ideas presented in the book or media or ideals of the creators of the books or media.
“The banning of books in libraries and schools directly targets the freedoms that our democracy is founded on and restricts access to diverse perspectives and values. All ages benefit from the knowledge books have to offer in schools and in libraries, but it is in particular, an injustice to hide valuable ideas and information from children, simply on the grounds of a difference of opinion. It is our responsibility to cultivate and encourage a well-informed public.
“Similar legislation has already become law in Illinois and California. Here in Wisconsin, it is critical to put an end to governmental censorship, and set an important precedent for future generations.
“It’s a shame we even have to discuss book bans in a free country in 2023, but it is important to the future of democracy in this state, that these issues are confronted. I am proud to work on this bill and will continue to support legislation that encourages freedom of thought and creates an informed society."
https://www.wispolitics.com/2023/rep-...
Letters to the editor from those opposed to book bansHuntington Beach, Calif.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story...
Lehigh Valley, Penn.
Moms for Liberty’s broke agenda harms Nazareth schools. Vote against its candidates. | Letter
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opin...
Mod
Good news and necessary, but it will only stay good news, if there are no exemptions whatsoever being considered (if Holocaust education will indeed be mandatory for ALL students, period, and with protests and any form of verbal or physical violence severely punished) and if the mandatory Holocaust education also will pertain to private schools (including religious ones) and to parents who homeschool (and I sadly doubt this will end up being the case).
Manybooks wrote: "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...Good news and necessary, but it will only stay good news, if there are no exemptions whatsoever being con..."
That's good news. I can't believe it's not automatically taught in schools. I didn't study it in detail until college but I read the Diary of Anne Frank on my own, read many other books and learned about WWII in school. 10th grade seems a little late though. I would have learned about it in 8th grade if we had gotten that far along in time. (We spent a lot of time on the Civil War). If we didn't get to it in 8th, then it would have been 12th grade AP History but all my teacher did was teach what was on the AP exam.
Some good news in VirginiaHanover student creates 'banned book nooks' around county
the story is paywalled but I can get a summary
A Hanover High School student has placed Banned Book Nooks at two locations in the county, with this one belong located at We Think in Ink in Ashland, Va. “We think having access to these books is important, even if our traffic isn't high school students,” We Think In Ink's production supervisor Alison Sanderlin said.
https://richmond.com/news/local/educa....
This seems to be the same student, the Girl Scout, mentioned earlier in the month.
https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/...
Her second nook is in Morr Donuts, which is in Mechanicsville.
She even created an app with a list of titles. Click to read a review from a professional review source, why it's banned and where you can read it.
Librarian feels Alabamians ‘betrayed’ by recommendation to leave American Library Associationhttps://www.al.com/news/2023/10/libra...
Matthew Layne, president of the Alabama Library Association, an ALA chapter, said in an email that by disaffiliating from the ALA, the APLS “will lose access to a professional organization with over 50,000 members of professional librarians and library workers from around the world. They will lose access to workshops and training from brilliant librarian leaders, thinkers, and the important collegiality that one experiences in such organizations.”
In response to Pack’s recommendations, librarian Marylyn Eubank said in a letter sent to the Alabama Library Association, “it is hard to compose a professional response to fear-based, unfounded, reactionary actions. One shakes with anger and the righteous indignation born from years of professional study and development. But shaking with anger doesn’t make the situation better for the millions of Alabama residents (mostly children) who have been betrayed by the very professionals meant to protect their rights.”
Eubank said “Alabama kept books used by her black residents separate from books used by white residents” until the 1960s, and today, “funding for libraries is being held hostage by the governor and the state legislature.”
“Pack is simply providing the state what it wants - censorship in exchange for funding,” Eubank said.
They will continue to partner with the APLS. This decision affects APLS but doesn’t affect individual librarians who pay out of their own pockets to become members of ALA. Individuals or libraries can pay dues and still be a part of the ALA. Libraries who pay for their employees to be part of the ALA will adjust accordingly.
If APLS adopts the proposed rule change, then library board meetings will be the venue in which those funds are appropriated.
Layne believes this recommendation by Pack is the “very definition of censorship.” He “vehemently disagrees that books which are representative of marginalized populations are potentially harmful and worthy of limiting access to and/or relocating to different sections of our great Alabama public libraries.”
