Children's Books discussion
Banned Books: discussions, lists
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Discussion of censorship, equity, and other concerns.
Better news in OregonBill prohibiting book bans based on race, gender gains momentum in Oregon legislature
Senate Bill 1583 prohibits book bans on the basis of race, gender identity, country of origin, sexual orientation, disability and immigrant status.
https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/oreg...
Good news in Michigan8 challenged books will stay in Northview Public School libraries, school board rules
(paywalled)
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...
Tennessee still trying to ban booksTennessee lawmakers propose changes to how books get removed from school libraries
Tennessee’s Republican-controlled Statehouse is once again looking to tweak how books can be removed from school library shelves
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/t...
Tennessee's Republican-controlled Statehouse is once again looking to tweak how books can be removed from school library shelves despite concerns that the latest proposal could result in the Bible being possibly banned.
....
Two years ago, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed off on legislation requiring school libraries to post their contents online and regularly review their policies to make sure the materials are “age appropriate” and “suitable” for children.
The Republican then also approved a new appeals process for removing books from school libraries, allowing the state's textbook commission — made up of all political appointees — to have the ultimate say in whether a book can or can't stay in school libraries.
This year, Republican lawmakers are looking to overhaul the definition of “suitable” materials in library collections by defining that it must not contain “nudity or descriptions or depictions of (view spoiler) for the age or maturity level of a student in any of the grades K-12" or materials that are “patently offensive.”
The bill would then require local school boards to decide within 60 days when they receive a complaint about a book. If that doesn't happen, the person who made the complaint may take the issue immediately to the state's textbook commission.
However, the proposal's latest definitions have raised concern that previously innocuous materials could now face challenges.
“I’m curious, at what age group would the holy Bible be allowed in public schools?” asked Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro. “You cannot read the book of Samuel without significant discussions of (view spoiler)
Republican Sen. Joey Hensley argued that he thought the Bible would be appropriate at any age and downplayed any concerns about the new changes.
“This bill is not really changing the material in the law,” Hensley said. “I don’t think the Bible would be considered offensive to any age.”
The Senate approved the legislation on a 22-4 vote. The proposal had previously passed the House chamber last year, but due to a small clerical error between the two versions, the bill must clear the House once more before it can head to Lee's desk.
Wyoming Librarian says she was fired for pushing back on book ban attemptshttps://www.9news.com/article/news/na...
Terri Lesley worked for the library in Campbell County for 27 years, 11 of which were as the library's executive director. After the library made a Facebook post with book suggestions for Pride Month in July 2021, a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments resulted in a push to remove certain titles from the shelves.
Lesley said the 2021 post resulted in an unexpected series of events.
"It was anger. It was public meetings, people speaking about the books," said Lesley from her Gillette home. "It's pretty shocking because you work in a library, you’re helping people, and they love you, and they all thank you, and I think it’s almost magic with how they connect you with what they need and want, and then all of the sudden, out of nowhere, you have people mad at you and on the attack."
In the months that followed that initial Pride post, 57 challenges were submitted against 29 titles — that was up from zero book challenges the year before the controversy began. Many of the books were based on sex education for teens or about LGBTQ+ topics.
The controversy led to monthly meetings with the Campbell County Public Library System Board of Trustees, which turned into hours of complaints and individuals questioning Lesley's actions. She said a group of people organized to target her and the library because of the LGBTQ+ books.
"It was like, every other minute they called it p----raphic and that she was exposing children to p-----raphy and obscenity," said Iris Halpern, Lesley's Denver-based attorney. "They’re trying to apply so much pressure to these librarians that, eventually, these libraries give up and pull the books, or they get terminated because they refuse to, but it’s a political process right now, right? It’s becoming highly politicized."
During the first year of book challenges, the library board supported her decision to keep the sex education and LGBTQ+ books.
At first, the library board supported Lesley's decision to keep sex education and LGBTQ+ books on the shelves. The following year, four new board members were appointed.
"And they had a different idea to what should be in the library," Lesley explained.
In July 2023, the board voted to terminate Lesley at a public meeting. Lesley spoke just before the vote, knowing what was coming.
"For 25 years, this was my dream job and the last two years they have been pure hell," she said at that meeting. "And I don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
A crowd of individuals roared and applauded for Lesley after her 2023 speech. She often said that the individuals against the books and her actions were a small part of the Gillette community.
Lesley has since filed a complaint against the library board with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her attorney said the board's actions were not appropriate.
"I mean, it's unlawful. I mean, it's against the constitution — the problem is no one is thinking about the constitutionality of the actions that are being taken during these campaigns to suppress speech," said Halpern, Lesley's attorney. "It doesn’t matter if it's constitutional or not, there’s going to be kind of fringe groups in the community that are going to target these librarians, people like Terri Lesley, until they finally cave in or get terminated regardless of whose rights are being trampled or what lives are being ruined in that process."
Lesley is currently out of work. There are not many jobs available for a library director in a rural community. But she said what keeps her going is the support she continues to get from the community.
"I think we tried everything," said Jenny Sorenson, a friend of Lesley's who attended meetings to support her.
The pair met up at a local restaurant to reflect on the last two years.
"You actually did a lot of good," Lesley replied to Sorenson. "I could have not gotten through without you guys. It's been a life experience that's for sure."
Lesley said she does not regret her decision to stand up against the library board.
Her attorney said it could take up to two years for the EEOC to release a decision on the complaint. 9NEWS made multiple attempts to contact the board members but never received a response.
Today's news from Literary ActivismGundula you will want to read this one.
https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
In Indiana, the Attorney General has set up a snitch line that targets "socialist" educators. It is not limited to elementary, middle, and high school educators, which would be dangerous enough. It also puts a target on the backs of educators at colleges and universities in the state. ...
.Senate Bill 202 specifically addresses "excessive politicization and viewpoint discrimination that threatens our state’s workforce goals" in Indiana higher education.
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NC Librarian of community colleges Birch Barnes sent an email out to the leadership at 27 state community colleges under his purview. He noted that thanks to the state's new Parental Rights Law — attached to the email — all institutions would need to turn on tracking of what minor-aged patrons were borrowing from the library. A provision in the parental rights law wherein public schools operating certain programs with their local community college may request those community colleges to comply with the parental rights laws. Whether or not the community colleges choose to comply is up to the leadership of the institution itself.
But in this case, Barnes elected to comply without request. The law, which went into effect in August, was not something that became a worry at the community college level until the impending deadline to implement, December 31. Barnes quickly determined that the schools needed to comply; what made it tricky is that while he oversees all of the state's community colleges, he only oversees the library software for 27 of those schools.
In his email to all leaders, Barnes noted that the library's software for checkouts would make this kind of record-keeping easy to implement. [It] was quickly noted that the library's borrowing history records would not be turned on solely for those 18 or under — the law dictates that 18-year-olds not yet emancipated are still minors — but instead, the borrowing records of every library user in the 27 community colleges would be accessible. This is a blatant violation of patron privacy rights, and it is a blatant ethical issue for libraries that uphold such privacy (something that became exceedingly relevant and vital following passage of the Patriot Act post-9/11).
Record tracking in the contingent of North Carolina Community Colleges was turned on for every user December 15, 2023. Barnes did not address concerns about this privacy violation for three weeks when he admitted libraries could make their own decisions about this following two considerations. First, he coordinated a meeting with a general counsel person who would discuss the implications of the parental rights law and urged everyone upset about the new policy attend the meeting; second, any library choosing not to track patron borrowing history to be in touch with him directly to resolve the issue.
And as it turns out, many librarians in the system did not even know the entire body of library user records were being tracked for nearly a month.
In West Virginia, where a bill to criminalize librarians and educators over "obscene material" has stalled, something changed. They added that bill into a bill targeting AI child p---n, which is a very popular bill with legislators.https://www.dominionpost.com/2024/03/...
The Senate bill is SB 741. It criminalizes child p------hy that does not depict an actual minor but a digitally or AI (artificial intelligence) generated p----n that convincingly appears to be a minor. It passed the Senate 34-0.
The bill the committee leaders amended in is HB 4654. It would strike from code the exemptions for public and school libraries regarding displaying or disseminating obscene material to minors. It’s stirred public debate and opposition and has been critically referred to as the book ban bill.
It passed the House 85-12 and has been stalled in Senate Judiciary.
Delegate Joey Garcia, D-Marion, made the first go at stripping the library bill out of the child p---n bill by having the addition declared not germane to the bill (SB 741 deals with state code 61-8A-3 while HB 4654 would go in 61-8C-12).
Chair Tom Fast, R-Fayette, said it is germane because both deal with protecting children from obscenity. So, Garcia challenged Fast’s ruling; the challenge failed 16-2.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, then moved to have action on the bill postponed one day, because the Democrats had received no notice of the addition and had no time to call witnesses.
One of the Republicans defended the addition, saying, “It’s not our fault the Senate won’t take up some of the most important bills to our body.”
Hansen’s move failed, so he tried another one: to table the amendment to the bill (the addition of HB 4654). That also failed. As did his final move: to recess.
With the amendment adopted, consideration moved to the hybrid bill.
Garcia complained about the unannounced amendment. They got a good bill from the Senate, he said, “then we have groundhogs moving at night.” It’s divisive gamesmanship, he added, saying, “I’m really disgusted.”
Hansen said, “This is the defacto book ban bill. … This is what this bill has been hijacked to do – send librarians to jail. … This is why people just throw up their hands and give up on our legislative system.”
Delegate Goeff Foster, R-Putnam and a co-sponsor of HB 4654, said both portions of the bill protect minors – from deep fakes and from purely prurient material getting handed out in a library.
Delegate JB Akers, R-Kanawha, countered Hansen, “This amendment bans zero books.” He pointed out that sample material brought to committee could not be shown in a newspaper or on broadcast TV.
The vote was, of course, 16-2 to send it to the House floor.
The committee also approved, unanimously and with no acrimony, a sister bill, SB 740. It criminalizes altering a photograph, image, video clip, movie, or recording containing s---ually explicit conduct by inserting the image of an actual minor so it appears that the minor is engaged in s---ually explicit conduct.
It also goes to the House floor.
What like teens never use the f-word? A LOT? I heard it more in the UK than here but still, stuff I heard in the school hallways and school bus is no worse.______________________________________
A principal at Haywood County Schools (NC) elected to ban Dear Martin from classrooms after one parent complained. The censor tries to legitimize the complaint via swear counting on Common Sense Media.
https://www.aol.com/book-pulled-class...
At a Jan. 10 school board meeting, Tim Reeves objected to the use of a book called Dear Martin being assigned in his son's 10th grade English class.
"He shared with us there was some explicit language," said Reeves. "I was just appalled by the type of language that was within a book that was given to my son as a text."
Reeves investigated the book and found things that concerned him, including inappropriate language and sexual innuendos. He also mentioned that the class' syllabus did not list the book.
As a result, Reeves contacted his son's principal, who spoke with the teacher and central office administration about the situation in an attempt to resolve the matter.
When Reeves arrived at the board meeting, Superintendent Bill Nolte notified him that the book had been pulled by Nolte and would not be used in the classroom.
Nolte said parental questions like this come up regularly during the school year.
"There are situations in which there is a book sitting on the shelf in the library, or a teacher's room. In some situations, books are assigned. There are even some situations where teachers give assignments and let students pick their own book," said Nolte.
In general, though, Nolte said the school system doesn't "ban" books.
"We haven't banned a book since I've been superintendent or associate superintendent," said Nolte, a time span of 15 years.
Multiple school systems across the country have removed Dear Martin from their schools for a myriad of reasons ranging from vulgar language, the topic of racism and more. The book contains no sexual content.
Due to the amount of foul language, Nolte came to a similar decision and asked the teacher not to use the book.
"I thought the excessive amount of profanity distracted enough from the message that you could probably find another book with a similar message that was better," said Nolte.
According to Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit, research-backed review site for parents, Dear Martin includes violence, some swearing (including "f — k" and "s — t"), teen drinking, and grief. The overall rating for the book is for ages 14+.
A tricky process
Nolte made it clear that removing Dear Martin was an administrative decision, but not one made lightly. Each situation is different and there's always a gray area, said Nolte.
In the case of Dear Martin, Nolte and the school board did not outright ban the novel from school use. In this particular case, however, it will not be used.
"For Dear Martin, we said 'pick another book'. It doesn't mean if a student picked that book when they had a choice, we probably wouldn't say a word to them," said Nolte.
Nolte also recognized that removing books is a tricky process because it often falls to individuals like principals and superintendents to remove them.
"We can't just remove books because we don't like it," said Nolte.
Another problem in this particular case was that the book was assigned to students but parents were not made aware beforehand.
At the high school level, books are usually placed on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester for parents to review, especially ones that may be challenged because of their content.
Board policies
HCS has two school board policies that affect literature in the classroom: 3200 (Selection of Instructional Materials) and 3210 (Parental Inspection Of and Objection To Instructional Materials).
