Children's Books discussion
Banned Books: discussions, lists
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Discussion of censorship, equity, and other concerns.
Garfield County, Coloradothe county commissioners decided to take on the role of library board appointments
https://www.aspenpublicradio.org/gove...
Earlier this year, the commissioners decided to take over the appointment process to the all-volunteer board, which governs the library district. They make decisions about the budget, hiring the library district’s director, maintaining buildings, and setting goals, and, of course, make policies that uphold the mission of the libraries: free access to information for all.
GCPLD’s director, Jamie LaRue was at the Tuesday rally. He said it hasn’t always been the commissioners making these decisions.
“Since the founding of the Library district in 2008, the library board has always chosen its own people,” he said. “And it's never been a Partisan issue. It's never been a political issue. And the commissioners have suddenly made it one.”
As Commissioner John Martin explained it during the April 30 interviews, they didn’t so much as change the process as they did take a more hands-on approach, such as a more formal interview process.
“And we felt that there needed to be more applicants so we could get a more well-rounded applicant base to make our choice,” he said. “And that's all we did.”
But LaRue’s misgivings were shared by O’Brien and the other folks at the rally.
“By taking this over in the way they have, it's been a slap in the face to the library board, in my opinion,” O’Brien said. “It's been a slap in the face to the community that has supported this library for so many years.”
County commissioners became interested in the topic[book banning] after some concerned citizens petitioned the library district last year, asking it to restrict children’s access to certain books deemed inappropriate, or remove them from shelves altogether.
This is something all board candidates must now address during their interviews.
Commissioner Tom Jankovsky proposed the same question to each candidate during the interview process, comparing mature books to policies protecting children from material online.
“Do you believe there should be the same reasonable policies for children’s access to books that are designated ‘for mature audiences only’?” he asked.
The library board refused to change its policies, which oppose censorship and restricting access, even for minors. But the county commissioners were sympathetic to the petitioners.
In a Nov. 7 meeting, Commissioner Mike Samson discussed the books at the heart of the petition: a pair of Japanese manga graphic novels that were not shelved in the children’s section.
“I think those types of books are degrading, are filthy, are disgusting,” he said. “I will not read them. I have seen pictures. I know what filthy, degrading, and disgusting is¦ I know that.”
Hannah Arauza, who is in the current pool of candidates, applied to be on the board last year and had unanimous approval from current board members, but her appointment was rejected by county commissioners.
Her appointment process was dominated by the conversation about access to books. She said she wouldn’t change the board’s policies.
During an Oct. 12 meeting, Arauza told commissioners that she felt that there didn’t need to be any changes to the way the library shelved books, with the children’s section separate from other shelves, and that it was her responsibility as a mom to keep an eye on what her children read.
During her interview process, she was asked:
“So you think children should have access to p----graphy in the library,” Jankovksy said.
“I don’t think that’s the case, I think parents should watch their children while they’re in the library,” Arauza replied.
GCPLD Director LaRue hopes that in the future, maybe with new county commissioners, they’ll hand that process back over to the board.
“I think that's where it belongs, I really do,” LaRue said.
And he is thankful for the community members who come out to meetings to support their public institutions — as was O’Brien.
“There are people here who are educators who are moms, dads, people who care about the quality of life in our community,” she said.
The county commissioners will deliberate and make their decision about the newest board member on May 6th.
They will accept a recommendation from the library board, but will not allow public comment on the appointment.
There will be two more seats open by the end of 2024.
Wyoming-Cheyenne School District May Pass Wyoming’s Strictest Library S-x Book Policy
Laramie County School District No. 1 is considering a policy for s---ally explicit books in school libraries that, if passed, would likely be the strictest in Wyoming.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/05/...
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s largest school district is considering a library book procurement policy for controversial s--ually themed materials that, if passed, would likely be the strictest in the state.
Laramie County School District No. 1 in Cheyenne is discussing a policy that would prevent new books containing “s--ually explicit content” of any kind from entering elementary schools and discourage them from being included in junior and high school libraries.
People opposed and supportive of the proposed policy agree it would be the most stringent policy in a state where many school districts are tightening their regulations.
What’s defined as s--ually explicit relies on a wide-sweeping definition covering all s--ual acts.
In short, if a book contains a s-- scene, the district’s librarians would be at least discouraged from buying it.
Since the school district established a new policy for identifying books with s--ually explicit content in its circulation last year, there have been 21 titles added to it, almost at the high school level. Any member of the public can nominate books for this disclaimer.
“It's important, because current policies are not being properly followed and have allowed s--ually explicit books into our school libraries, a place with which they do not belong,” said Patricia McCoy, chair of the Cheyenne chapter of Moms For Liberty.
Marcie Kindred, one of the lead organizers of Wyoming Family Alliance for Freedom, is opposed to the proposed policy, which she said amounts to a book ban based on too wide a definition of “s----ally explicit.”
“S---ally explicit does not mean without value or merit,” she said. “Sexuality is a part of our life. Teenagers are involved in that with their developmental understanding.”
She said the proposed policy also confirms the suspicions she’s had all along about people wanting to revise the district’s library book policies.
“It confirms they’re trying to keep out books they don’t like personally,” Kindred said.
Selection of library materials at the elementary level will be supervised by a district librarian or content area coordinator and cannot contain s---ally explicit content.
Selections made at the junior and high school level shall be made by district librarians, who must “endeavor” to select materials, whether free or purchased, that do not contain s---ally explicit content.
Materials that meet state and or federal legal definitions for p----graphy or obscenity will not be included in district library collections.
Kindred said this removes the element of parental choice.
A public records request performed by Cheyenne attorney George Powers shows that 29 of the first 33 nominations were made by a single person, according to an op-ed he wrote for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Kindred also pointed to the fact that during an April school board meeting on this topic, an excerpt was read from a s---ually explicit book that is not in circulation in any school library in Wyoming, as proof those fighting for the book policy changes are using “misinformation and sensationalism to scare the public into believing their lies.”
When her daughter was a freshman and sophomore at Cheyenne South High School, [M4L] McCoy said she checked out books with s---ally explicit material and knows other parents who have dealt with similar issues.
When McCoy attempted to read a passage from one aloud at a LCSD1 board meeting, Bolin would not let her.
The new policy on procurement would not apply to books already in the library system.
... parents and guardians have an ability to opt-out their children from being allowed to either check out any books flagged for containing s---ally explicit content, allow their children to only check out specific titles containing this content, full access without restrictions, or no access to any books.
In 2023, Park County School District 1 in Powell passed a new book selection and adoption policy for its school district. According to the Powell Tribune, this includes considerations such as supporting standards, user appeal, maturity, favorable reviews from “authoritative sources,” diversity of viewpoints, and representation from religious, ethnic and cultural authors.
In addition to the criteria, the librarians there are supposed to take input from stakeholders in accordance with the district’s mission and values.
The school district also created more options for the removal and restriction of existing books by developing a scoring rubric for a book’s content and the creation of a committee to review removal requests.
Sheridan County School District 1 in Big Horn is also considering new policies for removing library books from its shelves.
In Gillette, the head librarian of the Campbell County Public Library System was fired in 2023 after refusing to move contested books from the juveniles’ sections of the libraries to the adult sections.
McCoy said she is very confident the LCSD1 board will approve the new policy.
The policy’s review period will be open until 4 p.m. May 23. The board of trustees will decide whether to pass the procurement policy at its June 3 meeting.
Rockingham County School Board discusses next steps of Supplementary Materials Policyhttps://rocktownnow.com/news/218812-r....
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. The review of books and media for s----ally explicit content has begun two weeks after the Rockingham County School Board adopted their long-contested Supplementary Materials policy for the county’s schools.
The policy, which establishes guidelines and a complaint process for reporting objectionable content in the county’s school libraries, was adopted in a 4-1 vote at the board’s April 22 meeting at Turner Ashby High School.
The months-long debate over which books belong in Rockingham County Public Schools generated backlash from teachers, parents, students, and others in the RCPS community, particularly after 57 books were temporarily pulled from the school’s shelves in January.
At their Tuesday night meeting, the Board heard a recommendation from Superintendent Larry Shifflett regarding one of those books – The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. Shifflett recommended reinstating the book, after he and the newly established Content Review Committee found that it did not contain any s--ual content per the new policy’s language.
The school board unanimously voted to reinstate the book, with a motion from board member Hollie Cave.
However, while The Invisible Boy survived the new policy’s scrutiny, questions still remained about how the policy would be implemented.
Eileen Frueh, a parent of two former RCPS students, brought those questions before the board during the meeting’s public comment period, asking how they plan to review the remaining 56 books per the new policy.
“Presumably each book will have its own committee review, because if this isn’t outright censorship but is an actual process to assess the literary worth of each book and determine whether it might place our children in grave harm, then each book needs a thorough and thoughtful review,” Frueh said. “That may take a year for them to do so if they met over the summer and through spring break and through Christmas and through all of the other breaks. Hopefully during that time, the books that weren’t being reviewed would be back into circulation, because otherwise those stories and ideas are presumed guilty before they’re proven innocent.”
Frueh also voiced her concern over how educators will be included in the review process, asking about the possibility of a stipend for their participation.
“This is a highly contentious and political process, it is difficult and I think it is perhaps not ethical to ask staff and teachers to serve on those committees with all of this public pressure without being properly compensated,” Frueh said.
Board member Jackie Lohr, who cast the sole dissenting vote when the board adopted the Supplementary Materials policy in April, said that she agreed with Frueh’s points and echoed her question about the fate of the remaining books. Chair Matt Cross tried to dissuade Lohr’s question during the meeting and directed it to Shifflett, who explained the review process and the Content Review Committee’s first meeting since the policy was adopted.
According to Shifflett, the committee’s first meeting covered their parameters and the work they plan to do, which includes reading all of the books in question.
“Some of the books are sort of like graphic novels, so they’re a pretty quick read but I think [Frueh] brings up a good point – it’s going to take some time to get through these books,” Shifflett said.
Shifflett selected committee members to represent elementary, middle and high school reading levels, and two criteria.
“I was looking for two things: one – that you could read and like to read and two – that you have the reputation of someone who is willing to have a dialogue,” Shifflett explained.
Shifflett added that, due to the number of books to review and the length of some of them, they will be constant items on the meeting agendas for the foreseeable future, and that he hopes to bring recommendations for a few more reviewed books before the School Board at their next meeting.
In his final remarks before going into closed session, Cross said that, despite some community pushback against the new policy, with many of the attendees opposing the vote at their last meeting, he and the board plan to move ahead with it at full speed.
“At Turner Ashby High School the other night, we didn’t have a lot of our people that voted for us in 2021 and last year for the three new ones that came on, but they ran their campaigns on getting the dirty books out of our libraries, and that’s what this policy was about,” Cross said. “It was about s---ually explicit content and that’s what parents don’t want in their school libraries. And we listen to our parents and we’re going to do our best to uphold our promises to the parents of Rockingham County.”