“We as Alabamians should in no way capitulate to a vocal minority of individuals who wish to control what our citizens choose to read for themselves and for their families,” Layne said. “Now is the time for all good citizens to write to their Alabama legislators, their city councilors, and Gov. Ivey to let them know the freedom to read is a right worth defending in Alabama.”
Mod
Good news and necessary, but it will only stay good news, if there are no exemptions wh..."
We got detailed education on WWI, WWII (and that included the Holocaust and the Japanese Internment) in senior high but it seems that today's youth in much of Canada have not gotten this.
UGH neighbors to the north in Dover, NH. Why on earth does a random taxpayer have the right to challenge a book in a high school she doesn't go to/have kids at and isn't even required reading? No. Just no. And yes it is a ban.
_____________________
'Boy Toy,' book at Dover High School library, targeted for removal. Board to vote Nov. 1.
https://www.fosters.com/story/news/lo...
Dover School Board members will convene Wednesday to vote on whether to remove a book from the Dover High School library after a resident’s bid to have it taken off the shelves.
Author Barry Lyga’s 2007 book “Boy Toy” is the subject of taxpayer Julie Porter’s request for reconsideration filed with the school district last school year.
The book is not required reading for students and has been offered in the Dover High School library since 2008.
Porter's appeal of the book with the school district notes she believes the book should be withdrawn from all students, that its theme or purpose is (view spoiler) and alleges that the book was acquired with public funds in violation of the law, according to School Board agenda materials. Porter’s recommendation is that the book is for students aged 18 or older.
Porter wrote that her efforts are “in no way an attack on the LGBTQ community.” Porter additionally commented, “This is not a book ban, it is what is age and developmentally appropriate for children under 18.”
(view spoiler) “The fact that it’s about a (12-year-old) middle school boy is not an ethical/moral example for children. And if it stays in the library, the possibility a child will believe it is acceptable behavior and acts on it, because it’s in the school library, is criminal, at best.
“The fact (that) the high school has children under 18, should be enough to remove this book. This book will cause early childhood adverse events. The name and contents of the book, in of itself, is a reflection of a sick individual and (is) confusing to unsuspecting minor children,” Porter continues.
Porter did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The SAU 11 book reconsideration committee has already recommended keeping the book in place at the Dover High School library, as it is not required reading for students.
“The committee agrees that this book is not appropriate for all DHS students; however, this book is not required reading,” reads a memo written by school district assistant superintendent Christine Boston, who chairs the book reconsideration committee. “School libraries are responsible for circulating books which reach a wide range of appeal, viewpoints, and abilities. While ‘Boy Toy’ has mature content, the words and descriptions are familiar to the majority of students at DHS, and the book contains sufficient literary value to merit its continued inclusion in the DHS library.”
District superintendent William Harbron also issued his recommendation to keep the book in the school, as was requested by Porter in accordance with district policy.
The School Board’s vote on Wednesday will be the final decision on the book, per the district’s policy.
In April, the Dover school district noted Porter’s request for reconsideration of “Boy Toy” was one of eight books she asked the SAU 11 leaders to review.
The other titles include "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health" by Robie Harris; "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins; "Girl in Pieces" by Kathleen Glasgow; “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Foer; "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson; "Allegedly a Novel" by Tiffany D. Jackson; and "Breathless" by Jennifer Niven.
The Dover City Council passed a resolution in mid-June denouncing “unconstitutional” attempts to censor books at Dover’s public and school libraries.
Nebraska- surprising news. Not real sure why he had this novel on the syllabus if he was uncomfortable teaching it. Gothenburg teacher fired amid controversy over book and breach of confidentiality
https://nebraska.tv/newsletter-daily/...
The hearing on English teacher Jay Garrison's employment was held publicly Monday at his request.
Protestors had expressed their dissatisfaction with the school's decision to potentially let go of a teacher who had raised concerns about a controversial book titled "Ready Player One".
However, Gothenburg Superintendent Allison Jonas said Garrison initially had no issues with the book at a meeting on Oct. 19, 2022.
“The team was passionate enough about the novel that the conversation quickly transitioned into what safeguards could we put in place to make this work," said Jonas. "An exit ticket submitted by the team from that day articulates that Mr. Garrison shared with the English group some suggestions to utilize as those safeguards, ones that he had used to teach a novel called, ‘Of Mice and Men.'”