According to Board Policy 3200, "Instructional materials should be representative of the rich diversity of our nation and appropriate for the maturity levels and abilities of the students."
The policy also states that parents have a right under federal law to inspect instructional materials used in their child's classroom.
According to Board Policy 3210, parents can submit an objection in writing to the principal if they find any material unsuitable for their child.
If a parent submits an objection, the policy allows for the principal to establish a committee to review the objection and obtain input from the community if necessary.
If the principal or committee determines that any materials violate constitutional or other legal rights of the parent or student, the material must be removed or accommodations must be made to that particular student and parent.
If a parent finds the decision lacking, it may be appealed to the superintendent, which in turn the superintendent's decision may be appealed to the school board.
Ban worthy books
While Nolte said the school system has never banned a book while he's been at Haywood schools, there are some books he'd be willing to ban.
"There are a few books that are just written to be bigoted and hurtful and to try to help people to believe or promote racism or sexual discrimination or discrimination against personal beliefs. We do think if we ran across books like that, we would remove them or even ban them. If you have books that are that malicious, and there are some out there, you would be in good standing if you removed them permanently," said Nolte.
Book banning is a hot-button issue with strong viewpoints on both sides. Nolte recognizes that, but realizes neither side is right in every case.
"I do think there are some who argue that schools should be able to remove a lot of stuff. Most of those arguments are pretty invalid," said Nolte. Lack of solid case.
"There's a little gray with everything. We just don't have solid court case stuff," said Nolte.
As such, Nolte likes to leave most of the decisions to each individual school, unless his support is needed. After all, teachers and principals are the experts in the classroom.
"They know the standards they're teaching," said Nolte.
In WyomingLaramie County School District 1 has completed the long-awaited review process for the first nine nominated books under the district's new library book policy, designed to prevent students from being exposed to s--ually explicit books without parental consent.
https://www.aol.com/first-eight-books...
Eight books, reviewed by a three-person panel made up of two educators and one parent/guardian, were deemed s--ually explicit. One book, "The Poet X" by Elizabeth Acevedo, was determined not to fit the district's definition.
Thirty books have been nominated for review by the school district, and 10 of them have review committees formed that haven't made an official recommendation yet.
The eight books identified as s--ually explicit are:
— "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
— "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
— "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews
— "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson
— "Flamer" by Mike Curato
— "The Nowhere Girls" by Amy Reed
— "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi
— "America" by E.R. Frank
All are located in high school libraries in Cheyenne, according to laramie1.org.
After the panel, which is convened separately for each book, completes its review of a book, its recommendations are written in a report, with textual examples of s---ual content, publicly available on the district's website. LCSD1 Superintendent Stephen Newton signs off on a document with his recommendation after that.
While most of the identified books were unanimously called explicit, "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" and "Flamer" both had one reviewer who said the book was not too s--ually explicit for the schools.
District staff have previously told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that their recommendations can be appealed by parents/guardians that are unsatisfied with the district's initial determination.
Jen Solis, the board president of Wyoming Family Alliance for Freedom, and a frequent public critic of the policy, said the policy has amounted to the "book ban" that her organization, and fellow critics, have said it would.
"It's what we all were warning the board about. It's a terribly flawed system," she said. "It takes books completely out of context, and it's effectively a ban for anyone who is believing this bombastic rhetoric, that we're providing p---graphy and smut to our children. It's just not true. The books that have been placed on this list are all age-appropriate."
She echoed prior sentiments made at school board meetings, calling the policy an attack on trained, well-meaning teachers and educators.
"They were curated by highly skilled librarians in our district," Solis continued. "When you look at these books, if you take a sentence out of it, sure it might raise the hair on the back of your neck. But, if you put it in the context of the purpose of a book, and the theme of the book, it has value. That, historically, has been a measure of whether or not a book is appropriate for a school or a public library, and this school board has completely thrown that out the window."
Solis also alleged that the books that were nominated, and deemed inappropriate, were targeted for textual depictions of LGBTQ people having relationships.
"'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' is a perfect example. I read an excerpt from that and — what do you know — it was about two boys engaging in a s--ual relationship," she said. "'Well, that book better get out of my kids' school.' Then, 'This Book is Gay,' 'Flamer,' all of these books that provide information to people who some don't agree with suddenly have to go. ... I mean, there's s-x in lots of books. ... in you know, classics, Steinbeck, and ... Hemingway... in Stephen King."
Leadership of Moms for Liberty, a conservative interest group that frequently expressed verbal support for the policy during school board meetings, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mod
Gundula you will want to read this one.
https://literaryactivism.substack.com......"
Well, I am proud of being left of centre with regard to economics and if someone wants to snitch on me for that, fine, as being fiscally left wing is NOT illegal. And if the AG were to target me, I would tell him to f…ck off and that he is obviously more LEFT WING politically than I could ever be.
from B.C. Canadadumb dumb dumb woke police
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
Several "classics" in Surrey Schools (British Columbia, Canada) will not be used in curriculum anymore. They include To Kill a Mockingbird. Teachers can still get permission to teach them. This is called a curriculum update, not a book ban. The books were not physically or digitally removed.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-n...
The Surrey school district quietly decided to remove Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck from the list of books recommended for students Grade 10 and older.
But the decision has left some questioning the rationale.
Ritinder Matthew, a spokesperson for the school district, said they are not banning the books from classrooms or libraries, but they are no longer including them as part of the curriculum.
“We did a comprehensive review of these resources that determined that the merits of these novels do not outweigh the potential trauma and harm they may cause to some students,” she said.
Under the school’s policy, any teacher who wants to continue using the books will have to seek approval. The decision was not publicly announced. Matthew said the decision was made in November by a panel of 12 teachers.
If a teacher wants to use one of these books, they can but they need to ensure their practice is consistent with policy and ensure the safety and wellbeing of students, Matthew said.
It won’t be easy for the teachers to order the books, though. A screen grab shared with Postmedia of the website teachers use to order books shows they are no longer available to order.
Matthew said books are ordered through the district’s learning resource catalogue that highlights recommended resources. If they are not on the list, then a teacher must consult with the principal to purchase the books.
“If an educator determines that a resource is necessary, our policy delineates specific steps to be followed. These include ensuring that sensitive language is not spoken aloud, and providing context about historical and social issues,” said Matthew.
Florian Gassner, an associate professor of teaching at UBC, said removing books like To Kill A Mockingbird is a decision that should be scrutinized.
Article content
“School libraries and public libraries are where civil society goes to inform themselves and to be part of the conversation. Limiting access to something is simply undemocratic, with the exception of books that are inherently undemocratic or calling on us to kill a certain ethnic group or something that’s just beyond the pale.”
He said there is an argument to made that To Kill A Mockingbird is an important book historically, and raises intelligent conversations about racism in the past and present. For example, educators could talk about concerns people have about the book’s main character being a so-called white saviour, an ideology in which a white character is depicted as a hero for rescuing people of colour from their plight.
“I think it’s very much worth studying. But I also can understand that there are teachers who are find it challenging to teach and they would perhaps prefer another book as a resource,” he said.
“The people who are most powerful when it comes to forming the cultural identity of a nation are the people who determine the literature curriculum … therefore it’s really important to see who gets to wield this power. And in which ways there’s accountability, or if this is happening more on the whim of an individual.”
Matthew said alternative books they are recommending for teachers include Beloved by Toni Morrison (Grade 12,) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Grade 10,) Brother by David Chariandy (Grades 10 to 12,) Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Grades 11 and 12,) and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
They are also recommending several books by Black authors, including Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi and Hush by Jacqueline Woodson.
What on earth isn't appropriate about The Family Book? My cousin's infant liked the bright colors and his toddler enjoyed listening to the story. There's TWO PAGES of "inappropriate" content out of 32! What if I said I felt offended by "Some families look like their pets?" because it "normalizes" treating animals like humans? (My cousin insists this it is rue in his neighborhood that families look like their pets LOL!) and wanted the book removed? That is so silly.https://www.12onyourside.com/2024/03/...
The Family Book was read during toddler storytime at the Atlee Branch Library. It contained themes that offended some parents so much that they got up and left the event. They then went to a county supervisor who agreed it wasn’t appropriate."
“The library employee read a book called ‘The Family Book,’ which included a same-sex couple as one of the families. When my wife realized that book contained this content she quietly removed her self and my daughter from the story time,” said Floyd.
Floyd spoke on behalf of a Hanover resident at the Pamunkey Regional Library board meeting. They were not comfortable with a book that was read to their child.
“The Family Book” by Todd Parr is a children’s book that celebrates families and all the varieties they come in.
One resident filed a complaint with the library’s director, saying its content normalized homosexuality.
The library director issued this statement about the incident:
I received a complaint from a parent who attended storytime at the Atlee Branch Library. The customer complained that “The Family Book” by Todd Parr that was read in toddler storytime contained content that ‘normalized homosexuality.’ I reviewed the material and found it to be age-appropriate and fitting with the story time’s theme of ‘Family.’
The library has the responsibility to provide materials and programming to all of the citizens in the communities that we serve. All community members should have an opportunity to see themselves reflected in our materials and programming. We serve a diverse community and work hard to make Pamunkey Regional Library a welcoming space for everyone.
Floyd doesn’t want the book removed, but thinks the library is trying to push an agenda.
“Personally I think this librarian could have chosen any other non-controversial book for toddler story hour. Instead she chose to push her agenda on children, and people wonder why there is division, which we do not need,” said Floyd.
Floyd also issued this statement:
I support libraries, the services and amenities they provide and I use them personally. There has been an ongoing problem at the Atlee branch library. This is the same library that celebrated “banned” book week by promoting sexually explicit, anti-police, and other controversial books.
I will continue to work to protect children. The public library is not the place to push any political agenda. The library board needs to set policy that requires titles of story time books to be posted ahead of toddler story hour so parents may choose if they want their child listen. To be clear, I am not asking for any book to be removed.
This is just the latest debate in Hanover about books, bans and age-appropriate material.
One resident thinks the situation is damaging to the community.
“I think people become emboldened when they hear leadership exclude certain types of families and they see Mrs. Floyd say things like that and they think they can do the same, and that’s a problem because it hurts other people. Real living existing Hanover residents,” said Kiri Berdan, a Hanover parent.
Book bans are being relabeled as "intellectual freedom challenges" Librarians perceive the threat from the book-banning movement as so profound that they're using the more expansive term "intellectual freedom challenges" instead.
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/01/libr...
What they're saying: "We have broadened the framing to refer to 'intellectual freedom challenges'" rather than just book bans, AnnaLee Dragon, executive director of the New York Library Association, tells Axios.
In New York, "we have seen more challenges toward programming and displays than books themselves — drag queen story hours, displays for Pride month."
Book bans (which tend to give targeted titles a circulation bump) are "very frustrating," Dragon says. "It's the same people who are out touting freedom — the freedom to own a gun. But you don't think I have the right to pick a book for my kid?"
"People are being doxxed and stalked and harassed at the grocery store for providing books that some people in the community need and other people don't want," Dragon adds.
"A lot of it comes down to libraries being one of the last trusted institutions, and I think that's what's so hurtful about the intellectual freedom challenges that we're facing. It's accusing libraries and librarians of all these really terrible things, like being p----philes."
Fluvanna County High School Library (VA) is evaluating 11 books that the crisis actors complained about.https://fluvannareview.com/2024/02/co...
Members of the Learning Resources Review Committee met Thursday evening (Feb. 22) at the Fluvanna County High School Library for their second meeting following the appointment of five citizen representatives at the School Board meeting on Jan. 10.
The group of 11, comprised of librarians, school administrators, and citizens, has been tasked with reading and evaluating a group of around two dozen books challenged by a Fluvanna resident on the grounds that they contained “s--ually explicit” material.
This list was submitted in November by former School Board candidate Brittany Gray. It was constructed from a list of frequently challenged books that matched entries in the FCHS library catalog.
At their Jan. 30 meeting, the group whittled down the original list from 24 titles to 16, as some of the books had been lost or removed from the collection due to low circulation or wear and tear.
On Thursday night, Cunningham District representative Amanda Mauck told the committee that two of the books on the shortened lists didn’t have corresponding excerpts in a Google Drive file Gray had submitted with her complaint.
Mauck said she had read both ‘Shine,’ by Lauren Myracle and ‘Something Like Normal’ by Trish Doller since the January meeting and “I tried to find something in each book that I was like, okay, this is what they were talking about, and I could not.”
She said both books dealt with violence and trauma but contained no s--ually explicit passages.
“I’m of the opinion that the onus is on the complainant to submit and document the problem,” said Fork Union representative Nikki Sheridan. “And it’s unclear to us at this time what the problem is. I don’t think that’s our work.”
Committee Chair Gemma Soares, director of elementary Instruction for FCPS, said she would contact Gray for clarification.
Removing those two titles still leaves the committee a whopping 4,937 pages to read.
Rather than all 11 members reading every book, they decided to break into three groups tasked with reading 3 to 4 books each.