New Orleans Public Library (LA) cardholders who have children need to re-register their kids for new cards because of the new law in the state demanding an option for parents to withdraw access to parts of the collection.https://www.wdsu.com/article/new-orle...
This comes after the legislature passed a law last year that requires libraries to have a procedure in place for preventing youth from checking out items believed to be inappropriate for their ages.
Library officials said the changes must be made to the card system in order for the library to receive funding.
"In order for us to be in compliance with the law, parents or guardians now have to decide what their children or teens have access to at the Library," Emily Painton, the Library’s executive director and City Librarian, said in an issued statement. "We hope that these changes spark conversations between adults and the youth in their care about what media is appropriate for them to read, watch, and consume."
According to the statement, parents and guardians must decide what check-out permissions they want for their children from the following options:
Option 1: all Library materials
Option 2: Library materials except physical materials that the Library Board has deemed s--ually explicit, as defined by R.S. 25:225
Option 3: Library materials except physical materials that the Library Board has deemed s--ually explicit, as defined by R.S. 25:225, and all digital materials that are available for checkout
Option 4: Library materials except for all digital materials that are available for checkout
Physical materials may include books, movies, and CDs. Digital materials may include e-books, e-audiobooks, streaming music, and streaming video, according to the statement.
Those who do not come to the library to update the permissions for the cards will notice restricted access to materials starting May 30. To gain access back to those materials, parents will have to visit a library to update their child's permissions.
"This transition is a big one for our youth Library cardholders," Heather Riley, director of public services, said in an issued statement. "We understand that it may be confusing, but the Library is prepared to help our patrons make the best decisions for their families."
According to library officials, the New Orleans Public Library organizes materials by subject and in age-appropriate sections, including children's and young adult areas. Librarians do not include adult materials in the children’s section.
As required by this new law, the library added this system to allow parents or guardians to restrict their children's access to physical and digital library materials, according to the statement issued by the library.
The library provided guidance for parents in regard to materials accessed by their children.
[scroll down for not book censorship news. Yes, people are now being banned from certain spaces.]
Warwick (Penn.) School District in Lancaster County considers change to library policyhttps://www.wgal.com/article/lancaste...
The concern was the result of the board considering a change in the district's current library policy. Right now, the decision about which books are available in school libraries is overseen by a review committee.
"The challenge review committee is made up of just teachers and administrators, so there's no board members that actually are a part of that process. And that library review committee, the language is they own the final call on whether or not to reject the book," board member Michael Brown said.
But Brown doesn't want the committee to have the final say.
"I would prefer that go to the library review committee; make a recommendation to the board and then the board can make the decision on whether or not to move forward with that book," he said.
Another issue that was discussed was the meeting some board members had with the Independence Law Center. The organization is the conservative-Christian legal arm of the Pennsylvania Family Institute.
"The purpose of the meeting was to perform some due diligence in connection with making a decision as to whether or not to recommend that the board speak to Independence Law Center on certain Title IX matters," board vice president Scott Landis said.
Some community members said the law center has been shopping its book-banning and anti-LGBTQ policies to public school districts. There is fear that this proposed change in library policy could be coming from them.
"They haven't been able to ban books in any other way so now the school board wants to be the one to have this decision and they want pull books off the shelf they don't agree with, and it seems like they might be using the Independence Law Center to do that," Senft said.
"I think we need to trust our teachers. That's why we hired them. We respect their opinions. We respect their knowledge," Albright said.
The board didn't make a decision about the library policy.
Regarding whether the district will obtain services from the Independence Law Center, the board said it will take a vote on that in the next two weeks.
the new religious right group firmly targeting school board seats.https://www.texasobserver.org/christi...
On February 6, pistol-packing pastor Troy Jackson, a former Republican Party of Texas strategist and current candidate for vice chair of the Texas GOP beamed as he welcomed a dozen conservative activists into a flag-adorned meeting room at the New Beginnings Church in Bedford. The attendees included the founder of Citizens Defending Freedom, a Tarrant County GOP official, the founder of the local John Birch Society, and a representative from the far-right group Turning Point USA. They were gathering as the Remnant Alliance, a coalition of Christian nationalist groups that are working to educate, train, and mobilize conservative Christian congregations to influence the outcomes of local elections—especially school boards.
“Even if I don’t have kids in school, I’m showing up at school board meetings and testifying that you’re not going to teach our children this smut,” Jackson told the group. “You’re not going to s---alize these children. Because, even though I may not have children in the school, it affects the entire community.”
The Remnant Alliance has united several powerful conservative Christian groups. The overarching ideology of these groups is Christian nationalism, which is “an ideology that seeks to privilege conservative Christianity in education, law, and public policy,” according to David Brockman, a religious scholar with the Baker Institute at Rice University. While conservative churches and outspoken pastors have long played roles in local politics, the Remnant Alliance represents a deepening and broadening of efforts to elect candidates who promise to infuse right-wing Christian values into policy.
From Keller to Katy, such right-wing religious candidates continue to run for school boards in 2024, increasingly with the vocal support of pastors and congregations in the Remnant Alliance orbit. While some deep red areas like Llano have become flashpoints, most of the action appears clustered in suburban districts around Houston, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
In Keller, two right-wing school board incumbents, Charles Randklev and Heather Washington, were prayed over at Mercy Culture, a church where “Biblical Citizenship” and “End-times Prophecy” ministry is led by Mark Fulmer, the founder of the north Texas chapter of the John Birch Society, who attended the February Remnant Alliance meeting. In Katy, two right-wing school board challengers, Donovan Campbell and David Olson, received endorsements from Katy Christian Magazine, a publication that has run articles on school board politics penned by Rick Scarborough, a Remnant Alliance leader who attended that same meeting and whose organization, Recover America, focuses on school board elections.
...
According to Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, the Charismatic Christian language of spiritual warfare has become a sort of lingua franca for the broader Christian nationalist movement, which is increasingly locally focused. “
As Taylor sees it, the strategy has shifted from a hail Mary pass to get Donald Trump elected in 2016 to more localized efforts that feed into national politics.
“They’re working to activate these grassroots networks that can take over these school boards and city councils,” Taylor said. “The juice they get from seeing this local victory will then spur people on towards a national approach. It’s very politically sharp.”
School boards are a top priority for the Remnant Alliance; official meetings of the group encourage activists to attend their meetings. Scarborough, one of its leaders, has vowed to free school boards from (view spoiler)
Between the nine groups that make up the coalition, there are thousands of churches and hundreds of thousands of activists. Among the partners are: Citizens Defending Freedom, a Christian nationalist group with chapters in several states that critics have described as “Moms for Liberty in suits”; Liberty Pastors a training organization for church leaders founded by politically outspoken Oklahoma pastor Paul Blair; Recover America, a nondenominational ministry led by Scarborough that aims to mobilize pastors and their congregations to “vote biblically” in school board elections; Patriot Academy, an educational organization founded by former Texas state representative Rick Green with seed funding from Christian nationalist David Barton; Turning Point USA, a college-focused group with a track record of associating with extremists that is led by Charlie Kirk; ACT for America, an advocacy organization led by Brigitte Gabriel that has pushed anti-Muslim rhetoric and recently recruited on a QAnon show; the Salt and Light Council, a parachurch organization led by Dran Reese that works to equip pastors to mobilize their congregants toward political ends; Liberty Counsel, a legal organization led by former pastor Mathew Staver that provides litigation support to the conservative Christian movement; and All Pro Pastors, a networking and education group for pastors that has aligned with election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
Several Remnant Alliance leaders—such as Blair, Scarborough, Kirk, Gabriel, Reese, and Staver—are also members of the Council on National Policy (CNP), a secretive group founded in 1981 that has worked to link wealthy right-wing donors and political operatives to plan and execute long-term strategies.
Award-winning journalist Anne Nelson, whose book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right provides an in-depth look into the CNP, has described the group as a “pluto-theocracy.”
“The Remnant Alliance is just the latest version of an ongoing effort to politicize evangelical pastors and their congregations by the radical right wing of the Republican Party,” Nelson said. “These efforts are heavily financed and coordinated by the network of mega-donors and organizations involved in the Council for National Policy.”
Since the beginning of 2024, the Remnant Alliance has held over a dozen meetings at local churches across Texas. Some included local Republican party officials, such as a February 6 meeting during which Rosalie Escobedo, the Tarrant County GOP secretary and executive director of the Tarrant County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, endorsed training children to “not give up Jesus” through “end times militaristic preparation,” such as “army crawls” that troops use to advance during battle.
At the New Beginnings meeting, Remnant Alliance members engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that blurred the lines between faith and politics. Jackson, the hosting pastor, boasted that 19 of his congregants ran for office in 2022, mainly school boards and city councils. He touted firearms classes held at the church and explained how he trains Republican precinct chairs to engage in “Kingdom activism”—a concept promoted by self-described Christian nationalist prophet Lance Wallnau, a leader in the controversial “New Apostolic Reformation” who lives in the nearby suburb of Keller.
“The law of nature is God’s law, which is the law of the land,” said Steve Maxwell, the founder of Citizens Defending Freedom, during the February meeting. “It comes before the constitution.”
“That’s it,” Jackson responded. “The Constitution comes second to the word of God.”
Through Recover America, Scarborough claims to have already helped elect two “committed Christians” to the Houston Independent School District board of trustees and three “biblical values candidates” in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in 2021.
One of the candidates he supported was Natalie Kagan Blasingame, a former educator and public school administrator who back in 2015 unsuccessfully campaigned for a Cypress-Fairbanks school board position explicitly on the issue that Christianity should have more of a place in classrooms and evinced belief in the Seven Mountains Mandate in an email seeking financial support. “In 2021, Blasingame ran again for school board and won, along with the two other PAC-backed candidates Scarborough supported. She now serves as the board’s vice president.
In total, Recover America claims to have helped conservative candidates win 25 of 36 school board races since 2019.
Even after such policies have been passed, pastors and activists aligned with the Remnant Alliance continue to show up to school board meetings and demand the removal of books. On February 5, the Remnant Alliance held a meeting at the Community Transformation Church in Houston, led by Pastor Richard Vega. On April 3, Vega endorsed the Remnant Alliance during a WallBuilders podcast with Green, the founder of Patriot Academy. That same month, Vega addressed the Katy ISD school board.
“There’s probably 150 books, probably more, in your school district that need to go ahead and come out,” Vega said. “We’re willing to work with you guys and be able to give you that list so you can start filtering through.”