Jonas said those included requiring a parent signature, offering an alternative novel, not reading explicit language out loud, skipping the questionable section and ensuring the course itself was not required. She said it was implemented and the strategies played out in the fall.
Jonas said the administration planned to reprimand Garrison for sharing his concerns later with parents before his colleagues.
She said he later shared embargoed ACT scores with parents, an action that breached confidentiality, ultimately leading to the termination of his contract.
Nebraska- surprising news. Not real sure why he had this novel on the syllabus if he was uncomfortable teaching it. Gothenburg teacher fired amid controversy over book and breach of confidentiality
https://nebraska.tv/newsletter-daily/...
The hearing on English teacher Jay Garrison's employment was held publicly Monday at his request.
Protestors had expressed their dissatisfaction with the school's decision to potentially let go of a teacher who had raised concerns about a controversial book titled "Ready Player One".
However, Gothenburg Superintendent Allison Jonas said Garrison initially had no issues with the book at a meeting on Oct. 19, 2022.
“The team was passionate enough about the novel that the conversation quickly transitioned into what safeguards could we put in place to make this work," said Jonas. "An exit ticket submitted by the team from that day articulates that Mr. Garrison shared with the English group some suggestions to utilize as those safeguards, ones that he had used to teach a novel called, ‘Of Mice and Men.'”
Jonas said those included requiring a parent signature, offering an alternative novel, not reading explicit language out loud, skipping the questionable section and ensuring the course itself was not required. She said it was implemented and the strategies played out in the fall.
Jonas said the administration planned to reprimand Garrison for sharing his concerns later with parents before his colleagues.
She said he later shared embargoed ACT scores with parents, an action that breached confidentiality, ultimately leading to the termination of his contract.
Nebraska- surprising news. Not real sure why he had this novel on the syllabus if he was uncomfortable teaching it. Gothenburg teacher fired amid controversy over book and breach of confidentiality
https://nebraska.tv/newsletter-daily/...
The hearing on English teacher Jay Garrison's employment was held publicly Monday at his request.
Protestors had expressed their dissatisfaction with the school's decision to potentially let go of a teacher who had raised concerns about a controversial book titled "Ready Player One".
However, Gothenburg Superintendent Allison Jonas said Garrison initially had no issues with the book at a meeting on Oct. 19, 2022.
“The team was passionate enough about the novel that the conversation quickly transitioned into what safeguards could we put in place to make this work," said Jonas. "An exit ticket submitted by the team from that day articulates that Mr. Garrison shared with the English group some suggestions to utilize as those safeguards, ones that he had used to teach a novel called, ‘Of Mice and Men.'”
Jonas said those included requiring a parent signature, offering an alternative novel, not reading explicit language out loud, skipping the questionable section and ensuring the course itself was not required. She said it was implemented and the strategies played out in the fall.
Jonas said the administration planned to reprimand Garrison for sharing his concerns later with parents before his colleagues.
She said he later shared embargoed ACT scores with parents, an action that breached confidentiality, ultimately leading to the termination of his contract.
Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Out of the Blue (other topics)The Princess in Black and the Prince in Pink (other topics)
My Rainbow (other topics)
Butt or Face? Volume 3: Super Gross Butts (other topics)
The Day the Books Disappeared (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jodi Picoult (other topics)Sarah J. Maas (other topics)
Ellen Hopkins (other topics)
Jodi Picoult (other topics)
Scott Stuart (other topics)
More...
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/housto...
According to the Houston Chronicle's Catherine Dominguez, Conroe ISD's school board will revisit a proposed policy that would clarify the district's definition of "sexually explicit materials" and allow the board to appeal decisions made by the district's book reconsideration committee. The policy mirrors one recently implemented by Katy ISD that empowers the school board to ban certain books that meet their criteria for inappropriate material.
Conroe's version of the policy was introduced by trustee Tiffany Nelson, who said the revisions would ensure the district complied with House Bill 900, a new law that bans books deemed "sexually explicit" from school libraries and creates a system for rating books, per the Chronicle's Dominguez.
"As parents continue to bring questionable books [to us] I feel that it is important we put something in place,” Nelson said of the proposed policy change, per Dominguez. "I think it is the missing point we have had in our policies." Conroe ISD's current policy permits an individual to request a review of a book they believe isn't appropriate for students or violates the Texas Education Code.