Soares said she had sourced used books to help reduce some of the cost to the taxpayers; the initial cost of buying new copies of each book for all committee members was estimated at around $1,600.
FCHS Librarian Shannon Taylor handed out packets of professional reviews of each book, a tool librarians use to decide if books are a good fit for their collection.
Members will read their assigned books and professional reviews, then fill out a criteria form evaluating each book’s quality, readability, and appropriateness. After discussion within their small groups, they will recommend what to do about each title. How long this will take is still unknown.
“Do we have to have it done by the end of the [school] year?” asked Rivanna District representative Tia Brown.
Soares said there was no hard deadline to complete the work.
“Then I say we give ourselves the time we need as full-time working adults,” said Brown.
For now, the committee will meet monthly and start with just one book to see if the process needs to be tweaked. Meetings have been set for March 28 and April 18.
The committee is already discussing the outlines of recommendations they might give to the School Board to refine the policy going forward.
There was general agreement that the number of book challenges any one resident could make should be capped at a reasonable number and that the same book could not be challenged more than once in a period of years.
Soares confirmed that there have been no new challenges since early November.
Soares said she had reached out to counseling staff to provide the group with guidance on social and emotional development in teenagers.
South Western School Board (PA) will soon take up a vote on whether parents get to decide whether or not their student will read any book assigned in class.https://www.eveningsun.com/story/news...
The South Western School Board discussed two controversial policies relating to books and gender identity during a board meeting Wednesday night, tentatively approving the policy on gender identity.
One policy allows teachers the right to decline to use a student's preferred pronouns, and the other would give direct parental control over the books a child is allowed to read in a classroom.
The book policy did not receive a vote.
Both policies were created under guidance of the Independence Law Center (ILC), a Harrisburg-based right-wing law firm. The firm has worked on controversial policies regarding book bans and transgender issues in schools across Pennsylvania.
The firm agreed to represent the district pro bono in the adoption of the policies, according to board president Matthew Gelazela during the meeting Wednesday night.
The vote to approve the retainer with the ILC was tabled during the meeting due to not all board members having seen the contract.
....
In addition to the gender identity policy, the board discussed but did not vote on a proposed policy focused on parental control of books for students.
The book policy would require each parent to decide if they want to allow their child to choose any book from a classroom library, or to opt-out of the library altogether and require the parent to provide the books for the students, said Gelazela.
Gelazela stated the policy would be not a "ban," as it would not remove the books, but instead requires parental permission for the subjects of books in a classroom.
The permission slip for the policy additionally would allow parents the ability to request topics for the child to not be exposed to in class libraries.
Along with that, Gelazela stated there is an additional need to create a structure to prohibit a child from gaining access to any material their parent would find objectionable.
Louisiana legislators are proposing to remove obscenity law exemptions from schools and libraries.https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/...
Obscenity law would apply to Louisiana public, school libraries under proposed bills
Public and school libraries and possibly their employees would be subject to a state obscenity law under bills filed last week in advance of the March 11 Louisiana legislative session.
State Rep. Josh Carlson, a Republican from Lafayette Parish, and Rep. Beryl Amedée, a Republican representing Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and St. Mary parishes, filed the bills.
Currently, the state obscenity law does not apply to various entities including churches, museums, hospitals and school and public libraries "and persons acting in their capacity as employees or agents of such organizations."
Carlson's proposed legislation, HB 414, and Amedée's HB 545 removes public libraries and school libraries from the list of exempted entities.
...
Carlson said he could not determine through research why public and school libraries are exempt other than that's the way it's always been.
"When I can't find any reason or nobody knows or it's always been that way," he said, "let’s look at changing it."
Lynette Mejia, co-founder of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, called the move ludicrous and "downright dangerous." Certain entities are exempt from the state obscenity law to protect them from "spurious accusations and harassment from individuals seeking fame on the backs of our hardworking public employees."
Carlson, who took office in January, "is clearly attempting to distinguish himself in his first term of office not by working on the very real problems Louisiana faces, but by wasting valuable taxpayer money fighting ridiculous culture war issues that are a figment of his own wild imagination," Mejia said. "Are we going to take nude paintings out of museums next?"
Obscenity is defined in Louisiana R.S. 14:106 as the (view spoiler)
The law prohibits the distribution, exhibition or display of obscene material, which it defines as "any tangible work or thing which the trier of fact determines that the average person applying contemporary community standards would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, and which depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, hard core s---ual conduct (defined elsewhere in the law) and the work or thing taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
More than a year ago, the Covington Police Department received a complaint about a book called "Gender Queer" at the Covington branch of the St. Tammany Parish Library, leading the district attorney to offer guidance to police on how to handle such complaints. Several complaints also were made to the Mandeville police department but were not considered criminal complaints.
The Louisiana Legislature last year adopted legislation suggested and supported by then-Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is now governor, restricting minors' access to s---ally explicit materials in public libraries unless the parents have given their children access.
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In Lafayette Parish, a patron who lives in St. Martin Parish, asked the library to ban or move from the teen section "This Book is Gay." Other parish library boards also faced the same requests.
'Huckleberry Finn,' 'Princess Diaries' among challenged books at Palm Beach County schoolshttps://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/n...
Between the start of the 2023-24 school year on Aug. 10 and Feb. 15, four books were challenged in Palm Beach County through complaints to individual schools, according to district records. Only one was temporarily removed from the shelves.
A book is permanently removed only if a formal challenge is submitted to the school's principal, it's reviewed by the superintendent, it's heard in a public meeting and its removal is approved by the school board. No books have been formally challenged this school year.
The last book to be formally challenged in Palm Beach County was The Bible. The objection was denied four times: first by Olympic Heights High's material review committee, then by the school's principal, then by Superintendent Mike Burke and finally by the school board following the public hearing held last July. It remains on school library shelves.
Outside the formal challenge process, parents can submit informal complaints to schools about certain books. Complaints of this type may prompt a review by the school's principal and material review committee.
The books that Palm Beach County parents informally objected to were:
"When Aiden Became a Brother," was challenged at Meadow Park Elementary in West Palm Beach.
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,"
The book was challenged at Palm Beach Gardens High.
"Princess on the Brink," the eighth book in the "Princess Diaries" series by Meg Cabot, was challenged at Eagles Landing Middle in Boca Raton.
"Drama," written by Raina Telgemeier, was challenged at Calusa Elementary in Boca Raton.
Three of the four books were reviewed by the school's principal and left on the shelves. "Princess on the Brink" was "weeded" from the school's library and sent to the school district for review.
All four books were challenged by parents whose children attended the respective schools.
In their challenge of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," the parent of the 11th-grader said they didn't feel the language and representations of certain characters were appropriate for "this day and age," according to school district records.
In the challenges of the other three books, parents said they thought the books were inappropriate for their students' grade levels. The parent of a fourth-grader who challenged "When Aiden Became and Brother" did not specify what they found objectionable.
The parent who challenged "Princess on the Brink" found the language in the book inappropriate for their seventh-grade student and the parent who challenged "Drama," said the book's pictures were not suitable for their fourth-grader.
Worth reading, something I have already notedHow the Book Banning Movement Is Censoring Sexual Violence
https://msmagazine.com/2024/03/04/boo...
CaliforniaParents in Granite Bay are protesting the study of the movie "Pleasantville", along with dozens of other works, in high school English classes.
https://www.aol.com/book-ban-placer-c...
(view spoiler)
Last year, the Roseville Joint Union High School District implemented a new process of district-level approval of classroom materials that cleared 900 works for use in high school English. This year, English teachers were asked to submit any additional materials needing approval. Teachers at Granite Bay High came up with 70 proposed supplemental materials.
The list was posted on the school’s website and is being reviewed by its site council, composed of an equal number of teachers, students and parents as well as the principal. The council postponed a vote on the materials last month but could make the decision Wednesday.
A small but vocal group of Granite Bay parents are protesting the majority of them. They have compiled a publicly accessible Google document citing concerns ranging from the alleged promotion of “critical race theory” to “education as activism” to simply dealing with unpleasant subjects.
One Granite Bay parent, Chemene Phillips, voiced her concerns with the works at a school board meeting last month, complaining that they are “dark and negative” and address topics such as “rape, murder, abortion, LGBTQ, gender ideology (and) drinking.” Phillips said she and 22 other parents spent five days reviewing the materials now subject to district approval.
The resulting Google document lists roughly 150 works, and it objects to most of them. But at least half have already been approved by the district as part of last year’s process.
Granite Bay High English teacher Bernadette Cranmer said she thinks the parents are simply “afraid for their students.”
“They want to protect them, and they don’t know or understand what’s happening in the classroom,” Cranmer said. “We welcome the opportunity to talk about what’s happening in the classroom.”
Another Granite Bay English teacher, David Tastor, said students should study a wide range of works regardless of anyone’s personal politics.
“I want my students of diverse backgrounds to see themselves in the literature we teach,” he added.
Teachers Tastor and Cranmer said students are concerned about the effort to ban course materials. One student posted disputed poems around campus so people could make up their own minds, Tastor said.
One poem that raised concerns is John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 10,” a reflection on mortality written in 1609. Donne, a devout Christian, wrote that death is “one short sleep” after which “we wake eternally.” One parent wrote that the poem “could be a problem for a suicidal teen to be reading that death is not to be (feared) and something greater is coming after death.”
“Here is a person that is completely misunderstanding the poem,” Cranmer said.
She added that English classes study works for reasons that go beyond their subject matter. Especially in advanced classes, teachers may use texts to illustrate literary forms and devices irrespective of content.
...
“I had to talk to students about how language changes over time, and we had to talk about the n-word and why Dr. King would be using that particular word in that particular context,” ["Letter from Birmingham Jail] Cranmer said. “But I didn’t choose the text because it had that word in it. I used that text because it’s a superior example of how to use a semicolon.”
Even if Granite Bay’s site council approves the additional texts on Wednesday, they will need further approval by the school’s Curriculum Instruction Leadership Team, an advisory board composed of parents, students, teachers, administrators and counselors, as well as the school board.
The process seems unnecessarily elaborate, but Cranmer and Tastor said they believe the works will ultimately be approved without much hesitation by the three bodies.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education agreed not to enforce any rulings until Edmond Public Schools’ case about who has the authority to remove books from school libraries is heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma...
On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court was scheduled to hear Edmond Public Schools’ case asking the high court to rule whether the Oklahoma State Department of Education has the authority to force districts to remove books from libraries.
The action came after the school district said the state board of education told it to remove books – “The Glass Castle” and “The Kite Runner” – from high school libraries. If Edmond Public Schools did not remove the books, district leaders said the Oklahoma State Department of Education threatened to downgrade Edmond Public Schools’ accreditation.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters argues the two books are p---graphic and shouldn't be available for students to check out from public school libraries.
Gainsville is more progressive than some of these other communities in Florida.https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/e...
School board votes to keep book amid citizen divide
The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously approved a recommendation to keep “It Feels Good to be Yourself” in the Terwilliger Elementary School library during a regular meeting on Tuesday.
The approval was quickly followed by citizen input from speakers on both sides of the issue, who complained they were not given time to comment before the vote.
District attorney Susan Seigle brought the recommendation before the board, and after a motion and second, School Board Chair Diyonne McGraw called for the one citizen who had submitted a form ahead of time, but he said he did not want to comment on that item.
After asking if there was any further discussion, McGraw called for a vote and the board unanimously approved the recommendation.
Immediately following the vote, McGraw asked whether Crystal Marull, the parent who filed a complaint against the book, was present. She was not, but other citizens in attendance wanted to comment on the topic. They were allowed to speak using the regular three-minute citizen input time that comes at the end of a meeting, which happened to be the next item on the agenda.
“We’ve given much liberty to schools to make some decisions, and the media specialists,” Jan Gordon, a parent, told the board. “Our Florida government has stated that topics of sexual behavior and gender identity are not to be a part of our children’s education under ninth grade.”
Gordon told the board that young children should be free to have a childhood without books discussing topics like gender identity. In an echo of Marull’s challenge to the book, she argued that “It Feels Good to be Yourself” is not age appropriate.
Sadie Matteucci, a teacher at Gainesville High School, said she had learned the number of book challenges has reached 25, and that those challenges come from six people. Matteucci chastised the board for allowing these challenges and the removal of books from school media centers.
“You have been elected by members of our community to represent your constituents,” Matteucci told the board. “The least you could do is speak out. The least you could do is question the state.
Marull used her three minutes to deliver part of the argument she had prepared, telling the board that the books she has challenged are not appropriate for children without parental guidance.
“How people self-identify, and what a family chooses to teach their kids about right and wrong, is totally up to them… However, parents are not in schools with their children,” Marull said. “So as parents we put faith in our school system and expect the school will not only educate our children at the right age-appropriate level, but also protect them from content that is too mature for them, especially during their formative years.
San Ramon Valley Schools (CA) have been hearing from homophobic community members via performances of "dirty book" passages at board meetings for MONTHS now.https://12ft.io/proxy
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...