A November 29, 2023, rally at the Sandstone Mountain Ranch event center in Llano encapsulates the extent to which the Remnant Alliance overlaps with Republican Party power players on school board-related issues. Dubbed the “Protect Our Children Event,” the gathering featured multiple Remnant Alliance affiliates who spoke alongside Matt Rinaldi, the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Luke Macias, a Republican political consultant linked to Christian nationalist billionaire oilman Tim Dunn, and Kevin Roberts of the right-wing Heritage Foundation. One goal of the event was to raise money for Llano County to fight a lawsuit brought against county officials that stemmed from the removal of 17 books from the public library, including one for teens that calls the Ku Klux Klan a terrorist group and another that describes racism in the United States as an aspect of a caste system. Another was to “educate those who attend to the types of harmful content readily available to children in public and school libraries.”
Several Remnant Alliance organizations—Liberty Pastors, Patriot Academy, and Turning Point USA—have all directly partnered with Patriot Mobile, which explicitly endorse school board candidates through its PAC, Patriot Mobile Action. In 2022, Citizens Defending Freedom organized voter registration events, including one at Gateway Church in partnership with Glenn Story, the co-founder and president of Patriot Mobile who in December 2023 was recognized with the Salt and Light Award at the same National Association of Christian Lawmakers event attended by Speaker Johnson.
On April 21, Schatzline led the congregation in prayer for “Friends and Family Candidates” supported by For Liberty and Justice Tarrant, a nonprofit that Schatzline also leads. The list, which promoted Keller school board candidates Randklev and Washington among others, carried a disclaimer that says it is “not an endorsement” and that “these are candidates that are involved in their local church and share our values.”
Patriot Mobile also explicitly endorsed Randklev and Washington. The American Principles Project, which features a CNP member on the board of directors, endorsed Campbell and Olson in Katy. All four candidates have received endorsements from local Republican Party officials.
Enid, Oklahoma Public Library Board Bans Pride DisplayThis is the third year of the board redefining and challenging Pride displays in the public library.
https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
. This week, for the third consecutive year, the Enid Public Library in Oklahoma has stirred a manufactured panic around Pride displays in the library. An outside group which has been permitted an exhibit now for several years has had their request for a 2024 display rejected, opening the door wide for a third year of battling over what constitutes a display, what constitutes an exhibit, and what is deemed "appropriate" in either at the public library serving over 60,000 people county-wide.
And now, in May 2024, the display proposed by Enid LGBTQ+ Coalition was vetoed by the board. This is thanks in part to a new member of the board who did not know where the exhibit would be and who did not know the kinds of materials which would be displayed.
At least, that's what that board member said. Per the actual application by a member of the group who proposed the exhibit–again, the third one since the constantly changing policies and battles over display and exhibit policies began–it's pretty clear.
The 2024 exhibit would include the same titles and information approved by the board in 2023. What that includes already exists in the board's records. Moreover, any good board member would ask some questions if "unsure" what something means.
More information about why the board voted against the display that had been previously approved twice is unavailable–and yet, it's not hard to speculate. Following the exhibit veto, the board discussed the location of several books in the collection. In one case, a young adult novel was moved from the YA section to adult, while the board elected to keep another YA book right where it belongs. But the meeting concluded with several more books and their location being put on the agenda for the July board meeting.
Some good newsCedar Rapids church opens ‘Free Little Library’ for banned books
https://www.kcrg.com/2024/05/13/cedar...
Bryan Davis is a member of Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist, and he said he was one of the first to suggest the idea about a year ago.
“It occurred to me that this would be a project that the church might want to do because of the suppression of ideas that we see going on in our society today,” he said.
“Unitarian Universalism believes that people have the right and responsibility to choose what it is that is meaningful in their lives,” said Rev. Carin Bringelson, the minister at Peoples Church.
“Everyone in the congregation is in support of LGBTQIA+ rights, and the right to love. Love is actually the center of our faith,” said Bringelson.
In December 2023, a judge temporarily blocked several parts of the law and said the ban on books was “incredibly broad.”
At the Peoples Church, leaders aren’t waiting for a court decision to show they believe books that others object to should be accessible.
“It’s fine if they object to them. But we don’t believe that that means they can make that decision for everyone. And so this is why we started that little free library,” said Davis.
‘Afraid of knowledge’: Teachers union president takes on book banshttps://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watc...
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, was once called “the most dangerous person in the world” by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Teachers unions, Pompeo claimed, were also the most likely to take the republic down. “I do not understand why they are afraid of knowledge or why they are afraid of kids critically thinking,” Weingarten tells Ali Velshi. “If you don’t have knowledge, fear becomes much more inviting.” That’s why Weingarten and AFT have been helping children gain access to books. To date, they’ve given away more than 10 million brand new books to children who want them. “We don’t want to determine what our kids think but we really want our kids to know how to think.”
Mod
https://abcnews.go.com/US/book-bans-t...
Book bans, thre..."
It is time for African American, Asian American, Native American, for ALL ethnically diverse American students and their supporters to collectively and nation wide engage in major civil disobedience both in the classroom and in public and school libraries to fight against book bans etc. (and hopefully, both educators and librarians will also join in).
Manybooks wrote: "It is time for African American, Asian American, Native American, for ALL ethnically diverse American students and their supporters to collectively and nation wide engage in major civil disobedience both in the classroom and in public and school libraries to fight against book bans etc. (and hopefully, both educators and librarians will also join in)."How are they supposed to do that? It's not government censorship, it's individual communities and schools. If they're not invited, they can't access schools. Teachers and librarians are being threatened, fined, fired and labeled truly awful names. Those who refuse to do what they're told end up fired.
Mod
You know, this is exactly how the Nazis were able to get more and more power, through fear etc. Yes, the threat is real, but if no one fights back, it will just get worse and worse.
Manybooks wrote: "You know, this is exactly how the Nazis were able to get more and more power, through fear etc. Yes, the threat is real, but if no one fights back, it will just get worse and worse.."People are fighting back. There are several lawsuits pending and the students are fond of protesting. Attend school board meetings, run for school board, local government political office, write to your senators and representatives and shame the school board/library/local government in the media. That gets negative attention and the locals don't like that. Rural communities don't have the resources to even know what's going on. I just posted a story about how broadband is too expensive and the community doesn't have traditional media. That worked in the library's favor at the moment.
The problem is all the dark money being funneled into these groups like the church group and their allies above.
Mod
Church groups have way too much power and influence.
Manybooks wrote: "Church groups have way too much power and influence."Some do. They have dark money and they're funneling it into extremist groups that will reelect Donald Trump and overthrow the Constitution. Then they can oust Trump and put one of their own in control.
Lots more news today but I'll wait for tomorrow to post it all.
Manybooks wrote: "Church groups have way too much power and influence."Some do. They have dark money and they're funneling it into extremist groups that will reelect Donald Trump and overthrow the Constitution. Then they can oust Trump and put one of their own in control.
Lots more news today but I'll wait for tomorrow to post it all.
This week's censorship news Good news in Minnesota so far
https://literaryactivism.substack.com...
A bill to ban book bans has landed on the governor's desk. Kelly Jensen from Book Riot reports: "Senate File 3567 is part of the state's omnibus education bill and includes a provision making the practice of banning books more difficult throughout the state and would require that all libraries adopt policies related to selection and reconsideration of collection materials. This week, the bill passed through both the state's House and Senate and is on the Governor's desk to sign.
The anti-book banning measures would apply to public libraries and public school library systems–SF 3567 defines public libraries to include both, as well as public institutions of higher education."
The bill states: A public library must not ban, remove, or otherwise restrict access to a book or other material based solely on its viewpoint or the messages, ideas, or opinions it conveys.
"Within that section of the bill, professional library workers would still be permitted to select materials appropriate for their collection, as well as to engage in weeding of outdated, incorrect, or materials damaged beyond repair. What it does is make it against the law to remove books based on the so-called "culture wars."
"his protects both the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of students, faculty, and staff in public schools and libraries, not to mention showcases a commitment to providing access to materials that reflect the diverse experiences of those entities.
The bill goes on to legislate that every public library must have policies and procedures in place that allow parents or guardians to not only opt their children out of specific materials but which also allows them to challenge materials.
The bill would put the responsibility of handling challenges and complaints within the hands of the actual library professionals, which are defined in the bill itself.
Results of those challenges would need to be reported to the state educational authority. That information would include identifying information about the materials being challenged, which is helpful for tracking patterns in content or authorship being targeted.
It is very likely Governor Tim Walz will sign the bill into law. He backed the initial proposals early on in the legislative session. While this iteration is not as strong as the initial version, it still provides significant protections for these democratic institutions and those who use them throughout the state.
When signed, it will go into effect immediately."
In Florida the superintendent of Escambia County schools just set an impossible task.Escambia Superintendent Keith Leonard vows to evaluate 200+ challenged books over several days
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/educat...
Escambia County Public Schools Superintendent Keith Leonard is taking matters into his own hands when it comes to chiseling down the district’s book challenge list that now tops 200.
Leonard told school board members in a workshop Thursday that he would be joining the school district’s Coordinator of Media Services, Bradley Vinson, in the “very near future” to go down the list, book by book, even if it takes days to do it.
The promise of action comes only a month after community members protested outside the walls of the J.E. Hall Center and demanded that the books awaiting a decision but stuck in “book jail” be released back to the shelves to be checked out by students.
"Miss Vinson Bradley and I will go through every one of those. We will make decisions where we can make decisions. Where we cannot, that’s where we start back up committee work, we go into your policy and do the things that we need to do. However many (books) it ends up being, we will work to bring those back here.”
“I wanted you to know where we are,” Leonard said. “I know that it is taking a considerable amount of time, but we’ve been deliberate. You (school board) did and gave us direction to make certain that we were protecting our people and doing what we needed to do for our students.”
Once the two are finished weeding out books that can be removed from school libraries, they’ll reinstate the district’s book review committees to evaluate the books that were allowed to stay in the first round in more depth.
Since ECPS received their first book challenge in June nearly two years ago, only 23 decisions have been made on citizen challenges: Nine books have been removed at all grade levels, eight books have been restricted at all grade levels and six books have been retained including the Bible, which is legally protected under Florida Statute 1003.45(1).
One of the books yet to be returned to shelves is “And Tango Makes Three,” a children's book about two male penguins raising a chick in a New York City zoo, which is at the heart of a lawsuit championed by authors, ECPS parents, the publishing company Penguin Random House and the free-speech group PEN America.
“As you know, there’s several different lawsuits that are out there,” Leonard said. “Our media specialists, along with Bradley (Vinson) and Linda Sweeting, have done the work in going through 600-something-thousand books. Day in and day out, they’re working to get things done.”
“And then we had the lawsuit on (HB) 1557,” Leonard continued. “A number of those books that have been set aside have been set back on the shelves. Not all of them, because there are some of those books that perhaps need to be reviewed deeper for objectionable material, whether it be age inappropriate or obscene in nature.”
Leonard said some of the current challenges will be easier to resolve than others, like books that haven’t been checked out by students in decades.
“I think it’s important that people understand that some of these books have just been on the shelf," said District 5 Board Member Bill Slayton. “Since they’ve just been sitting there, gathering dust, and not being used, and not being suggested for student usage − we’re going to get rid of them.”
In the meantime, students are not hurting for books to check out, according to Leonard.
“I would dare say…590-something-thousand books is a lot of books. So, I believe our students have resources…they have plenty of material to read,” Leonard said. “We hope they’re taking advantage of it.”
District 1 Board Member Kevin Adams praised Leonard’s leadership, and affirmed the board would “take care of” the books that end up back in their board meetings for a final decision.
Maryland parents can’t opt kids out of LGBTQ book curriculum, court rulesAt issue was a set of LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks the Montgomery County Board of Education had approved for use in school curriculums in 2022.
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-n...
A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a bid by a group of Maryland parents to force a school district to allow them to opt their elementary school children out of being assigned to read books that include LGBTQ characters.
A 2-1 panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the parents had not demonstrated how the Montgomery County Board of Education’s book policy would burden anyone’s rights to freely exercise religion.
The parents’ lawyers at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty had objected to a curriculum for pre-K and elementary school-aged children that included books that portray gay, transgender and non-binary characters in various situations.
The parents, who are Muslims, Christians and Jews, argued alongside the parental rights organization Kids First that by not providing an opt-out option, the board’s policy infringed their religious rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
But U.S. Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee, writing for the majority in Wednesday’s opinion, said the record was “threadbare” as to how teachers were actually using the books in their classrooms and what children were being taught from them.
Agee, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, said such information was key for the parents to establish that the lack of an opt-out option was interfering with their children’s religious education.
“At present, however, no evidence in the record connects the requisite dots between the Parents’ children’s ages or mental capacity and their unknown exposure to the Storybooks to conclude that the Parents have already shown that a cognizable burden exists,” he wrote.
Agee’s opinion was joined by U.S. Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden.
U.S. Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr., an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, dissented, saying in his view, the board violated the parents’ First Amendment right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.
Eric Baxter, a lawyer for the parents at Becket, in a statement promised a further appeal. “The court just told thousands of Maryland parents they have no say in what their children are taught in public schools,” he said.
Alan Schoenfeld, a lawyer for the school board at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, did not respond to a request for comment.
At issue was a set of LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks that the board in 2022 approved for use in Montgomery County Public Schools’ curriculum.
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-n...
North Carolina -Parents push for statewide ban on 'explicit' books in schools
Some parents and legislators are pushing the state to ban what some people call "explicit" books in schools.
https://www.wral.com/story/parents-pu...
The North Carolina Values Coalition held a news conference Wednesday in downtown Raleigh calling on lawmakers to create stronger laws to keep certain books out of the hands of children.
Legislators, parents and concerned residents attended the news conference outside the legislative building Wednesday morning
During the event, speakers showed attendees a list of books that are currently accessible to students in the classroom.
"It’s time for a state wide solution," one speaker said. "We are going to fight to protect our children."
Among the books shown to parents during Wednesday's event were "10,000 Dresses," which tells the story of a transgender girl, and "Gender Queer," a graphic memoir about the author's exploration of gender identity and sexuality.
Following Wednesday's event in downtown Raleigh, the group took more than 3,000 signed petitions to the office of North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, asking for more to be done.
A local pastor said. "These books don’t belong in schools period.”
Parents in attendance at Wednesday's event argue the books available in public schools could harm children.
"They are young minds ... what they are doing to young North Carolina citizens is really terrible," said Daniel Springs.
[On the other side]
In Moore County, a group of parents are concerned that Moore County Schools pulled books from school shelves that feature gay parents.
"Having two moms and two dads is not explicit in any way, shape or form," said Erica Street with PFLAG, an organization dedicated to supporting, educating and advocating for LGBTQ+ people.
PFLAG Southern Pines and public school advocates filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights stating Moore County Schools is discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community.
Both groups are waiting to hear back on their requests. Organizers for both said they will continue to raise their voices.
A Proposed NC bill would remove obscenity exemption from schools https://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...
Some lawmakers and conservative groups are promoting legislation that would allow North Carolina parents to seek penalties against public schools for having books that the parents consider to be obscene. Legislation will soon be introduced to remove exemptions that public schools have from the state’s obscenity laws, according to Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition. She said Wednesday the legislation would also set statewide criteria for how materials would be selected for classrooms and school libraries. “This bill creates a criteria,” state Rep. Jeff Zenger, a Forsyth County Republican, said at a news conference held in Raleigh’s Freedom Park. “It sets up with penalties, and it helps us to control that inappropriate material with our children.” A copy of the legislation wasn’t available Wednesday. But Mary Summa, general counsel for the N.C. Values Coalition, said the bill would include elements from legislation that was scheduled to be heard last year before it was pulled from the state House Education Committee.
Last year’s bill would have made it easier to prosecute librarians and allowed parents to receive damages if they feel their rights have been violated.
It’s a “terrifying” time to be a school librarian, according to Kristi Sartain, president of the North Carolina School Library Media Association. Sartain said Wednesday that the group would likely oppose the bill. “Do they actually think school librarians are providing obscene materials to students?” Sartain said in an interview Wednesday. “Why do they not trust us?” Like many states, North Carolina exempts schools from obscenity laws.
Wake County school board member Cheryl Caulfield said at the news conference. (view spoiler)
The Moore County school system ordered elementary school principals to remove books containing gay parents to comply with local policies and the state’s Parents’ Bill of Rights law. That action led to local groups filing a federal Title IX complaint against the district this week. State Rep, Ken Fontenot, a Wilson County Republican, charged Wednesday that the books being challenged would violate obscenity laws and potentially child p_____phy laws if they were handed to children outside of schools. “The bottom line is our schools should be safe not only physically but morally, intellectually and spiritually, and they currently are not,” Fontenot said. “This law will accomplish it. I support this law with all of my heart.”
A surge in book challenges has Wisconsin school districts scrambling to keep pacehttps://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/a-...
An attempt to ban over 400 books in Elkhorn schools left administrators pondering different approaches to assessing titles listed in challenges, while school librarians point to current book review and recommendation systems as effective.
https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/a-...
Jason Tadlock, superintendent of the Elkhorn Area School District, had his hands full with a book challenge that went after 444 library titles in December 2023.
To review a challenge, educators and school staff find and assess professional reviews of each book. Professional reviews can include age and grade recommendations, as well as warnings about any sensitive topics covered.
But when Tadlock’s first online search of such reviews and in consultation with Wisconsin-based organizations brought back just 120 results, it left him wondering why there is no consistent book rating system.
“I could go to anyone and say there are PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 movies — and the general public would have a great idea of what that movie would be like,” Tadlock said. “That system is lacking within print.”
[I'm betting he checked Amazon and not School Library Journal. SLJ older reviews only show snippets without a subscription.]
Ten years earlier, a typical challenge would likely have been over a single book that a concerned parent brought to a librarian or educator. Tadlock said when a school or district only has to check a couple of books, there isn’t an interest in a more standardized rating system.
“A couple of years ago, we did have a book challenge related to two books that were located at the middle school,” he said. “[The books] were not even in the middle school library, but a middle school book collection for the eighth-grade level, so we could read them.”
In contrast, more recent challenges include long lists of books that have been sent straight to district administrators or school boards, like the one in Elkhorn.
“There were so many books incorporated in that challenge that it made teachers uncomfortable even giving access to their [class] collection because they didn’t have the time to go through and check,” Tadlock explained.
With the initial 120 professional reviews, Tadlock and the principal of Elkhorn Area Middle School were able to work through those challenged books fairly quickly. But the process to find reviews for the other 300, which were primarily in the district high school’s library, was much more difficult.
“There’s so much gray in this process because there’s nothing that was black and white about [the books],” said Dan Kiel, principal of Elkhorn Area High School. “You know, even if one system said the book was one level, a different system said it was another.”
In all, Tadlock and Kiel estimate it took about two months to finish working through the challenge list. Ultimately, none of the books were banned, because staff did not find any of the books to be objectionable. A handful of books were moved from the middle to high school, and another handful had a grade or age restriction applied.
Part of the difficulty comes from the way books are classified. Generally, there are six broad categories a book can fall into upon release: Children’s fiction and non-fiction, Young Adult fiction and non-fiction, and Adult fiction and non-fiction.
“[The classification] has nothing to do with the nature of what’s in the book, it has to do with who is the target audience,” said Tadlock.
A book can be categorized as Young Adult but still have themes related to matters like sex or drug abuse, while a cookbook would be categorized as Adult because it is targeted toward home chefs, who are typically adults.
“The system is broken, it’s not great in the level of clarity that it provides to [librarians] in regards to the age appropriateness of the book,” Tadlock said.
However, officials from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction say the concept of a rating system for books similar to television, film or video games is a near impossible task. Monica Treptow, the school library media consultant with Wisconsin DPI said that because movies generate much more revenue per-unit than books do, there simply isn’t the cash.
“I don’t see [movie-like ratings] as being a feasible option,” she said.
“All of the professional reviews done by librarians and by professionals do provide age level recommendations, grade level recommendations, reading level recommendations,” Treptow said. “I go back to this being a professional process, the curation of a library.”
While they don’t have a rating system like those for screen-based media, librarians have organizations like the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help with these decisions. The center provides lists of recommended books, professional reviews and has staff on-hand to help librarians with book challenges.
“I work very closely with the [CCBC], as they are a key resource to provide materials about specific books, reviews and such to help a librarian navigate a challenge,” Treptow continued. “In addition to that individual consultation, we’ve done numerous webinars, workshops, conference presentations with the CCBC.”
“I would argue that there is a type of rating system already in place, it just looks very different from what we consider a movie rating system,” Treptow said. “It is a process.”
Alabama libraries must quickly restrict ‘inappropriate’ kids’ books or risk $7 million in fundinghttps://www.al.com/news/2024/05/alaba...
If Alabama public libraries want to get millions in state funding, they now must move “inappropriate” material for children, mandate library cards specifically for minors, and obtain advanced approval for obtaining materials -- and they need to make changes this summer.
After more than 6,000 letters and 87 public comments, many in opposition, the executive board approved new legislative code changes Thursday. Legislators had made $6.6 million in state aid contingent on the changes.
The library service, with a staff of about 40 people, also is facing budget cuts.
Before Thursday’s meeting, board member Amy Dozier Minton recommended changes that would make requirements even stricter, so that books for children “remain free of material containing obscenity, s----lly explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth.”
Children also will need to get their own library card with restricted access; some systems already offer this, but many don’t. Books on religion, history, biology, or human anatomy will still be available to minors.