In spite of California having an anti-book banning law, "The Chino Valley Unified School District board [CA] is considering a new policy that could remove books with 's--ually obscene content' from school libraries, classrooms, and all other district facilities." The proposed book policy was introduced at Thursday night’s board meeting shortly after a San Bernardino County judge blocked parts of another controversial Chino school district policy.
Why it matters: Under the proposal, anyone living in the Chino school district, parent or not, would be able to file a complaint about a book if they believe the content is inappropriate for students. It would ultimately be left up to the five members of the Chino school board to decide if the book is appropriate.
The backstory: Some parents, students, and teachers at the meeting drew similarities between the proposed book policy and the parental notification policy that was passed by the board in July. All school staff have been required to notify parents if their child asks to use a different name, gender, bathroom or program than what is listed on their official records.
What's next: The Chino school board is expected to make a final decision and vote on the proposed book policy in November.
https://laist.com/brief/news/educatio...
Several public speakers read excerpts from books they said are available to students in the district. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, Looking for Alaska by John Green, and Perfect by Ellen Hopkins were specifically criticized for their content.
Stephen Paez, who identified himself as a father of three children in Chino Valley, thanked the board for keeping parents involved.
A group of more than a dozen people approached the microphone together to show their support for the board members. One mother said she has a right and a responsibility to decide what her children are filling their minds with. Christine Collingsworth also thanked the board, but specifically Shaw.
“All parents in California stand behind you, and we want to lock arms with you,” Collingsworth said.
However, not everyone at the meeting was part of the Chino community. At least one person who spoke in support of the policy identified themselves as belonging to a different Southern California school district.
Opponents
Several Chino students spoke out against the proposal, including the district’s student representative Chloe Kubeldis.
“I know that the board is trying to act and what they think are the best interests of us students, but this policy will do far more harm than good,” she said.
Dozens of teachers and staff also expressed their concerns. A group of Associated Chino Teachers (ACT), led by their president Brenda Walker, said they are heartbroken just thinking about books being taken out of libraries and classrooms.
Some parents asked the board to explain why they are considering this proposal when there is already a district policy in place that outlines a complaint process. However, as Shaw pointed out, that policy does not mention “s--ually obscene content.”
Other parents argued the proposal will actually take away their parental rights by allowing other members of the community to have power over what is available to their children.
James Ma said he was shocked and disgusted to hear some of the books being read in the meeting. He said the proposal is not about banning books because those aren’t books, they’re “trash.”
“If the previous system was working, then why should we still have those trash in our public system?” he said to his colleagues.
Donald Bridge and Jonathan Monroe were much more hesitant about the proposal. Both board members requested a legal opinion and complaint data before the next meeting.
Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw Shaw echoed Ma’s sentiment. She said the system is broken, and she is willing to take “any beating” if it means kids in the Chino community aren’t exposed to s--ually obscene content.
More from WyomingFremont County Public Library in Wyoming will not be banning two Ellen Hopkins books: Tricks and Smoke.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/03/...
Fremont County Library Board Votes 3-2 To Keep Controversial Books
In a lively debate on Wednesday, the Fremont County Library Board voted 3-2 to keep two controversial books in the young adult section of the library that contain subject matter on (view spoiler)
The Fremont County Library Board voted 3-2 Wednesday to keep two controversial books in its collection after a local resident challenged them.
“Smoke” by Ellen Hopkins will remain in the young-adult section in the Lander and Riverton branch libraries.
“Tricks,” also by Ellen Hopkins, will remain in both libraries, though Fremont County Library Director Anita Marple said she is still consulting with other librarians about whether to move it to the adult section or keep it in the young adult section for teens 13 and older.
Residents packed the meeting room Wednesday at the Dubois branch library. They sparred from both sides of the issue, with some saying the challenges were wrongful attempts at censorship and others that the library should exercise better judgment in protecting kids from harmful material.
“People’s rights are not being trampled on by cleaning up the filth of the public library,” said Troy Jones of Lander during the board’s public comment segment.
He said Americans have the right to bear arms, but it’s not the government’s job to buy guns for everyone. By the same token, he continued, people have the right to buy books like “Tricks,” but not to have the library furnish them.
Kyle Neary of Dubois countered, saying libraries should provide “whatever we want to read,” and if parents can’t get involved with what their kids are accessing, “maybe they shouldn’t have kids.”
Perhaps reflecting on an earlier admission by the books’ challenger Karen Wetzel that Wetzel had not read the books completely, Lander resident Sarah Reilley asked the board to consider a policy requiring people to read books before challenging them.
“That’s one of the most disgusting things you can do, is take talking points from a national organization … (that) tells you to be outraged,” said Reilley.
As the meeting progressed, some board members said they had not finished the books before the reconsideration vote either.
Board Vice-Chair Perry Cook said she had read “Smoke” but didn’t finish “Tricks.”
Board Treasurer John Angst said he also hadn’t read both books, as he’s been dealing with a serious illness and could not.
Both Cook and Angst voted to uphold Marple’s decisions to keep the books.
Cook said the culture of book challenging could plume soon, as it has in other regions nationally, and that’s why the board hires professionals like Marple to read the books and make determinations on them.
“Anita has done an incredible evaluation of this book, looked at a lot of other sources to make her decision,” said Cook. “I would personally rather base our opinion on hiring — as we’re supposed to do — a good director, and letting her use her extensive librarian skills to analyze a book.”
From what she had read of “Tricks,” Cook said she understood it to be a cautionary tale conveying disastrous outcomes from bad choices and not meant to be “grooming” toward kids.
Board Secretary Marta Mossburg disagreed, saying “Tricks” falls outside the legal standard for obscenity, in her view, and should not be in the library at all.
“It definitely glorified s-x,” said Mossburg, adding that she did, however, finish reading it. “It was disgusting and I had a hard time getting through it. I just felt so dirty.”
When she spoke of “Smoke,” conversely, Mossburg said it was “dark” but could simply be moved to the adult section of the library, not removed altogether.
Board member Kristen McClelland also voiced disgust with “Tricks,” saying she’d read it “from cover to cover.”
McClelland addressed one mother who spoke against censorship at the meeting by touting what a blessing the library has been to her family and explaining how well she supervises her kids.
“The sad fact is, the kids who are going to be reading these books don’t have moms like her,” said McClelland. “We can’t just say, ‘Don’t have kids.’ These people are having kids and we as a community should be a family to these kids.”
Some attendees applauded.
Cook reiterated that the board should be cautious about not micromanaging Marple, whose job it is to analyze the books in her collection, particularly when they’re challenged.
Cook voted to uphold Marple’s decision to keep both books. Angst and board chair Carrie Johnson also cast aye votes.
Mossburg and McClelland voted against Marple’s decision.
REALLY? The town that is famous for their Shakespeare festival? Budget my foot. I have one guess as to why they want to cut school librarians. Noted that they have an elementary school named after Eli Whitney, which explains a lot.Stratford Public Schools (CT) might cut all of the remaining librarian positions in the district.
https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2024-02...
Sara Hsiang is the librarian at Stratford High School, constantly helping students with media literacy, tutoring and also, checking out books.
But her future as a librarian may be in doubt. That’s because of a budget proposal that may be taken up by mid-March, which could eliminate all remaining school librarians in the district.
Hsiang said if the cuts are approved as part of the city’s annual budget, that would hurt students.
“The library is a refuge and a shelter for so many students — even before COVID — with our mental health needs, with our social emotional needs,” Hsiang said.
Hsiang attended a recent Board of Education meeting at her high school’s auditorium on Wednesday. The BOE voted 4-3 to pass their budget proposal to the town council and Mayor Laura Hoydick.
Michael Henrick, chair of the school board, said the cuts are based on making up for budget shortfalls.
But Hsiang and others say the cuts, which would replace them with tutors, would have a damaging and long-lasting impact on the school district.
Overall, the Board of Education’s recommended $129 million budget would eliminate two high school librarians and seven elementary school librarians. It also would cut other positions including administrative roles like assistant principals.
Stratford has eight elementary schools, but two of them share one librarian, so the cuts would eliminate all librarian positions.
Middle schools in the district did away with library positions in 2018, Hsiang said. Since then, they’ve made do with tutors, many of which are routinely pulled to be substitute teachers.
The results, she said, have not been good.
“Since the middle school library media specialists left, the circulation of books are a third of what they were previously,” Hsiang said.
But while the librarians at the event criticized the proposed cuts, none of them said the cuts are rooted in anything other than penny pinching. The town’s Board of Education is controlled by Republicans, and other Republican controlled boards in Connecticut have attacked school libraries for perceived cultural grievances, many of which have spread false or misleading claims about teaching materials. That’s not what’s going on in Stratford.
In AlaskaPalmer City Attorney addresses public libraries and the law
https://www.frontiersman.com/news/pal...
Communities and cities across the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have been grappling with increasingly vocal calls by conservative community members for school and public libraries to remove certain books from their shelves. While the MSBSD formed a Library Citizens’ Advisory Committee to review and make recommendations to the 56 books on the challenged list, the focus has turned to public libraries. After a recent hearing with the MSB Library Board became contentious, Borough Manager Mike Brown issued a statement that paused further MSB Library Review committee meetings.
The Palmer City Council recently requested City Attorney Sarah Heath to give an overview regarding the history and understanding of the law as it applies to the Palmer Public Library.
This request arose from the two separate legal questions being asked by the City of Palmer. First, under Alaska criminal statutes, can any of the Palmer Public Librarian be arrested for distributing obscene materials to minors, when a minor check out a controversial book from the library. This concern arose when The Palmer Police Department had members of the public asking for the police to arrest the Palmer Public Librarians citing the Alaska criminal code defining ‘Distributions of obscene materials to minors.’
...
Heath says it would be helpful for Alaska’s Department of Law, through the Attorney General’s Office, to offer guidance as to whether Librarians would be subject to criminal charges.
The second part of Heath’s summary letter addressed the possible civil liabilities to the Palmer Public Library if they remove or limit library materials to minors or other patrons. The answer is complex as it requires analyzing whether certain materials meet the civil definition of “obscene” and is therefore unprotected speech, which falls under exemptions of the First Amendment.
“This issue needs further guidance from Alaska courts which likely will be given as the current lawsuits involving the Mananuska-Susitina School District progress. Additionally, the State Legislature could also address the civil definition of Obscene.”
The letter followed a presentation given by Heath during the regularly scheduled Palmer City Council meeting regarding the current legal status of constitutional, federal and state law as defined and applied to a public library. That presentation was made after questions have been asked regarding books in the current library and the civil and criminal liabilities if a book is ‘obscene.’
The report, titled “Libraries and the Law: How the Law Relates to Library Materials in the Palmer Public Library,” is a 23-page summary of the current law and limiting or removing materials in the Palmer Library, what purpose it serves, what laws and authority libraries operate under, and do public libraries have any legal obligations. And specifically, what is Palmer authorized to manage and under what authority?
Heath said that while the Palmer Public Library is funded and managed by the City of Palmer, its mission and purpose are not recognized to be an extension of the government. “…the public library is decidedly not the state’s creature; it is the people’s.”
She examines the First Amendment and how it applies to the City of Palmer, minors, and what exemptions, if any, can be applied. The First Amendment, in part, reads that “Congress shall make no law…abridging upon the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble.” To that end, Heath cited Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, saying that the burden lies upon the government body, not an individual, since the government has no power to restrict the expression because of its message, its ideas its subject matter, or its content.
“When a governmental body passes a law that may restrict or infringe upon a Constitutional right, strict scrutiny is applied to reviewing the constitutionality of the proposed law, again placing the high burden on the governmental body to prove that the law was passed to ‘further a compelling government interest,’” she writes.
The areas where it does not apply usually include a proven compelling governmental interest to protect the public by imposing limitations on persons or groups, and that encompasses obscenity, defamation, incitement, child p--n, fraud, and grave and imminent threats.
Heath cited several court cases dealing with limitations within the First Amendment rights, including Fayetteville Public Library v. Crawford County, which was heard last year, and argued that the freedom of speech is enjoyed by everyone-even children. “However, by virtue of the fact that minors are ‘not possessed of that full capacity for individual choice.” Heath also cites Ginsberg v. New York and Tinker v. Des Moines School District, which summarily said that minors’ First Amendment rights are limited in some way.
When turning to obscenity, Heath addresses the elephant in the room—where is the line drawn on what is obscene, asking is it course language, references to drugs or s-x, and who has the authority to define ‘obscenity’ and determine who has the authority to tell the public what they can and cannot read or access?
“There is often a significant difference between what an individual community member or community members may subjectively determine as obscene and what they law says is obscene.”
Currently, the state of Alaska definition for obscenity found in Alaska statute, A.S. 11.61.128, summarily states that any person aged 18 or older who intentionally distributes or owns with an intent to distribute material that depicts (view spoiler) and other specific examples listed in the statute.