“I hope that the vast majority of us can agree, that material is not something that we want a child stumbling across, an innocent child stumbling across accidentally,” said board member John Wahl, who also leads the state GOP.
Board chair Ron Snider voted no on the amendment and abstained from the code vote, saying he had already agreed with general restrictions on children’s access to content, and did not want to invite lawsuits by making them even stricter.
“All of this dissension I think has hurt the libraries of this state generally,” Snider said.
The state library service will manage changes as it also manages a 9% budget cut, according to Snider.
“I think it is a tragedy in terms of what the agency does and what we’re being asked to do more and more of,” Snider said. Given the agency’s effort to accommodate Gov. Kay Ivey’s policy requests, he hoped there would be level funding. “For a small agency, a nine percent cut is a devastating cut that will have long-range negative effects on what we can provide to the people of Alabama.”
Local libraries, too, will have to make changes to policy fast in order to keep state funding flowing. They will need to turn in updated policies about inappropriate content by July.
Circulation librarian Alyx Kim-Yohn, who attended the meeting, said these changes will lead to censorship and hurt local residents’ ability to access content.
For example, they said advanced crafting or mathematics books are in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library’s adult section. So, now an adult will have to check these books out for children. This administrative issue goes beyond books that have mature content.
“Any time you’re establishing guidelines this granular, it’s going to lead to self-censorship, so that it’s not even going to get to the floor for folks to complain about,” Kim-Yohn said. “That is my primary concern.”
Kim-Yohn also noted that the “nonsensical” policy will be a “huge time commitment” for local libraries.
The code changes will be certified in July. The next executive board meeting is July 18.
KentuckyDaviess County Public Library facing further “p______hic book” scrutiny
https://www.14news.com/2024/05/16/dav...
DAVIESS CO., Ky. (WFIE) - The Daviess County Public Library continues to find itself at the center of public controversy after a concerned group of citizens say they found p_____phic books in the collection.
Hundreds of books have faced scrutiny in a major audit of the library’s materials.
Even months after staff completed that audit, this debate continues to have a major role among public activists, taking up a large amount of the library’s time at monthly meetings.
Another Daviess County Public Library meeting was consumed by the debate of what books should and shouldn’t be available in the library’s collection.
Daviess County Commissioner Janie Marksberry M came prepared with what she says is an obscene title available to children.
“If the media would come up here or if you would like me to read you some excerpts from this,” said Marksberry. “You can see what it’s all about.”
The title the commissioner held in her hand is “Let’s Talk about It” by Erika Moen. The book can be found in the adult section according to the library’s online catalogue.
“It is a book for parents to help them know how to talk to their children about topics like puberty and sex,” said Marksberry.
A mom with the Coalition for an Inclusive Daviess County says the book isn’t as obscene as Marksberry makes it out to be.
“As a mom, I’m really grateful that books like that exist because that’s a conversation that I have to have with my daughter,” said one mother.
Library Executive Director Erin Waller says heated debates like these have become a monthly occurrence at library meetings after a group calling themselves Daviess County Citizens for Decency demanded a review of about 250 books in the collection.
“We pulled them and we reviewed them, and ultimately we kept them in the same collection that they are in,” said Waller.
Still, critics of the library continue to advocate for re-evaluation and recategorization of certain titles.
Amid the controversy, Commissioner Larry Conder warns library staff to keep on keeping on.
“Many times you must have a shield and a very thick skin to understand your end game is to educate, to inform to care,” said Condor.
As we’ve reported, Waller says there were some changes that they’ve put into place after that audit, including changing the name of the teen section to young adults.
They also have added the option for parents to place restrictions of their child’s library card limiting what books they can check out.
Now the news from BookRiothttps://literaryactivism.substack.com...
Interesting how the book challengers claim books contain a "warning label" yet the books do not actually have such a label on them. The "label" comes from M4L's book review site BookLooks which is NOT a valid, professional review site. The book challengers also claim GoodReads reviews are by "literary and/or authoritative critics" . They copy-paste their "concerns" right from BookLooks.
The result of a student reading this book? "Damaged souls." "Protect children."
Why the challenge? "Bad author."
What is disturbing is how school boards believe these lies, don't bother to check things out for themselves, discuss the issues with librarians and with their children who may be interested in reading these books.
More from Literary ActivismRead Freely Alabama has filed a First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit against Autauga-Prattville Public Library (AL) over book bans.
[The link is showing up as insecure and not letting me access.]
It was the South Western Board President who had Flamer banned at a Hanover area middle school (PA).
[Paywalled]
Clay County, FloridaBook closed on Clay County’s ‘book challenge’ debate
https://www.claytodayonline.com/stori...
The Clay County School Board voted 5-0 to adopt its newest media policy, discerning which students can access books in public school libraries, and 3-2 to adopt its latest procedure on May 2 for how challenged library materials will be removed.
The approved policy and procedure were revised during the months-long Clay County “book challenge” debate, an ongoing endeavor to address the 859 titles that have been challenged and the 334 titles that have been removed from public elementary, junior and senior high school libraries according to the latest official district reconsideration list.
CCDS was formally the nation’s frontrunner for book challenges and removals in public school libraries. The current leader is Escambia County, which is concurrently facing a federal lawsuit from the free speech group PEN America and Penguin Random House.
CCDS’s unanimously approved policy, a product of collaborative efforts, attempts to compromise between free speech advocates, such as Tara Richardson from Clay County Educators-Retired, and concerned parents, such as Bruce Friedman.[Frequent book challenger]
The policy (titled “Challenged Materials Policy – Reconsideration or Review of Library Materials”) notably establishes a guideline of community standards, which would flag books as "mature" for containing profanity, horror, violence, drugs and gender theory, etc. At the beginning of the next school year, parents will sign an online, hybrid opt-in/opt-out form and select one of five options to control what books will be accessible for their children: unlimited access, general access, limited access, no access or daily email alerts.
The narrowly approved procedural component (“Library Media Services Manual”) was more contentious.
The two dissenting votes were from School Board Members Michele Hanson and Erin Skipper, who have spearheaded the school district’s effort to amend the policy established in April 2023.
Hanson and Skipper organized the open forum on Jan. 16, which gathered feedback and suggestions from the community.
The takeaway from the open forum and the basis for designing the new media policy was to empower parental decision-making. This widely agreed-upon tenet was used as the basis during subsequent workshops as the draft was ironed out to adhere to state statutes.
Hanson said the procedural component, which is how the policy is implemented across the district, was “very vague and may not support the policy.”
She wanted specific language in the procedure that describes what steps should be taken when a book challenge is submitted, when a book should be pulled from the shelf and how banned books should be discarded.
School Board attorney Jeremiah Blocker and Superintendent David Broskie have previously affirmed the policy and procedure are consistent with Florida law.
Even following the 5-0 and 3-2 decisions, the "book challenge" debate remains "earmarked" to continue in future school board meetings and workshops. Hanson is interested in fleshing out the procedural component that CCDS staff must follow.
Hanson commended Friedman after two years of not always seeing eye-to-eye.
“Mr. Friedman is the sole reason we have removed almost 400 obscene materials (334 titles removed and 55 additional titles that have been deselected/weeded out) from our libraries," she said. "And he catches a lot of flak. I disagree with half of what he submitted. But when it comes to obscene materials, nobody in this room had ever thought there would be this many. I am proud of this county."
The sentiment the CCDS library collection is "p-----graphic" is statistically false.
It is important to note there are over 20,000 books in the CCDS library system. Even following the tenet to "err on the side of caution," 389 titles have been made inaccessible from 859 submitted challenges, meaning more than half of all challenges are eventually tossed out. Nearly 100 books that were challenged and removed were eventually returned to the shelf, including “Sulwe” by Lupita Nyong'o.
Earlier in April, Ron DeSantis signed a law restricting book challenge submissions to one a month for people who do not have children enrolled in the school district. There is no limit to submitting book challenges for people who have children enrolled in the school district.
Friedman, who said he has a child enrolled in CCDS, is now facing a time crunch. Under the new law, he has until they graduate to continue submitting objections freely.
Why Book Bans Are Bad for Mental HealthBanning books may increase mental health risk and reduce empathy.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/bl...
Editorial from The Ranger staff — a local college newspaper in Texas — about the ending of a partnership between Amarillo Independent School District (TX) and a local organization that provides books to kids in need.https://acranger.com/2024/05/09/tensi...
As Fort Worth ISD returns most banned books to shelves, questions remain about book accessRead more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/lo...
There were 118 titles pulled from school libraries in August after officials closed libraries to students during the first two weeks of school for inventory and book review purposes. Now, 90 of those titles are coming back, but Fort Worth ISD officials have declined to say whether this process will be finished by the last day of school, which is May 23. Additionally, questions asking for specifics of how each book was deemed appropriate or inappropriate for certain age groups have gone unanswered, and officials have backtracked on the reasons why the review happened in the first place.
After a nine-month review involving a search for s---al or violent content in books, Fort Worth ISD confirmed about two weeks ago that books were returning and released the specific list of titles to the Star-Telegram through an open records request. About 76% of the removed books will be accessible to students again, while the remaining titles “will be weeded from the collection,” according to district spokesperson Cesar Padilla. “Most” of the returning books are back on campuses, he said.
The book review done by a group of master-certified librarians was “to ensure that the books were at the proper grade level location for given titles,” officials said. The librarians used the same tools they typically use in the collection development process to consider factors such as reading and audience levels and professional reviews, in addition to utilizing their education and work experience to make these determinations. “Books are being returned to campuses according to the recommendations of the review group. The return process began in early April. This was not a book banning process, but rather an evaluation of a group of books for age level appropriateness,” Padilla said in a statement. Fort Worth ISD officials originally stated that the review was prompted by Texas House Bill 900, which went into effect on Sept. 1 and required book vendors that sell materials to schools to give “s---ally relevant” or “s---ally explicit” ratings to books containing sexual content. “Sexually relevant” books would require parent permission to be checked out by students while “s---ally explicit” books were banned from school libraries entirely. The definitions outlining these ratings were not released when the state law went into effect. In recent months, district officials have now stated that the book review happened independently of the law going into effect.
Although the book rating portion of HB 900 was struck down, a different part of the bill requiring new statewide collection development standards of school districts will move forward. In December, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the State Board of Education adopted these new standards, which went into effect on Jan. 3. Now, school districts must update their local policies for acquiring, evaluating and reconsidering titles, which includes banning “harmful material.”
Library catalogs must also be accessible to the public with information about available titles. According to a checklist created by the state’s Library and Archives Commission, districts are required to:
“Recognize that parents are the primary decision makers regarding their student’s access to library material.”
“Prohibit the possession, acquisition, and purchase of harmful material… or library material that is pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable.”