The gray area within the statute is what is ‘harmful to minors.’ The statute defines it as material that the average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the material, when taken as a whole, appeals to (view spoiler) for persons under age 16. The statute goes on to say that a reasonable person would find the material, taken as a whole, also lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific value. This makes it difficult for judges and courts to determine if the government should be allowed to control what people have access to read or view.
The report lists dozens of examples of actions that several states in the lower 48 are taking, including amending current obscenity laws, removing material from public and/or school libraries, moving books to different sections of the libraries or restricting access, and requesting state Attorney Generals to determine whether certain materials are harmful to minors.
Not good news to start the week. First, a story from Staten Island, the first NYC school to see censorship. The parents interviewed for this story are appalled that these books got thrown out and WANT their kids to read diverse books, including those with negative language like TKAM if they're part of the canon. We read them and survived. https://gothamist.com/news/books-on-b...
Books on Black history, immigration found in trash by Staten Island school, sparking investigation
Hundreds of new books featuring characters of color and LGBTQ+ themes were found by the trash at a Staten Island elementary school, outraging some parents and sparking an education department investigation.
... Boxes of kids’ books [were left in] the garbage at PS 55, known as the Henry Boehm School. Some had sticky notes on them detailing themes and content in the books, which appeared to be part of a 2019 initiative to diversify school materials. The city education department launched an investigation.
A note on “My Two Border Towns” about a boy’s life on the United States-Mexico border, read “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.” A note on “Kenzie Kickstarts a Team” about a girls’ roller derby team, read “Not approved. Discusses dad being transgender. Teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.” And a note on “We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know” read “negative slant on white people.”
Even books about the Marvel Comics hero Black Panther and legendary singer and activist Nina Simone were discarded.
It was unclear whether the removal of the books resulted from an objection raised by staff or parents. The education department said no formal challenge to the books was raised through official channels, though a part-time librarian had inquired about the process.
Until this incident, New York City had seemed largely immune from the high-profile efforts to ban books that are roiling school communities in Florida, New Jersey and other parts of the country.
“Our public schools do not shy away from books that teach students about the diverse people and communities that make up the fabric of our society,” education department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said, noting the removal of the books was not sanctioned.
A note on “Julián Is a Mermaid,” about a boy who dresses as a mermaid, read “Boy questions gender.” A post-it on “Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story,” cited a specific page, along with the question “white man’s world?”
Notes on pages of “Black Panther: The Young Prince” read “Witchcraft? Human skulls” and “Pact with Devil. Burned in fire.”
A note on Nina: A Story of Nina Simone read “This is about how black people were treated poorly but overcame it. (Can go both ways).”
Two parents at the school, located in Staten Island's Eltingville neighborhood, said they had heard rumblings about some controversy over books.
School controversies over books are rare in New York City. Since 2019, there have been only three challenges of books at other schools under an official protocol that involves the formation of a committee of parents, librarians, teachers and administrators, the education department confirmed. None of those books were removed.
“Should a parent feel concerned about the literature in their child’s classroom, they are encouraged to reach out to the teacher, principal, or superintendent,” said Brownstein, the department's spokesperson.
...
Some of the boxes Spiegel retrieved were labeled “Mosaic,” the name of a $200 million initiative launched late in the de Blasio administration to diversify school lessons and materials. An analysis by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice found in 2019 that only 16% of elementary and middle school books were by authors of color.
De Blasio called for a total rethinking of the K-12 curriculum with an eye toward diversity. Mayor Eric Adams then scaled back the Mosaic plan, launching his own literacy initiative and supplementing lessons with materials reflecting LGBTQ+, Asian American and Black communities.
Thousands of Mosaic books were still sent to school and classroom libraries. But Natasha Capers, the director of the Coalition for Educational Justice, said schools received little guidance about what to do with the new books.
“They just were like, ‘here’s a big box of books,’” said Capers, whose group advocates for more equity in public schools.
She added that she was glad to know the books found with the garbage at PS 55 were "rescued.” But she said she was outraged to hear they had nearly been discarded.
“I watched my children throughout their schooling read so many books that used horrific language about Black people," Capers said. "There’s a book [that] used the N-word. You just had to suck it up because it’s part of the ‘canon.'"
She scoffed at the apparent discomfort with witchcraft and human skulls in the Black Panther book.
“You read Shakespeare, and ["Macbeth"] starts out with three witches around a cauldron,” she said. "Hamlet," she noted, “is legitimately talking to a skull.”
Three New Bills Threaten the Freedom to Readhttps://pen.org/three-new-bills-that-...
Alabama has proposed to be the seventh state to adopt a “Don’t Say Gay” style law with HB 130, which would prohibit instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation all the way through twelfth grade.
The legislature passed a law in 2022 to prohibit such instruction through fifth grade “in accordance with state standards.” The board of education, however, never updated the state standards, which meant that the “Don’t Say Gay” clause was never implemented. Now, HB 130 would correct this ambiguity, removing the board of education from the equation and mandating an explicit ban through twelfth grade.
[L]awmakers in West Virginia seem to be hoping for with HB 4654, which passed the House in February. The bill would remove existing exemptions for employees of schools, museums, and public libraries from being criminally charged with distributing “obscene” materials to minors.
uch exemptions have existed in some form since the early 1960s and can be found in 44 states. In rolling those protections back, this new bill would mean that providing material deemed “obscene” to a minor – via a library book or an art history assignment, for example – could result in up to five years in prison.
Legislation like HB 4654 poses a threat because of the risk that the legal definitions of “obscenity” will be misunderstood or misapplied. This potential for misapplication has made space for attempts by lawmakers to label any works related to LGBTQ+ identities or sexual health as obscene. And when the exemptions for educators are removed from state statutes, librarians and teachers are almost guaranteed to self-censor in order to avoid being branded a felon for doing their jobs.
A key element of the legislative push to undermine public education have been bills that would make it easier or more efficient to ban books. This year in Utah, HB 29 seeks to make the book banning process so painless, it only takes three challengers to ban a book from the entire state.
That the objection process is designed for material deemed to be “obscene” makes it all the more troubling, given the systematic misapplications of the term. Based on bans that have already occurred in Utah, books by Sarah J. Maas, Ellen Hopkins, and Maia Kobabe could be prohibited statewide under this proposal.
Efforts to mandate statewide bans have also been seen in Tennessee, where provision similar to the Utah bill became law in 2021, and in Florida, where the state maintains a list of challenged material for school districts to consult when acquiring new books or materials. And in South Carolina, the State Board of Education recently passed a resolution leaving decisions on book challenges to the state rather than district school boards. This means that any book challenged in a public school may be at risk of being banned statewide.
A couple of stories came through today with some much-needed good news.Connecticut and Delaware join the anti-book banning bandwagon. We should follow soon enough if both neighbors pass these bills. At least one school district is in two states.
Delaware, Connecticut Legislators Propose Anti-Book Ban Measures
Both bills would protect the right to read in public and school libraries.
https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
Delaware, HB 299–the Delaware Libraries for All Act–would strengthen the right to read by designating libraries as a place of public accommodation. This would put libraries under Delaware’s Equal Accommodations Law. The Delaware Library Consortium would then need to develop and adapt policies which define equitable access and the right to read for all state residents.
"That would make sure that we could not be inundated with all kinds of bans on materials in the libraries that we have been seeing all over the country because we would be considered a place of public accommodation,” said Kay Bowes, president of the Friends of Delaware Libraries in an interview with Delaware Public Radio. “So there could be no banning or very little."
The bill was sponsored by House Member Cyndie Romer, with cosponsorship from Senator Laura V. Sturgeon, Senator Marie Pinkney, Representative Valerie Longhurst, Representative Paul S. Baumbach, Senator Kyra Hoffner, and Representative Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha
HB 299 will be heard today, Tuesday, March 12, in the Delaware House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee.
Connecticut's House Bill 5417 focuses solely on schools and what entities do and do not have the right to ban materials within those institutions. It is sponsored by Representative Christopher Rosario and Susan Johnson.
The bill would restrict school boards across the state from banning materials for the following reasons:
(1) Partisan approval or disapproval of any library material by the board;
(2) An author's race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation or political or religious views;
(3) Personal discomfort, morality or political or religious views of a member or members of the board;
(4) An author's points of view concerning current events, whether international, national or local;
(5) The race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation or political or religious views of a protagonist or other characters or as otherwise represented in the library material; or
(6) The content of the library material is related to sexual health and addresses physical, mental, emotional or social dimensions of human sexuality, including, but not limited to, puberty, sex and relationships.
If books were to be removed from classrooms or school libraries, the local and regional school board would be responsible for publicly stating their reason for the decision.
HB 5417 was first heard before the General Assembly's Education Committee on Monday, March 11. The conversation landed along partisan lines, emphasizing yet again that party approval means more than the actual rights of students, parents, and community members.
Arguments against the bill centered destruction of so-called "local control" and worries about the motives behind "unelected school librarians." In other words, if school boards could no longer pull any book they disagreed with based on ideology, then the power of the district's governing body diminishes. The bill does not remove the right for districts to remove books, though. Indeed, they can. Those removals just cannot be due to discriminatory reasons–like those laid out in employment law across the country–and the public needs to be told why.
"[T]his bill would tip the balance of power over the debate about public school books to unelected and unaccountable school media specialists," wrote Leslie Wolfgang, director of public policy for the conservative Family Institute of Connecticut, who complained school librarians are not neutral.
The "unelected school librarians" argument falls squarely into the reality that people do not understand nor care to understand the expertise, experience, nor profession of librarianship. Of course they're not neutral. They're experts.
'The time has come to maybe start flipping tables' Nebraska book ban debate gets heatedThe Nebraska State Board of Education pushed back calls on Friday for a ban on s___ually explicit and p____ographic book materials from all school libraries.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Following a heated exchange in public testimony, including threats to flip tables, the 5-3 vote put an end to Aurora board member Kirk Penner’s third attempt to get the motion passed.
“Without a doubt, there is explicit content in some Nebraska schools, content brought in by adults and made available to minor children,” Penner said at the meeting. “The question is why adults feel the need to present this type of content to minor children.”
Board Vice President Deborah Neary said while she is against p----graphy in school libraries, she believes this is a tactic to target books about racism, gender and the LGBTQ community.
“My insides are pretty upset ... I’m disgusted,” Neary said. “I don’t know anyone anywhere who wants p----graphy in our libraries and who wants to groom children. I definitely believe parents need to have control over what their kids are learning and what their kids are reading, but there is never a time I believe that a small group of parents, of very loud, vocal parents, should be deciding what all kids read.”
Other board members discussed how reading explicit material at an early age is harmful to children’s brains and that they don’t need to read books with s---ual content to learn about essential topics or life lessons.
“No child needs access to s--ually explicit materials,” Board Member Sherry Jones said. “Difficult topics … can be taught without using s--ually explicit books.
One of the 31 people testifying was Terri Cunningham-Swanson, a former Plattsmouth school board member who was recalled from her seat earlier this year after she tried to pull books from school library shelves for containing s---ally explicit content. Cunningham-Swanson expressed concern that some content in school libraries is exposing kids to p____graphy.
“How the crap is this a question?” Cunningham-Swanson said in her testimony. “The time for niceties is over and the time has come to maybe start flipping tables and maybe start flipping some board seats. Exposing children to s___ualized content is damaging.”
Some parents resisted the board, saying they didn’t want other parents to regulate what their students could read in their school libraries.
“This is setting a dangerous precedent for our state board of education,” Jamie Bonkiewicz of Omaha said. “Your beliefs are your beliefs. Your religion is your religion. Preach that to your own kids, your grandkids. My kids are not yours. I trust the teachers and administrators in my children’s schools first and I absolutely have no trust in you.”
Calling out the censors in CThttps://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/l...
Susan Zabohonski, of Southington
"There's nobody that knows about what’s appropriate for a child than their parent,” Mitch Bolinsky, (R-Newtown) said.
__________________________
Yes THEIR parent, not someone else's parent.
MissouriKirkwood Democrat blasts ‘book banning’ in kickoff for secretary of state campaign
a former pastor
Sec. of State Ashcroft's regulations are confusing for librarians
Her son is a librarian
She wonders what Mark Twain would think?
In 40 years of ministry no one ever said "ban more books."
She promises not to allow her personal feelings affect her job.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/g...
Ohio- Mentor School Board to vote on banning 2 book titles from district librariesRight now! sounds awesome. I can't wait to read it. My niece would have loved that when she was younger.
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/l...
Parents and a former educator are challenging two books—both of which are available at district libraries.
The first book challenge is against . Right Now!: Real Kids Speaking Up for Change
The Kindergarten through grade five title introduces readers to kids across the world and highlights their stories of activism, and encourages activism in their own local communities.
The book mentions Greta Thunberg's environmental activism as well as transgender activist and TLC star Jazz Jennings.
Parents and 75 community members claim the book is not factual or appropriate based upon political discussions—like immigration law, climate change and gender identity.
The second book challenge is against Empire of Storms.
A retired Mentor Schools elementary teacher and former media specialist claims the book highlights multiple, detailed, graphic s--- acts.