“Recognize that obscene content is not protected by the First Amendment.”
“Prohibit the removal of material based solely on the ideas contained in the material or the personal background of the author of the material or characters in the material.”
Throughout the book review and banning process, both outcry and support has come from various organizations and community members. Multiple people spoke on the topic during public comment on April 23 at Fort Worth ISD’s most recent regular school board meeting. Most comments came from Fort Worth ISD students speaking out against book banning and in defense of voices and representations of the LGBTQ community and people of color.
Children’s Defense Fund Texas, a children’s advocacy group “focusing at the intersection of well-being and racial justice,” has been tracking legal developments with HB 900 and book crackdowns in districts across the state. Maggie Stern, youth engagement manager with the organization, urged Fort Worth ISD officials in January via email “to avoid unconstitutional book bans, return any books preemptively removed for review in attempts to comply with HB 900, and protect students’ right to read” alongside other civil rights and student and parent organizations.
In response to the district’s announcement that it will be returning most of the removed books to shelves, Stern applauded Fort Worth ISD for “the right decision” but still voiced concern about the cloudiness behind the books being pulled in the first place. “The fact that the courts have now decided those vendor ratings are blocked for now makes it all the more concerning that Fort Worth (ISD) took this really extreme action of closing libraries and pulling these books from the shelves before HB 900 was implemented, before clear standards were in place for a thoughtful and thorough review, and before the courts could rule on the law’s constitutionality,” Stern said.
The Tarrant County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit organization that’s spoken in favor of shielding schoolchildren from certain book content, had released an independent list of books in Fort Worth ISD middle and high school libraries that it deemed to be inappropriate about two weeks before the district removed the 118 titles. The district maintains its book review was separate from direct challenges. “We were disheartened by the news that Fort Worth ISD is returning some age inappropriate learning materials to libraries after they were pulled for review. This is a clear violation of (Texas State Library and Archives Commission) guidelines. Tarrant County (Citizens Defending Freedom) will not waver in our resolve and actions to protect children from being subjected to unlawful educational materials,” Executive Director Rosalie Escobedo said in a statement. Donna Collins, the group’s freedom division leader, also spoke at the April 23 school board meeting, reiterating the organization’s overall mission “
Arkansas State Library Board rejects proposals to withhold funds based on content, litigationhttps://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/05/...
The Arkansas State Library Board on Friday voted down two motions to withhold state funding from public libraries that board member Jason Rapert put forth in his ongoing opposition to the presence of certain books on library shelves.
The former Republican state senator from Conway reintroduced a motion he proposed at February’s board meeting to suspend funding for libraries suing the state until the litigation is concluded. The proposal died for lack of a second in February. On Friday, the other six members of the board voted against the motion while Rapert was the only one to vote for it.
Rapert also moved to withhold funds for “any library that allows unrestricted access to books or materials that contain s---ally explicit, obscene or p----graphic materials to minors,” based on the results of a survey he requested in February. The motion failed with the same results.
State Library Director Jennifer Chilcoat circulated Rapert’s request to find out whether a list of books he considers inappropriate for minors are available on library shelves statewide, and Rapert said the survey revealed the presence of 352 “objectionable” books. He did not say how many of the state’s dozens of library systems responded or did not respond to the survey.
The board does not “have any way to determine which libraries might be knowingly making obscene materials available for children,” board Chairwoman Deborah Knox of Mountain Home said.
“I’m having a hard time believing that any of our public libraries are doing that, and I would hate to approve a motion inhibiting distribution of funds to those libraries when we have no way of knowing if those libraries even exist,” Knox said.
Rapert said the survey results prove otherwise.
“You can claim all this stuff, going around and around in circles, acting like you don’t know that there’s explicit material teaching kids (view spoiler) he said, raising his voice. “I hope every community in the state watches this [meeting]. I am appalled that any adult would try to stop us from taking a stand against this junk on library shelves.”
Both of Rapert’s motions would have applied to distributions of funding at future board meetings, since they were introduced after the board voted to give public libraries their allotted share of state money for the final quarter of fiscal year 2024. Rapert was the only member to vote against the disbursement.
Shari Bales of Hot Springs, who was confirmed to the board by the state Senate along with Rapert in December, asked who is responsible for determining whether a book’s content is s----ally explicit or p____graphic. Rapert responded by amending his motion to specify (view spoiler) as described in Act 372.”
The 2023 law in question would alter Arkansas libraries’ processes for reconsidering material and create criminal liability for librarians who distribute content that some consider “obscene” or “harmful to minors.” The law mentions the word “obscene” several times but does not define it, and it does not include “s----lly explicit” or “p___graphic” in the text at all.
The law’s first section does include the phrase “furnishing a harmful item to a minor,” defining “item” as “a material or performance that depicts or describes (view spoiler)
Rapert’s amended motion died for lack of a second before the original motion failed.
Bales said she thought Rapert’s motion about explicit content “sounds a lot like legislation” and was outside the board’s purview. She emphasized that her opposition to the motion did not mean she wanted her children to read “dirty books.”
“I think we should err on the side of staying in our lane and wearing the hats that have been assigned to us,” she said. “…It may be a really good idea, but sometimes really good ideas are not always really good policies.”
Bales also repeated her concerns from February about Rapert’s proposal to withhold funding for libraries suing the state. Rapert argued again that a state entity should not provide money to plaintiffs that could use it to pay their attorneys. Bales said the plaintiffs might be using private funds for this purpose, which would make withholding public funds “a moot point” and possibly “coercion.”
Rapert said it was an “exaggeration” that his proposal might be coercive to the entities that the board funds. He also said the state Legislature can dissolve state boards that do not “do their jobs.”
“We’re the ones that decide how the money is disbursed, and if you don’t understand that… maybe you need to revisit what you’re on the board for,” he said.
Rapert asked Chilcoat to place an item on the agenda for the board’s next meeting in August to “assess and handle” the presence of “p------graphic” books in libraries. He did not name any of the books in question, which he did in February, but he mentioned a book with (view spoiler) that “shocked” him. [The Bluest Eye? The frequent misunderstanding of a scene in Gender Queer?]
Board member Lupe Peña de Martinez of Mabelvale said she recently read six of the books Rapert opposes, including the one with the scene he mentioned. She said her 13-year-old child is not currently allowed to read the books but will someday be mature enough to read them.
Books that depict sexual abuse of children by adults... are intended as resources for children who have experienced this, Peña de Martinez said, and making these books unavailable to minors across the board “is exercising the privilege of a much more comfortable life.”
“I am repulsed by what’s in those books, but not because I’m upset with the authors,” she said. “I’m repulsed at what children are victim to… If we read the books cover to cover, it’s not about exposing children to lewd content. It’s about saying, ‘This is not right, and there are adults who love you and want to protect you.’”
Peña de Martinez’s comments received applause from the librarians in the audience.
Rapert acknowledged that these issues are real but said some books “are actually grooming children, and that is another problem.”
Some good news in Alabama for a changeAlabama's bill that would criminalize librarians has not passed.
https://www.al.com/news/2024/05/bill-...
After hours of filibustering from Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Jefferson County), the Senate did not place HB385 on the agenda for Thursday - the final legislative day. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Shelby County), would have placed libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment.
Smitherman didn’t understand why there was legislation portraying librarians as “villains.”
“I’m here to protect the librarians from going to jail,” he said. “That’s right. I’m here protecting the best I can. I’m going to make sure these librarians are not going to jail for some book.”
The bill would have allowed anyone to challenge a book or report behavior they consider obscene or harmful to minors. It also would have forced school and public librarians to remove the book or end the behavior within seven days of written notice or face a misdemeanor.
Mooney introduced the bill after months of book challenges and bans primarily targeting the LGBTQ community.
The bill deemed obscene conduct as “persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools or public libraries where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”
This section of the bill was particularly troubling for Peter Bromberg, associate director at EveryLibrary. The nonprofit tracks library-related legislation and advocates for local library funding.
“Not only is it overbroad, but it opens itself up to applying it very selectively,” Bromberg said. “Lawmakers have been pretty clear that they are targeting LGBTQ materials, voices. So that’s concerning.”
Academic librarian Jessica Hayes said the language in the bill would have banned drag events and silence the voices of trans people. She described having a “remarkable” feeling when the bill was not introduced in the Senate.
“I am still in a state of shock, disbelief,” Hayes said. “I think I am realizing that when people come together with their voices things can change.”
“As long as there’s some perceived political payoff to this type of attacks on LGBTQ rights, on trans rights, as long as there’s a perception that this is a winner of a political strategy, we will keep seeing these bills.”
Bromberg said Alabama’s bill was intended to prohibit drag reading hours at libraries and is “egregiously unconstitutional” among other states that have passed legislation criminalizing librarians for obscene content like Arkansas and Indiana. He said this bill brought to mind the anti-loitering laws that targeted Black people during Jim Crow segregation.
Hayes said she isn’t an idealist and expects similar legislation to return in 2025. In the meantime, she hopes legislators and others who are concerned should visit their local library and speak with librarians and library staff.
Civil rights complaint filed against Cobb County Schools over book removalhttps://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/civi...
The complaint was filed Monday by The National Women's Law Center against the Cobb County and another school district in Florida, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.
The complaint comes less than a month after Cobb County School Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the district would remove four books from its media centers.
Schools had previously said they planned to remove 25 books from libraries.
"I have made a distinct statement saying that protecting children from age-inappropriate and graphic explicit s--ual material is a battle between good and evil," Ragsdale said at the meeting where he made the announcement.
The National Women's Law Center claims that Cobb County has targeted books that deal with race or are written by LGBTQ+ authors.
"Both public schools are systemically marginalizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) students in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and students of color in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI)," the complaint reads. "The discriminatory efforts to censor these books and learning materials have harmed students by creating and fostering a hostile environment in which they feel unsafe to be who they are at school, feel unsupported or in their identities, and cannot see themselves reflected in what they learn at school."
District leaders have not commented publicly about the lawsuit, but Ragsdale had argued against critics calling the decision to remove the books from school libraries a "book ban," pointing to the books' continued availability in stores, homes, and public libraries unaffiliated with the school as evidence.
"So many people are erroneously presenting this as book banning. Again, that is erroneous and could not be further from the truth. We are not banning books no more than we are banning rated R or NC17 movies," he said.
He also defended the removal of the seven books, saying that the material found in their pages "has no place in any school or in the hands of any child."
Ragsdale told FOX 5 the district will continue to review the many books in its media centers and remove any deemed inappropriate due to lewd, graphic, vulgar, or s---- explicit content.
A North Carolina school district is facing a federal civil rights complaint after it ordered books featuring gay parents to be removed from elementary schools." https://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...