Parents and 75 community members claim the book is not factual or appropriate based upon political discussions—like immigration law, climate change and gender identity.
The second book challenge is against Empire of Storms.
A retired Mentor Schools elementary teacher and former media specialist claims the book highlights multiple, detailed, graphic s-x acts.
This same teacher has filed and completed several book challenges over the last two years.
Most recently, they argued The Bluest Eye was s---ually explicit.
The Board retained the book, and they voted against the ban.
The board is set to vote on the future of these two books on Tuesday evening.
North Fort Myers High School teacher resigns over book ban https://www.fortmyersbeachtalk.com/20...
Mike Andoscia said more than 600 books removed from classroom
Mike Andoscia, a North Fort Myers High School teacher who had earned commendations as a Golden Apple Teacher of Distinction in the district, resigned from his job in January after he said he refused to cover up more than 600 of the books in the library of his classroom that were undergoing district review. At the time of his resignation, Andoscia was also under investigation for what he believes was the way he addressed another controversial state law governing the use of pronouns for students in the classroom.
In January, on the day after Martin Luther King Day, Andoscia arrived at his classroom in the morning to find that all of the books in his classroom had been removed. They had been taken to the filing room and he was told by the school’s principal to take them home.
“At first it was confusion. I don’t think outrage is specific enough,” Andoscia said about his feelings when he saw his books were gone from the classroom. “I was just outraged.” He took a video of the room and posted it on YouTube.
He met with North Fort Myers High School Principal Debbie Diggs who asked him why he didn’t keep his books covered, Andoscia said.
“I said ‘this is absurd, and it’s fascism,'” Andoscia said. Two days later, he submitted his letter of resignation effective Jan. 19.
According to Andoscia, the book ban saga began after the end of the previous school year when he began to catalog all of the books in his classroom to comply with the state’s Curriculum Transparency Act. The law requires all books in the classroom to be made publicly available and allows for a complaint process to review the books. Last year, the state passed an additional law governing books in the classroom, known as House Bill 1069, which requires the removal of books after they are challenged – until a complaint is resolved.
Since that time, Andoscia said less than 50 of the books in his classroom were reviewed and a handful were challenged.
Andoscia said he appealed the challenges, with one of the challenges being overruled but listed as pending in the system. While he was awaiting the review, he was told to cover up his books. Other teachers took their books and put them in closets or take them home.
Andoscia initially covered them with project paper after being told by the school principal to have them covered before open house. He wrote over the project paper the words “these books have not yet been vetted by the state and may contain dangerous knowledge.”
After open house, Andoscia, took off the project paper as he said he didn’t want to send a message to students that it was acceptable for the books to be covered. “That’s not what I wanted my kids to learn. That the state is going to watch what we read or the state should have anything to do with what we read. That’s not a free society,” he said.
Andoscia taught history, honors economics, sociology and philosophy classes.
A North Fort Myers High teacher for the last eight years, he previously taught at Lehigh Acres where he first grew his classroom library after being encouraged by former principal Dr. Jeffrey Spiro.
“He had a focus on reading-rich classrooms as diverse as possible to appeal to student interests,” Andoscia said.
When the Lehigh Acres high school library began being converted to a media center like other libraries throughout the state and the number of books were thawed out, Andoscia grabbed as many as he could for his classroom library. Throughout the years, he has taken pride in the diverse set of books in his library. They range from world history books to guides on reptiles and amphibians to field guides on fishing. “I had these books in my class for a long time,” he said.
“If you go to any school now and ask for a school library, you get pointed to a media center,” Andoscia said. Instead of rows of books, the media centers are now occupied by computers and often used for tests, Andoscia said.
Andoscia said he used to have 20 to 30 students a year checking out books from his library. In recent years that number dropped to about 10. In the last year, following the controversy over the state’s new laws to regulate books in the classroom.
“I can’t help but think this is watering down to (students),” Andoscia said. “The kids may have been intimidated.”
Before teaching at Lee County, Andoscia had a background in working with at-risk students. At North Fort Myers, he was the sponsor of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance Club.
Around the same time that Andoscia wasn’t following directives to cover up his books that were being reviewed, Andoscia ran into a problem with another controversial state law involving Florida schools.
In one of his classes, Andoscia told students that while he couldn’t address any of them by their preferred pronouns anymore due to a new state law, he would be willing to discuss alternatives. That talk apparently led to an investigation by the school district that Andoscia said he found out about after former students told him they were being pulled out of class to answer questions about what he had said around the same time that books were removed from his classroom.
Andoscia said he wouldn’t find out formally about the investigation until after he submitted a letter of resignation. His principal, Debbie Diggs, asked him to reconsider, he said. As part of the district’s investigation into his conduct, the matter will be referred to the state and Andoscia could potentially lose his teaching license in the state for five years.
House Bill 1069 prevents schools from compelling teachers to address students by their pronouns and also limits how teachers can use pronouns in the classroom in murky language. The law is the subject of a lawsuit brought by three Florida teachers and the Florida Poverty Law Center. The teachers include an unidentified Lee County public school teacher. The law also extends the state’s prohibition on classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation and gender identity through the eighth grade. Previously, such discussion was limited through the third grade.
The law states that an employee of a public school “may not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.”
Previous to the new law, Andoscia said students who preferred to be called by a pronoun informed the district with permission from their parents and each teacher was made aware. Andoscia said teachers were made aware of the pronoun preferences again this school year, but weren’t allowed to use them even with a permission slip from parents.
Shortly before his resignation, Andoscia said his classroom was observed though he was never confronted over allegations of how he spoke to students regarding the law governing the use of pronouns in the classroom.
At a press conference last month at a time when the so-called “book ban” laws were getting national attention, Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to temper the flames surrounding the law at a time when published reports have documented the removal of hundreds of books from some classrooms.
During the conference in Orlando, DeSantis and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said they weren’t banning books but they only wanted to ensure that inappropriate books weren’t making their way into the classrooms of schools. DeSantis professed that the law wasn’t meant to be a book ban and that it wasn’t intended to restrict the classics from schools. DeSantis questioned whether some districts were overreacting to the law and wondered aloud whether those without students in the school should have an equal input on which books were allowed as parents of students in the school.
“We have to empower parents, at the same time, to just have random people who don’t even have kids in the school system and just start objecting thing to just gum up the works, that is not something we should be incentivizing,” DeSantis said.
“He knows what he is doing,” Andoscia said. “There is a lot of fear and anxiety over this.”
A message seeking comment from DeSantis was not returned.
“It’s scary to me, the idea that this was normalized,” Andoscia said. “It’s terrifying to me.”
Mod
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/englan...
Mod
So glad the NDP is in power in Manitoba and not the putrid and transphobic Conservatives who obviously are as the premier stated transphobic jerks. Hope the Conservatives NEVER get elected again.
Manybooks wrote: "Right wing politicians in both Europe and North America and many of their supporters are obviously more and more homophobic minions of evil and also seem to love and cherish bullying and terrorisim..."Yes. A nonbinary teenager, Nex Benedict, in Oklahoma sadly lost their life to suicide because they were bullied.
Who cares what name and pronouns kids are using in school as long as they're learning and growing emotionally and socially!
Mod
Indeed ...
In today's book news, the ALA announces officially what we already knew: Book ban attempts reached historic high last year, library association says
The association’s report found that nearly half of the book titles targeted for censorship dealt with “the voices and lived experiences” of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/book-ban...
The American Library Association announced Thursday that the number of books challenged in libraries across the U.S. spiked 65% in 2023 over the previous year, reaching the highest level ever documented by the nonprofit organization.
In a new report, the association says that 4,240 individual book titles were targeted for removal from schools and public libraries — a sharp increase from the previous high of 2,571 in 2022.
The library association, which has monitored attempted book bans since 1990, compiles data on challenges from two sources: reports from library professionals and news stories. The association said the 2023 data “represents only a snapshot of book censorship,” partly because many attempts to challenge books are not formally flagged or covered by the news media.
“The reports from librarians and educators in the field make it clear that the organized campaigns to ban books aren’t over, and that we must all stand together to preserve our right to choose what we read,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
...
The library association’s report illustrates that challenges to books have grown more concerted and aggressive. The report’s authors learned that people are “demanding the censorship of multiple titles, often dozens or hundreds at a time.”
More than 2,670 titles were challenged in Florida last year, according to the association’s data. The report logged efforts to censor more than 100 titles in 16 other states, including Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
“Each demand to ban a book is a demand to deny each person’s constitutionally protected right to choose and read books that raise important issues and lift up the voices of those who are often silenced,” Caldwell-Stone said in a statement.
Thankfully the news from Mentor, Ohio is good- sort ofMentor School Board votes to keep controversial books on school shelves
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/l...
Right Now! Real Kids Speaking up for Change” introduces readers to kids across the world, highlights their stories of activism and encourages activism in their own local communities. The book mentions Greta Thunberg's environmental activism as well as transgender activist and TLC star Jazz Jennings. Many parents Tuesday evening said the book is not factual or appropriate based upon political discussions like immigration law, climate change, and gender identity.
“This is patently absurd, and you know it,” said resident Mike Williams. “Are you really going to promote lies to remain in our elementary school libraries? If you do, you are also promoting and agreeing with false statements that our children can transition with genders at will. This is the most despicable lie."
Many parents, however, agreed with the school district's decision to keep the book on school shelves.
“Banning books because they have a reference to a child being transgender is what’s wrong with our society,” said another parent. “Because we do in fact have transgender students in our school district.”
The second book challenged was “Empire of Storms.” Parents claim it highlights multiple, detailed, graphic s-x acts. The school board voted to keep the book on high school shelves.
“I don’t want to hear sexuality and kids in the same sentence ever again,” said another parent.
Many parents also brought up other issues the school district needs to focus on instead, like excessive cell phone usage, class size, and bullying.
“What is important is we as a group stop taking our personal values and beating the heck out of our board members,” one Mentor resident said.
Towards the end of the over four-hour long meeting, the school board proposed a parent advisory system for students.
In Michigan, a generous donation will hopefully help kids be able to read the books they WANT to read. Thank goodness for generous souls who love and support libraries.Tahquamenon Area School Public Library to update young adult, juvenile collections
https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/...
Bob and Lynn Williams, two patrons of the Tahquamenon Area Library, recently donated $2k to the library.
They’re looking to increase book collections and resources, specifically for children’s, juvenile and young adult books.
Brian Freitag, Tahquamenon Area School Public Library director, said the Williams have been donating to the library since 2021.
“They’re very interested in reading and improving literacy,” said Freitag. “Creating lifelong readers, getting young people interested in reading, keeping them reading and touching their lives in that way. It’s very important to them.”
Freitag said with this donation they should be able to buy more than 500 books for the library.
Oh New Hampshire! You're going against the rest of the region and will find that the rest of us don't wish to visit you even if we don't have to pay sales tax. What's more important Dad, cheap booze or books?Angry Bristol parents demand school board remove explicit books
https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news/...
An angry and unruly crowd confronted the Newfound Area School Board on March 11 over alleged licentious policy decisions that made s--ually explicit reading material available to students.
Demanding the school board immediately remove those books from the school library, they quoted directly from the controversial "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson, "Looking For Alaska" by John Green, and "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe.
One parent told the board they had adopted a Ukrainian child from an abusive family, believing she would be safe in America, but instead, “they’re getting introduced to this filth.”
“When you allow negative material into a school, it is your fault,” she said. “You put it there, you allowed it there. And I’m not talking about gay content. I’m talking about the s--ual content. I have gay children, so that’s not even a problem. Kids should not be watching this, reading this, or looking at this. This needs to be taken care of right away.”
"All Boys Aren’t Blue" is a series of personal essays describing Johnson’s childhood and adolescence growing up as a gay Black man. It has been challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity and sexually explicit content.
"Looking For Alaska," a young adult novel described as a “stunning look at friendship, love, and life,” contains scenes of drug use, hazing, and sexually explicit encounters.
"Gender Queer," described as “a useful and touching guide on gender identity — what it means and how to think about it — for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere,” has been criticized for LGBTQIA+ content and s--ually explicit images.
Gary Phillips of Bristol asked board members whether they were aware that such explicit material was in the school library and asked, “If you’re aware of it, why haven’t you done anything to remove them from the library?”
Attempting to let everyone have a chance to speak, Chair Melissa Suckling stopped Groton school board candidate William Jolly from stepping forward a second time, prompting a woman to shout, “Why are you doing this to us?”
Another woman refused to identify herself and stood defiantly before the board, with others saying, “That’s exactly what you’re doing to us.”
Current board policy allows public comment “without expectation of a response” which residents interpret as a refusal to answer their concerns.
New Hampton board member Nate Saler later said, “The point of public comment is for us to hear the public, right? I think we hear you; we are listening. I’m writing down comments ... we’re hearing what the public has to say. It’s not that we’re ignoring; we’re listening, we’re taking in input to see how we should act in the future.”
Mika Austin, the student representative to the school board, addressed some of those concerns as well as complaints about the intrusive questions on the student risk assessment.