[paywalled]
Again Title IX
Great Barrington [Mass.] teacher files federal civil rights lawsuit in book search and alleges defamation [for police search of her classroom in search of p____ or rather Gender Queer]Here she's named for the first time! She has a long multi-ethnic sounding name which I am sure added fuel to the fire of the ex-janitor's complaints.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/breaki...
Arantzazu Zuzene Galdos-Shapiro, an eighth grade English teacher at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School, filed the complaint on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield. She is seeking punitive, monetary and other damages as well as costs and attorney's fees.
The suit names the town of Great Barrington, police Chief Paul Storti and Officer Joseph O'Brien, the Berkshire Hills Regional School District and its superintendent, Peter Dillon.
Galdos-Shapiro, who is also is the adviser for the school's chapter of the Gender & Sexuality Alliance, is alleging multiple civil rights were violated by the "interrogation and search" by police based on complaints by a "disgruntled homophobic Middle School janitor," according to court documents. She also alleges she was targeted as a "queer Mexican-American."
In the court filing, Galdos-Shapiro says those accusations against her were "baseless, false and defamatory," and included the allegation "that she was, essentially, a p___phile."
.... The allegations "left her devastated and profoundly shaken, ill, distressed, and fearful, her reputation publicly destroyed," the court document says.
Among other allegations against the school district, the teacher said Dillon "knew well and failed to follow the established process for challenging classroom content."
Galdos-Shapiro also was not given any notice nor representation when O'Brien came to her classroom, the complaint says.
The investigation was pursued against her, the document says, without checking on Yorke's history or researching the book. This was a "departure from usual and acceptable police practice and was unlawfully disparate treatment of Ms. Galdos-Shapiro."
"In his unlawful rush to pursue a queer and Mexican-American teacher over a book about LGBTQ+ matters," the court filing says, "[O'Brien] never stopped to make an inquiry."
The fallout of the Dec. 8 incident resulted in two independent investigations: One by the school district whose report said that the district had run afoul of its own policies. A second probe was commissioned by town officials, which cleared police of wrongdoing.
Teacher whose classroom was searched by police for 'Gender Queer' will sue Great Barrington and schools if they refuse mediation
In the court filing, Galdos-Shapiro calls the town's investigation report a "sham," and an "effort to "White-Wash The Actions Of the GBPD."
Good news all the way in Australia where people are slightly more sensible than in the USAhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-1...
Western Sydney Council (Australia) banned same-sex parenting books last week. When the media covered this, and people showed up, the banning was overturned.
A Western Sydney council has voted to reinstate same-sex parenting books in its libraries after they were controversially banned earlier this month.
Cumberland City Council passed the motion with 12 members for and two against on Wednesday evening, after more than four hours of debate.
Several members of the gallery were ejected for heckling as the heated arguments from both sides continued late into the evening.
One man, who was wearing a crucifix, yelled: "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
Councillor Steve Christou, who initiated the ban saying "distraught" parents had complained to him about a children's book, shook the man's hand as a security guard escorted him from the room.
Caroline Staples, a resident of the Cumberland area and a grandmother in a rainbow family, addressed the meeting and tabled a petition with more than 42,000 signatures of people calling for the ban to be rescinded.
"The destruction and censoring of libraries is a weapon of war," Ms Staples told the council.
Ms Staples called for "elementary kindness", after which a woman in the gallery yelled, "keep your kindness to yourself".
Councillor Mohamad Hussein voted for the original ban, saying he could not "in good conscience" support something that went against his religious beliefs.
But on Wednesday night, he ultimately voted to rescind the book ban.
Earlier in the night, Cr Hussein said he worked with many LGBT+ healthcare professionals and that he and his colleagues respected each other's beliefs.
"This is not a war on you guys, and this is not a war on myself," he said.
Auburn ward councillor Sabrin Farooqui spoke in favour of rescinding the ban.
"As a follower of Islam, I can say that no-one is stopping me from following my religion in Australia," she said.
"Similarly, I can't enforce my belief on someone else. Australia is a secular country."
Cr Farooqui said she wanted her son to read the book.
"If it is classified as a children's book, why shouldn't it be in the children's book section?"
Cr Christou and Paul Garrard both tried to amend the new motion to move the children's book Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig to the adult section of libraries, but the two attempts were voted down.
The council resolved to "take immediate action to rid same-sex parents books/materials in Council's library service" at its last meeting on May 1.
The ban was introduced as an amendment to a motion for the council to adopt a three-year library strategy.
The Granville ward councillor ... later admitted he had not read [the book].
The amendment sparked a heated debate, with councillor Diane Colman likening it to "book burning".
Only 11 of 15 councillors were present for the vote, the amendment passing narrowly six to five.
NSW Arts Minister John Graham warned the decision could have funding consequences, urging the council to reconsider the resolution "with haste".
In a letter to the council, Mr Graham said the book ban contravened freedom of access to information guidelines under the Library Act 1939.
The guidelines state that materials not subject to federal or state restrictions "should not be excluded from a public library on moral, political, racial, religious, sexist, language, or other grounds".
Councils declare to operate public libraries in accordance with the act when applying for state government funding.
Damien Nguyen attended the rally and said he grew up in the local area, and frequently visited its libraries.
He said he was opposed to the "culture wars" and the "extremely homophobic behaviour" weaponised by Councillor Christou.
"The same story was told about Marrickville a decade ago, the same story is always consistently told again and again in migrant communities," he said.
"But I have always lived in Western Sydney, members of our community have always lived here, we are queer and we are all here.
The removal of the books has been criticised by leaders on both sides of state politics, with Premier Chris Minns last week describing the decision as a "joke".
Ahead of the vote Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the book ban should be reversed, adding that the move is "what happens in totalitarian countries".
"This is a liberal democracy where people generally should be free to read what they choose," Mr Speakman said.
Excellent commentary on the hypocrisy of the situation in Sydneyhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-1...
WHAT?!Montana State Library Commissioner Carmen Cuthbertson on Friday compared the Montana Library Association to the Ku Klux Klan, claiming the organization sent an anonymous letter as part of boycotting a meeting."
https://dailymontanan.com/2024/05/13/...
Cuthbertson said an anonymous letter “doesn’t allow the commission to respond in any way” and is a “very cowardly way to communicate.”
“And frankly, puts me in mind of the Ku Klux Klan members who wore masks so they couldn’t be identified,” Cuthbertson said. “You’re engaging in similar behavior when you distribute anonymous letters.”
Cuthbertson made the comment at the commission’s meeting Friday in response to an MLA boycott of an annual informal get together with the commission and librarians during MLA’s annual conference in Butte in April. She said a handful of librarians who did go to the meeting gave the anonymous letter to the commission that said the MLA was boycotting the meeting.
MLA leadership says the organization did not send an anonymous letter to the commission. Cuthbertson did not respond to emailed questions and a request for a copy of the letter.
Several commissioners and Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen agreed with Cuthbertson that the boycott was “childish” and the commission should reach out to the MLA to establish a path forward. But commissioners did not address Cuthbertson’s KKK comparison during the meeting.
MLA Board President Kelly Reisig said the organization did not send an anonymous letter to the commission during the meeting. In a statement, the organization denounced Cuthbertson’s comparison of the organization to the hate group, as well as another commissioner’s comment the boycott was “undemocratic.”
The State Library Commission administers grants, sets library standards for the state and certifies librarians. Montana Library Association is a statewide advocacy group for policies and resources for libraries and library professionals.
Incoming President of MLA Sarah Widger said in an emailed statement Monday denounced the Cuthbertson’s comparison of the organization’s boycott to the KKK, saying they are “in no way comparable” to the “atrocities committed” by the hate group.
“Commissioner Cuthbertson’s statement shows a distinct misunderstanding and lack of respect for the thousands of victims of the KKK and their families,” Widger said.
During the meeting, Commissioner Tammy Hall commended Cuthbertson for her “courage” in speaking about the boycott, saying she felt it was “very rude.”
She said the informal meeting with librarians was her favorite part of her first two years on the commission, estimating there were between 100 and 150 librarians in attendance. She said this year there were just six.
“I was looking forward to this one, expecting some strong opinions, but still really looking forward to the opportunity to talk with the librarians,” Hall said.
Hall said it felt like she was in high school, with people looking inside the mostly empty room and giggling. She said she hopes next year MLA leadership “does not direct their folks to be so undemocratic in their opportunity to have a good discussion with people.”
In her statement, Widger pushed back on Hall’s comment the boycott was “undemocratic,” saying that is “categorically incorrect.”
“Boycotts are a form of nonviolent protest, and this boycott was MLA membership collectively saying, ‘We do not think you are listening to us, so we will not attend this session,’” she said. “I am personally proud to see such remarkable unity and passion for our work among our membership.”
Cuthbertson and Hall were both appointed to the commission by Gov. Greg Gianforte.
Cuthbertson is the co-chair of the Flathead County Library Board, formerly ImagineIF Libraries. Her appointment to the local board led to another trustee resigning as she had been a vocal in public comment and filed a book challenge to remove the book “Gender Queer” from the library, as reported by the Flathead Beacon.
...
“The Commission stated that they will be looking to the future, and would like to mend the relationship with MLA, and in that, our interests are aligned,” she said.
Um OK this already exists and is the reason why there is no you know what in libraries!Kelly Jensen reports: "Here's how Boise Public Library (ID) will be implementing the new state laws regarding materials available to minors. It's...the Miller Test. "
https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org...
Last week, Boise’s Library Board of Trustees voted on updating their policies to comply with Idaho’s new law allowing people to request certain materials be moved to adults’ only sections.
Come July 1, Idaho libraries will have 60 days to respond to written complaints challenging whether certain books should be accessible to minors. To comply, Boise’s director will review complaints first and then the board of trustees can adopt or modify the director’s decision.
Speaking at the board’s monthly meeting on Thursday. Library Director Jessica Dorr said the library will consider all requests and review them following a three prong analysis.
The library will consider whether the material portrays patently offensive sexual content, if they appeal (view spoiler) as judged by the average person applying community standards” and if as a whole it has no serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for older minors.
If the materials are moved, libraries will still be able to loan them to minors with parental permission.
All Boise public library locations will have printed copies of request forms and direct people on how to submit complaints, which includes providing an email address to receive requests. The library will also train staff on the new law and their role in implementing it.
Dorr said the requests for removal will also be publicly available online. This, she added, will help Idahoans understand which books are being challenged.
“For each submission, a case file will be created and uploaded to the library's website. And this was important in terms of that transparency,” Dorr said.
Dorr said the library will not make decisions lightly.
“The decision to censor is unappealable. So that responsibility needs to be really top of mind,” she added.
After a review, if the library disagrees with moving the material, the person filing the complaint can sue for $250 in damages. Complaints can be filed by anyone and the law applies to any community schools in Idaho, as well as those in public and private schools.