“It’s voluntary,” she said of the assessment. “It is anonymous. And it’s really great to hear that it’s going to be extended to the middle school because — these are very invasive questions, but, like, kids in sixth grade are having sex, and you can’t just ignore that. And you can’t just ignore that I’m the only person in this room who knows what it’s like to be in school right now, what it was like in middle school, elementary school just a couple of years ago.
“Yes, social media has played a very big role in that, but you can’t just, like, ignore it or pretend that it doesn’t exist. The best way to deal with it is to educate our students on what the risks are, and what the dangers of all that is.”
She continued, “I know many people my age who are victims of sexual abuse at some point in their lives, and things like 'Looking For Alaska' or 'All Boys Aren’t Blue,' like those p____graphic scenes? They’re not what the book is about. They’re just a very small piece of the book, and also, they’re very, very healthy examples of communicative s-x, which is important, and also shows kids who don’t know what healthy relationships look like in their life. Because, you know, at home, a lot of students here at Newfound do not know what healthy communication looks like, and they aren’t in an environment where they can go to a trusted adult at home and, instead, they have teachers here at school that have to be that trusted adult.”
A woman shouting, “You’re proving our point,” elicited a reprimand from Suckling, who chastised her, “Please be respectful.”
Austin finished by saying, “Trying to restrict the liberty of other people’s children and what librarians and teachers deem appropriate for other children to read isn’t fair to those kids that aren’t yours, I guess. It’s very dystopian. It’d be going backwards.”
At the end of the meeting, Linda Phillips of Bristol challenged the board to “fill out the form to have those books pulled from the library.”
The good news of the day isRainbow Book Bus stops in San Antonio to give away banned LGBTQ+ books
https://www.tpr.org/education/2024-03...
A bus touring the South to give away LGBTQ+ books in response to the rise in efforts to ban books made a stop in San Antonio Wednesday.
The outdoor space behind The Good Kind in Southtown was crowded with families and teens lined up to get books with LGBTQ+ characters set up on folding tables and displayed inside a rainbow-colored school bus.
“We really believe that it's so important to see yourself in these stories,” said Adam Powell, the executive director of the Rainbow Book Bus. “As we all know, there's a lot of book bans going on right now. And I think especially for queer and LGBTQ+ youth, being told that these books are taken out of their libraries, taken out of their schools, we're here to say, ‘If they're going to take them out, we're going to give them to you for free.’”
The Rainbow Book Bus, which has the backing of RuPaul, started its inaugural journey in Los Angeles on March 4, making stops in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia. Powell said San Antonio was their last stop on the tour, and the only stop in Texas.
“We have over 100 different book titles and all these books are either banned or challenged somewhere in the USA,” Powell said, adding that most of the books they chose are for children and young adults, since those are the books that are most often the target for bans.
Rainbow Book Bus partnered with Thrive Youth Center to organize San Antonio’s book giveaway. Thrive is a shelter for LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing homelessness.
...
Powell said the Rainbow Books Bus brings 900 to 1,000 books to giveaway at each stop. The organization had a goal of giving away 10,000 books on its inaugural tour.
Former state poet laureate Carmen Tafolla said she underestimated how many books to bring and ran out. Although her books highlight the Mexican American experience rather than LGBTQ+ characters, Tafolla said it's important to stand against all book bans.
“Reading a huge diversity of books has tremendous benefits to young children and increases their empathy,” she added. “Some of the books that are being challenged are being challenged for the most ridiculous reasons. And most of the people making the loudest noise about wanting a book banned have never read the book that they're asking to be banned.”
Tafolla said her first book of poems, Curandera, was banned in Arizona in 2012.
“They simply took it down because it was part of a Mexican American Studies curriculum. And the schools fought hard enough and the population fought hard enough that that ban has been lifted, it is now being used in Arizona schools again,” she said. “So, I'm an advocate for books that include what has been excluded.”
The good news of the day isRainbow Book Bus stops in San Antonio to give away banned LGBTQ+ books
https://www.tpr.org/education/2024-03...
A bus touring the South to give away LGBTQ+ books in response to the rise in efforts to ban books made a stop in San Antonio Wednesday.
The outdoor space behind The Good Kind in Southtown was crowded with families and teens lined up to get books with LGBTQ+ characters set up on folding tables and displayed inside a rainbow-colored school bus.
“We really believe that it's so important to see yourself in these stories,” said Adam Powell, the executive director of the Rainbow Book Bus. “As we all know, there's a lot of book bans going on right now. And I think especially for queer and LGBTQ+ youth, being told that these books are taken out of their libraries, taken out of their schools, we're here to say, ‘If they're going to take them out, we're going to give them to you for free.’”
The Rainbow Book Bus, which has the backing of RuPaul, started its inaugural journey in Los Angeles on March 4, making stops in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia. Powell said San Antonio was their last stop on the tour, and the only stop in Texas.
“We have over 100 different book titles and all these books are either banned or challenged somewhere in the USA,” Powell said, adding that most of the books they chose are for children and young adults, since those are the books that are most often the target for bans.
Rainbow Book Bus partnered with Thrive Youth Center to organize San Antonio’s book giveaway. Thrive is a shelter for LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing homelessness.
...
Powell said the Rainbow Books Bus brings 900 to 1,000 books to giveaway at each stop. The organization had a goal of giving away 10,000 books on its inaugural tour.
Former state poet laureate Carmen Tafolla said she underestimated how many books to bring and ran out. Although her books highlight the Mexican American experience rather than LGBTQ+ characters, Tafolla said it's important to stand against all book bans.
“Reading a huge diversity of books has tremendous benefits to young children and increases their empathy,” she added. “Some of the books that are being challenged are being challenged for the most ridiculous reasons. And most of the people making the loudest noise about wanting a book banned have never read the book that they're asking to be banned.”
Tafolla said her first book of poems, Curandera, was banned in Arizona in 2012.
“They simply took it down because it was part of a Mexican American Studies curriculum. And the schools fought hard enough and the population fought hard enough that that ban has been lifted, it is now being used in Arizona schools again,” she said. “So, I'm an advocate for books that include what has been excluded.”
More from Augusta-Prattville Library in Alabama. This is very, very, very scary news.https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
During Thursday, March 14, 2024's Autauga-Prattville Public Library board meeting, library director Andrew Foster, alongside other employees, were fired from their jobs. by the board for failure to impose anti-library, pro-censorship measures.
Literary Activism writes:
"It was yet another move by the board to not only impose power over the institution, but to also ensure that the library will fail to serve its role as an institution of democracy in the community.
For months, Autauga-Prattville Public Library (AL) has been under fire. Much of it began with the work of one individual who complained about The Pronoun Book in the children's area of the public library. This escalated to the development of "Clean Up Prattville," a right-wing, religiously-affiliated group seeking to pull any and all books they deemed "obscene" or "inappropriate" (another chapter, "Clean Up Samuels" nearly closed the Samuels Public Library in Virginia last year).
Then last month, the board of trustees passed a new 53-page policy guide February 8, 2024, without the support of library director Andrew Foster, despite his name being included on the policy. The passage of the policy led to board member Christie Sellers immediately resigning, noting that the board was meeting in secret to create this policy.
That was the fifth board member to leave in under a year. By pushing out more and more board members, the board has been able to build itself into a partisan body.
Among the new policies in the recent guide, which was not developed nor approved by the director are that:
Children under the age of 18 shall receive library cards that are especially designated for minors. These cards will not permit the checkout of material with content containing, but not limited to, obscenity, sexual conduct, s---al intercourse, s---al orientation, gender identity, or gender discordance. Age-appropriate materials concerning biology, human anatomy, or religion are exempt from this rule.
The library shall not purchase or otherwise acquire any material advertised for consumers ages 17 and under which contain content including, but not limited to, obscenity, s---ual conduct, s---ual intercourse, s---ual orientation, gender identity, or gender discordance. Age-appropriate materials concerning biology, human anatomy, or religion are exempt from this rule.
Library staff shall affix a red warning label prominently on the binding of any book or other material in the library's collection containing content including, but not limited to, obscenity, s--ual conduct, s--ual intercourse, s--ual orientation, gender identity, or gender discordance and advertised for consumers 18 and older. Materials concerning biology, human anatomy, or religion are exempt from this rule.
The Library Board of Trustees reserves the right to exercise discretion over all library material, including but not limited to books, movies, artwork, displays, and programming.
Removes the requirement that patrons read an entire work before lodging a formal challenge.
One of the key issues of the board is material with LGBTQ+ content, as should be clear. But it was due to the director's refusal to remove over 113 titles with such content from the young adult section that the board elected to fire him at the March 14 meeting.
In response to the firing, library staff members walked out and locked up the library in solidarity with their director.
In a video captured by reporter Monae Stevens and shared on Twitter, a staff member stands at the door of the library. Their voice waivers as they state that "Libraries are the last free safe place for everybody in the community, no matter who you are or what you believe in and they are being taken away. It is our job as citizens to stand for our right to freedom of information."
They are met with applause.
The board responded by firing four staff members of the library. It is unclear whether or not the board even has the authority to fire staff members, given that it is generally the job of the director.
Thursday's meeting was announced on Tuesday via the library's Facebook page. "The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the good name and character of an individual," the post reads, adding that "Public comments will not be taken at this meeting."
When the Alabama Political Reporter reached out to board president Ray Boles about the meeting, he responded that the site was "fake news" and offered no details.
At the meeting, the board went into a closed session. When they reemerged, they shared that they had a statement which would be released to media about their decision to fire Foster.
The statement was not read aloud at the meeting, and the board took no questions.
This is a developing story. None of it is surprising, given what has been going on, but it is deeply troubling and a reminder of how much is at stake right now when it comes to democracy. These decisions are not about the books on shelf. They are about the power of one political faction to eradicate entire swaths of people under the name of "cleaning up" the library. Given how Alabama's governor is eager to further target libraries, to include giving herself significant power in determining what library boards look like, this story will likely be far from an isolated incident.
The library workers here, however, need to be commended. Not only did they stand up for the rights of every citizen to whom the library belongs, but they did so knowing their own livelihoods are on the line.
Literary Activism also provides updates on the states with anti-book ban legislation. https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
failed in :
Colorado Senate Education Committee
New Mexico (never heard)
Oregon (The bill ended not due to vote but due to not being heard before the legislative session ended.)
Virginia : The anti-book ban measures proposed in Virginia passed through both the House and the Senate. It would ban book bans by school boards. The bill will not go into law, as Governor Youngin has vetoed it.
Sits in:
Kansas Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs
Still up for discussion in:
Maryland: heard this week in both the House and Senate. A decision on the bill will come by March 18.
Massachusetts: probably will come up this summer
Advanced in:
Minnesota House
Washington (state): has passed the House and Senate, and it is sitting on the Governor's desk awaiting signature.
No action in:
New Jersey
Minnesota: The bill has advanced in the state House.
Mod
https://literaryactivism.substack.com......"
They should just occupy the library and STAND THEIR GROUND against these Stalin clones.
Will LGBTQ+ books be returned to Florida school libraries now "don't say gay" is dead? It remains to be seen. (doubtful and what about "don't say period?"https://popular.info/p/update-say-gay...
This week, the State of Florida agreed to settle a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the "Don't Say Gay" law. The bill's text prohibited "classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity" through the third grade. The prohibition was later expanded to all grade levels.
With the explicit and tacit encouragement of the Florida Department of Education, the law was broadly interpreted to mandate the banning of library books with LGBTQ characters, the cancellation of Pride Month, and the removal of rainbow flags. It also created confusion about whether it was permissible to discuss LGBTQ people in any context in Florida classrooms.
While the law does not explicitly mention library books, the Florida Department of Education encouraged schools and librarians to interpret it broadly.
A January 2023 training required for all Florida school media specialists emphasized that there was "some overlap between the selection criteria for instructional and library materials." The next slide says that library books and instructional materials cannot include "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination." A subsequent slide lists "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination." That list, citing the Parental Rights in Education Act, states that information about "sexual orientation or gender identity" is prohibited for K-3 students.The media specialists were encouraged to "err on the side of caution" and warned that making books prohibited by Florida law available to students could subject them to third-degree felony charges.
Free speech advocacy groups, including the Florida Freedom to Read Project, PEN America, and the National Coalition Against Censorship, repeatedly asked Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz to tell schools that the law did not apply to library books. Their public and private pleas were repeatedly ignored.
On Monday, everything changed. Florida agreed to a settlement that establishes:
1. "The law does not apply to library books."
2. "The law does not prohibit references to LGBTQ+ persons, couples, families, or issues, including: in literature, in classroom discussion (such as student-to-student speech or teachers responding to students’ questions), in students’ academic work product or teachers’ review of the same, in teachers identifying same-sex or transgender spouses or partners."
3. "The law does not prohibit Gay-Straight Alliances, including student attendance or participation by teachers or other faculty members. The law also does not prohibit book fairs that include LGBTQ+ focused books, musicals or plays with LGBTQ+ references or characters, participation and expression by LGBTQ+ persons in other extracurricular events like school dances, or the wearing of clothing that is affiliated with LGBTQ+ persons or issues or that does not conform with one’s perceived gender identity."
4. "The law does not prohibit instruction or intervention against bullying on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it require the removal of safe space stickers or elimination of safe space areas for the benefit of LGBTQ+ persons."
The only aspect of the law that remains is a prohibition on classroom instruction about "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." Per the terms of the settlement, an example of this would be "teaching an overview of modern gender theory." This is not something that happens very often, if at all, in K-12 education.
Critically, the Florida Department of Education is required to distribute this new guidance to every school district in Florida to ensure they understand the limits of the law.
Equality Florida, which was part of the lawsuit, called the settlement "a landmark achievement in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Florida."
Popular Information contacted the 16 school districts that had previously removed books based on the Don't Say Gay law and asked if they were returning them to the shelves. A spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools said the district was "thrilled" with the settlement and is in the process of making sure it is in compliance. The other districts said they were awaiting formal guidance from the state or did not respond.
Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who championed the Don't Say Gay law, tried to spin the settlement as a victory for his agenda. A statement released by DeSantis claimed that "carrying water for the activists, the media wrote countless stories lying about the intent, design, and application of the law." The settlement, DeSantis claims, is evidence that he "stood up to activists and extremists who mobilized to smear and stop the Parental Rights in Education Act."
140 books were pulled from Princeton Independent School District (TX) thanks to Citizens Defending FreedomWHICH BOOKS?!
https://dallasexpress.com/education/l...
Officials at Princeton ISD have removed more than 100 library books deemed “inappropriate” for review.
The move came after the nonprofit Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF) conducted an audit that found “148 inappropriate books in the school’s libraries,” according to a press release from the organization.
“For decades, districts and parents have relied on these institutions to recommend quality educational material. Most people don’t realize those same institutions have dramatically shifted against the values of most parents,” said Shannon Ayres, CDF education division lead.
According to Ayres, “[I]nappropriate books are promoted by influential entities like the American Library Association (ALA) and Scholastic.”
School officials took immediate action after being notified by CDF.
“Scholastic, once renowned for its promotion of wholesome classics like ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ and ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ now promotes -- explicit material and harmful ideologies,” CDF claimed. “One such book, ‘Melissa,’ by Alex Gino, introduces the concept of transitioning children, including the use of androgen blockers and sex change surgeries, while omitting the risks associated with such procedures. Another book, ‘Welcome to St. Hell’ by Lewis Hancox, depicts the author’s experiences with transitioning using testosterone injections, binding, and packers.”
Some officials at the district celebrated CDF’s audit of its school libraries.
“We are so grateful to have Citizens Defending Freedom conduct such thorough research, providing us with the understanding and tools necessary to prioritize our students’ health and safety,” said Cyndi Darland, Princeton ISD school board president.
Potentially very bad news in MontanaFlathead County Library (MT) trustees are considering getting rid of the YA designation for books because "the genre’s wide age range that they argue fails to give parents enough guidance on whether a book is appropriate for their child."
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2024/...
Several Flathead County Library trustees want to remove the young adult fiction designation owing to the genre’s wide age range that they argue fails to give parents enough guidance on whether a book is appropriate for their child.
Librarians are already engaged in an audit process of the system’s young adult novels, which are largely housed in the teen section of the library. Director Teri Dugan said that none of the young adult novels in the book stacks fall under the recently added obscenity language in the library’s collections development policy, so she will be seeking clarification and guidance from the Board of Trustees at its March meeting.
Board Chair David Ingram introduced the idea of doing away with the young adult fiction designation at the board’s Feb. 22 meeting. He said the discussion around the “redivision of the [young adult] section” came at his and other trustee’s request.
Ingram described young adult fiction as for readers ages 12 to 25, which he added “appears to be an arbitrary classification by the publishers that does not provide guidance to the librarians making selections within this category.”
The Young Adult Library Services Association and many other sources list the intended age range of the genre as 12 to 18.
Ingram said he believes the division of material for an age group that spans 12 to 25 is not realistic. He spoke with Montana State Library Lead Consulting and Learning Librarian Tracy Cook for guidance and said he learned that other libraries have separate sections for tweens and teens, followed by an adult section.
“I am less concerned about the shelvings of the materials and various renditions of the adult section, than to provide a guide post for parents designed to participate in what their child is exposed to and when,” Ingram said. “This move will not infringe on a younger reader to pursue more mature topics, but will alert parents that the adult section will house content that may not be age appropriate for a minor.”
Trustee Heidi Roedel asked Ingram for clarification during the meeting, given that the board updated their collection development policy in January to include that librarians should avoid housing in areas designated for minors materials that contain s--ual content considered obscene as defined by Montana Code. Roedel said she thought the policy shift allowed librarians to move books to other sections as they see fit.
Ingram said he was confused by the young adult designation and that the easiest demarcation in his view would be to designate all materials as either “for minors or for adults.” Ingram turned the proposal into a motion, adding that it can include further division of materials by staff as they see fit.
He had the support of Vice Chair Carmen Cuthbertson, who called young adult fiction “a designation that libraries didn’t come up with, but a sales tool from the publishing industry.”
The young adult fiction designation can be traced back to librarians at the New York Public Library, who coined the term in 1944. It followed decades of work by librarians there who wanted to keep adolescents interested in reading. An earlier iteration, the “NYPL Books for Young People” list, was sent to libraries across the country in 1929, according to PBS Digital Studios.
Cutbertson, though, characterized young adult fiction as a sales tool and agreed with Ingram that it is confusing for parents who want to guide their children toward age-appropriate materials. Still, she said if a parent feels their child is ready for more mature topics, they have the right to let them do so.
She said she felt like young adult books vary in subject matter too much for parents to know for sure.
“I think we're giving our librarians great guidelines, and we're going to make it clear to the public what is shelved where in the library. I think this is a good idea and I think the [young adult] section will just cause trouble,” Cuthbertson said.
She added that there won’t be any punishment for librarians if a book challenge comes from the young adult section, that they “don't have to get it right the first time with every single book that comes in designated this way.”
Dugan said their current audit is utilizing tools given to them by Cook at the Montana State Library. She said they are looking at the age of a book's intended audience before deciding if it should be moved to the adult section.
“So, we are being proactive and looking at seeing what's in that [young adult] collection,” Dugan said.
Trustee Jane Wheeler viewed the action as redundant. She said the board already gave guidance through its updated collections development policy, and that it is hard to imagine how librarians would have the time to sort through the books, particularly when it comes to ordering new young adult books, which are labeled as such when they come from the publisher.
She asked for more information from the library’s staff about implementation before proceeding with a vote.
“They don't read every single one of those books. Then they have to determine whether or not they're going to have to take the [young adult] label off a book and determine if it's appropriate for an 18-year-old or someone younger,” Wheeler said. “That's a huge issue for the staff. I'm having a hard time imagining how they can put that together.”
She referenced conversations with Starr White, the county’s teen librarian, who told trustees that it’s not a matter of age, but maturity level when it comes to reading.
After a lengthy discussion, Ingram withdrew his motion and asked Dugan if she could do more research on the matter and seek additional guidance from the Montana State Library.
Dugan said the library has about 2,000 volumes in total designated as young adult. While the board had one supporter for the issue, public commenter Russell Sias, other community members are anticipating speaking out against the proposal at a future meeting.
Valeri McGarvey is one of them. She said she believes that some trustees are convinced there are obscene books in the library for kids, an idea she’s refuted at previous meetings.
“[Young adult] is not unmanageable. It's not just a publishing house designation, it's been around for 40 years (at Flathead County Libraries) and it's a tool for librarians, for authors and for parents. And there's absolutely no reason to up that entire section and add countless hours of meaningless work,” McGarvey said.
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)
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Alabama
Inside the blistering battle over Alabama libraries: ‘Burn the freaking books’
https://www.al.com/news/2024/03/insid...
After opening in prayer at a church about 15 miles northwest of the state capital, panelists spoke of p----graphy in libraries, calling library board members cowards for not doing their jobs.
Then the leader of a political website remarked about book challenges in Alabama’s public libraries.
“Burn the freaking books,” said Bryan Dawson, the president of 1819 News, a website that publishes articles and conservative political commentary. “Burn them. I don’t care.”
The group behind many recent book challenges across the state is Clean Up Alabama, a nonprofit that first formed in Prattville, a city northwest of Montgomery. The group last fall hosted a forum titled “Fighting to End the Sexualization of Children in Libraries,” where Dawson suggested burning books that are included on Clean Up Alabama’s list of inappropriate books, a recording of the event shows.
....
Clean Up Alabama, led by Prattville resident Hannah Rees, is behind several book challenges in public libraries across the state. Their list of 99 inappropriate books includes 65 LGBTQ+ books, such as “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Beyond Magenta” by Susan Kuklin.
But they’re also targeting books by Black authors or about Black people, such as, “Concrete Rose” and the “The Hate U Give,” young adult fiction novels by Angie Thomas about the Black experience, including violence at the hands of police.
Most of the books on the list are rated based on Book Looks, a review site started by a former member of the conservative political group Moms For Liberty. The ratings system goes from zero (“for everyone”) to 5 (“aberrant adult only content”). Most of the books on Clean Up Alabama’s list are rated 4, meaning not appropriate for minors.
Clean Up Alabama incorporated as a nonprofit on Aug. 14, 2023, according to records from the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. The records list Prattville residents Strong and Chuk Shirley as the group’s directors. Rees is also listed as a director and the incorporator.
“I think that what Clean Up Alabama has done is they have made people afraid of something that is not even happening,” said Prattville resident Angie Hayden, who helped create the group Read Freely Alabama to combat book challenges.
“And once you convince people that something evil is coming for their children, you can pretty much get away with whatever you want to do,” Hayden said. “That’s kind of been their entire tactic is to get people so afraid that these books are coming for their children, that there’s some sort of agenda coming for their children when really the library is just a place for all sorts of viewpoints that represent all sorts of people.”
...
Library critics, without evidence, have even suggested that librarians are distributing s-x toys and porno____graphic magazines to children. At Clean Up Alabama’s “sexualization of children” forum, Dawson said he’d prefer Playboy magazines over current library offerings. Dawson did not respond to requests for comment from AL.com.
“That’s one of the more absurd arguments that have been made about us,” said Andrew Foster, the director of the Autauga-Prattville Library. He said instead of people coming to librarians or reading books for themselves, they’re relying on secondary and even tertiary sources.
In Foley, a city of about 20,000 people near the Gulf Coast, Stephanie Williams said she searched “LGBTQ” in the local library’s online catalog. She raised challenges to 15 books. Two of those books, “This Book Is Gay” and “Who Are You? The Kids Guide to Gender Identity,” are on the Clean Up Alabama list.
She protested the books in a letter to the mayor, city council members, and the library director. She also linked to a 111-page document with books deemed inappropriate by Moms For Liberty.
Williams said that she’s been able to draw attention to the problem of “obscenity, child p-----graphy, s---ually explicit, violent and other troubling and age-inappropriate materials being displayed and made accessible to minors in public and school libraries in Alabama.”
“The more exposure this issue garners, the more support the various groups and individuals like myself enjoy from concerned neighbors right up to persons at top levels of government,” Williams wrote in an email to AL.com. “So, yes, we are making a difference in restoring the vestiges of a civil, refined, and ethical culture.”
When Virginia Doyle, a member of the Alabama Public Library Service board, criticized the move to get the state government involved, Gov. Kay Ivey removed her from the position. Ivey appointed two new board members in early February, including one who challenged 30 LGBTQ books at the Gadsden library.
The library service board finalized a statewide database, released shortly before Christmas, for concerned Alabamians to submit complaints to librarians about books they feel are inappropriate for children. According to Pack, 82 books are on the list, including 24 from Clean Up Alabama’s list of inappropriate books.
In Cullman County, commissioner Garry Marchman publicly stated that he wanted to remove all LGBTQ books from the library. In an interview with AL.com, Marchman said he’s received calls of support from constituents, who “have the same feeling I do.”
Every member of the Cullman County commission signed the “Petition to Stop the Sexualization of Children” set up by Clean Up Alabama to remove books they deem inappropriate.
...
Read Freely Alabama called for an investigation into whether it’s a conflict of interest for John Wahl to be the chair of the Alabama Republican Party while also serving on the state library board.
“Wahl is abusing his authority as a member of the APLS Board of Directors to enhance his political reputation as ALGOP Chair and consolidate power going into an election year,” RFA said in a statement in October. Wahl denied there was a conflict of interest and alleged there were inappropriate books in the children’s section of the Prattville library.
Clean Up Alabama invited Wahl to the “Sexualization of Children” forum as a library board member. After Read Freely released its statement, Wahl chose not to attend the Clean Up Alabama forum. The other state library board members decided that having the state Republican party leader on the board was not a conflict of interest.