Uh-oh we've been afraid of NH homophobia. A bill advancing in New Hampshire would allow parents to opt their students out of lessons or curriculum or books or readings about LGBTQ+ people.
https://www.fosters.com/story/news/20...
In early May, Democrats in the New Hampshire House defeated the “Honesty in Education Act.” The bill was the latest effort to require public school teachers to answer parents when they ask about changes to their child’s gender identity.
But another bill is moving forward that supporters say would give parents more control over their children’s instruction in schools – and opponents say would intrude on classroom instruction.
House Bill 1312 would allow parents to opt their children out of any “instruction or program of” sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression
Currently, state law allows parents to withdraw their children from classes related to human sexual education. HB 1312 would expand that ability to apply to the additional topics.
Under the existing process, parents must notify the school district in writing that they object to the class material. And the parents must propose alternative instruction that is agreed upon by the school district, and pay for it themselves if there is a cost.
HB 1312 would expand the withdrawal and require school district staff to notify parents at least two weeks in advance of any material that might fall into the category.
Separately, the bill would prevent school districts from requiring that teachers withhold information from parents about their child’s well-being – including information about their sexuality. Individual teachers could still choose not to answer questions from parents about their child’s sexuality, but school districts could not make it a blanket policy under the bill.
The legislation, which passed the House 186-185, appears likely to clear the Republican-led Senate, too; the Senate Education Committee voted to recommend that it pass, in a 3-1, party-line vote.
Supporters say the bill would give parents a greater say in how their children learn about sensitive topics. But opponents said the bill would empower discriminatory views against LGBTQ+ people, and that the notification process would be disruptive to teachers.
“The bill seems to be targeting, and I think stigmatizing, any instruction concerning LGBTQ+ people, and I think that this language really sends the message to LGBTQ+ students that their feelings and identities are something to be shunned, feared, potentially even censored, or not even acknowledged,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire.
To Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, the bill would encourage parents to communicate with their children about the topics – knowing that they were coming up in the curriculum – which he said could foster better connections between parents and children.
“Parents should have these discussions with their own children and not have teachers do this. This bill is the prompt for parents to have those conversations.”
Lang said the notification requirements would not prevent school districts from teaching the topics, but would rather allow parents to choose whether to participate in them. And he argued that the bill is not intended to allow parents to withdraw their child from materials that relate to LGBTQ+ people or movements in history.
“It’s just informative to parents,” he said. “Nothing stops the school from doing those classes. The class is allowed. That just says that if you do it though, because this is a sensitive topic, you need to notify parents.”
A class about Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978, would not fall under the definition of instruction of sexual orientation, Lang said, because Milk was a historical figure. But any instruction directed at students themselves that delved into their own sexual orientations or gender identity – such as that in a sex education class – would need to be disclosed, he said.
But representatives of teachers unions said the bill as written does not make those distinctions clear. Teachers might interpret the law to mean that any class that discussed the history of LGBTQ+ rights would need to be noticed ahead of time, opponents said. And English teachers might feel compelled to disclose any book that featured LGBTQ+ characters, and to empower parents to prevent their children from reading those books.
“If you pass this bill that expands the areas that a parent is required notification of and can opt a child out of, where will it stop?” said Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Hampshire. “… Can you study the pay gap between men and women in the same jobs in an economics class, which has to do with policies around gender discrimination?”
Lang disagreed with that characterization; books that happen to include transgender or non-heterosexual characters would not automatically invoke the disclosure requirement, he said. Only instruction that was specifically intended to teach students about sexual orientation or gender identity would need advanced notice, he said.
Brian Hawkins, director of government relations for the National Education Association of New Hampshire, argued that the topics the bill would add to the parental notification law were so broad that teachers would find the law difficult to follow.
“We think that 1312 is another piece of legislation that would significantly limit educators’ ability to teach, and provides far too many instances of vague language and framework to determine when certain actions violate the statute,” Hawkins said.
About face in Texas from Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member [TX], has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on after finding no evidence that students were being indoctrinated by the district’s curriculum. Her defiance has brought her backlash.https://www.propublica.org/article/te...
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
Gore, the co-host of a far-right online talk show, had promised that she would be a strong Republican voice on the nonpartisan school board. Citing “small town, conservative Christian values,” she pledged to inspect educational materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and remove them from every campus in the 7,700-student Granbury Independent School District, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. [Hateful comments ahead] (view spoiler)
But after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find.
The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”
Gore rushed to share the news with the hard-liners who had encouraged her to run for the seat. She expected them to be as relieved and excited as she had been. But she said they were indifferent, even dismissive, because “it didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to push.”
So, in the spring of 2022, Gore went public with a series of Facebook posts. She told residents that her backers were using divisive rhetoric to manipulate the community’s emotions. They were interested not in improving public education but rather in sowing distrust, Gore said.
“I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,” Gore wrote. “I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.”
Gore was part of a similar movement of hard-liners who pushed out the Republican Hood County elections administrator in 2021 after determining that she was not conservative enough for the nonpartisan position. Now Gore and other disillusioned local Republicans have formed a group pushing against an “ultra-right” faction of the party that it says has become obsessed with “administering purity tests” and stoking divisive politics.
The former teacher and mother of four was influenced by such politics when she decided to run for office. She was motivated to seek a school board seat after a steady stream of reports from the right-wing media she consumed and her social media feeds pointed to what she saw as inappropriate teachings in public schools. She, too, had been outraged by school mask mandates and vaccine requirements during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Gore said she feels that she was unwittingly part of a statewide effort to weaken local support of public schools and lay the groundwork for a voucher system.
And she said that unless she and others sound the alarm, residents won’t realize what is happening until it is too late.
“I feel like if I don’t speak out, then I’m complicit,” Gore said. “I refuse to be complicit in something that’s going to hurt children.”
Because of that outspokenness, Gore is facing backlash from the same people who supported her race. She has been threatened at raucous school board meetings and shunned by people she once considered friends.
School marshals escort her and her fellow board members to their cars to ensure no one accosts them.
...
Administrators pulled 130 library books from the shelves after Matt Krause, a Republican representative from Fort Worth, published a list of 850 titles that he said touched on themes of sexual orientation and race. At the time, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and NBC News obtained audio of the district’s superintendent, Jeremy Glenn, making clear to librarians that he had concerns about books with LGBTQ themes, including those that did not contain descriptions of s-x.
After the reporting, the Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation, which is ongoing, into whether the district violated federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.
A volunteer review committee of parents and district employees eventually recommended returning nearly all of the books to the shelves.
Hard-liners wanted additional titles removed, claiming that the district was allowing “p----graphy,” without offering evidence to support the assertion. But Gore backed the committee’s findings, saying she was satisfied with the handful of books the district had removed for explicit content. Glenn, too, drew the ire of his onetime allies after he also supported the committee’s recommendation. Lang and Criswell have since called for his ouster. Glenn declined an interview request through a district spokesperson.
The book debate, along with a series of other fissures, contributed to Gore’s growing belief that her former colleagues were more interested in misleading residents than in improving educational outcomes.
...
In June 2022, Lang and Criswell directed one of their snowballs in Gore’s direction, taking a veiled shot at the former co-host of their show. In a video, Criswell praised Graft for continuing the fight to remove books from the school district’s libraries, saying she was “the only one that acts as the buffer right now on that board. Which is sad, because, you know, we’ve had other people elected in recent elections that just haven’t lived up to the expectations.”
Three days later, Gore fired back.
“I refuse to be someone’s puppet,” she wrote in a June 8 Facebook post. “I refuse to be told what to do, what to say or how to vote. I refuse to participate in any agenda that will dismantle or abolish public education.”
A week after that post, Gore watched the livestream of a Granbury school board meeting on her laptop from a hotel room along Mexico’s Caribbean coast while on an anniversary trip with her husband.
Emotions ran high as about a dozen residents complained that board members had not removed enough books from the library. Some argued that the school board was stifling dissent from Graft by requiring the consent of two board members to place an item on the agenda.
During the meeting, Cliff Criswell, the grandfather of Nate Criswell, took the microphone, carrying what police would later describe as a black handgun in a leather holster. He accused board members of allowing pornography in school libraries and of trying to “rip apart” Graft, whom he had previously described as “the only conservative on the board.”
“We have profile sheets” on all the trustees except for Graft, Cliff Criswell shouted. “We know what you do. We know where you live.”
Gore was shocked. Panicked, she started calling family members. “My grandmother was home with our children,” she recalled in an interview. “My brother came over and slept on my front porch to make sure nobody showed up at our house in the middle of the night. I mean, my kids were terrified after that.”
Later that night, Gore addressed the incident on Facebook.
In response to a commenter’s message of support, Gore wrote, “extremism IS the problem.”
According to a Granbury police report, an off-duty officer spotted a black pistol in a holster in Cliff Criswell’s waistband and alerted school and city police. Possession of an unauthorized firearm at a school board meeting is a third-degree felony under state law, but because officers didn’t conclusively identify the weapon that night, and because Cliff Criswell declined to cooperate, prosecutors were unable to file charges.
The incident forced the district to adopt tighter security measures, including clearly posting signs prohibiting firearms and bringing in additional officers during board meetings anytime administrators expect that certain topics could lead to heated exchanges.
“That was the moment I saw how crazy it was, how unhinged it had become and how far some people were willing to go to prove their points,” Gore said.
Yet rhetoric over the school district only ratcheted up in the ensuing months.
That fall, Hood County’s far-right leaders backed the school board candidacy of Karen Lowery, who in May 2022 was one of two women who filed a criminal complaint against district librarians claiming they were providing p----graphy to children.
Lowery, who had served on the committee that reviewed library books but opposed returning them to the shelves, also received a key endorsement from Rafael Cruz. She went on to win her election in November 2022.
Her victory helped resurface the district’s book battles as she pressed to remove more titles. Then, in August 2023, Lowery snuck into a high school library during a charity event and began inspecting books using the light of her cellphone, according to a district report.
School board members met to discuss censuring Lowery at an Aug. 23 public meeting for violating a policy that requires them to get permission from principals when entering a campus and for not being truthful when confronted by an administrator. Lowery claimed she had disclosed her visit to the library beforehand as required. She did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment. A district spokesperson said he was unable to pass along an interview request because Lowery has requested to only be contacted through her board email.
The board voted to censure Lowery, who opposed the symbolic measure along with Graft.
...
Although a majority of the state’s school districts with bond measures scored victories, Granbury’s tax measure failed once again. (Voters rejected another bond measure this month.) Hard-line conservatives celebrated the loss, pointing to anger over the library books issue.
But even as they celebrated, the November election delivered a setback to those who wanted to take over the school board. The two candidates supported by hard-line conservatives lost by wide margins, denying the county’s far-right faction the majority on the board. Among the winners in that election was Nancy Alana, the school board member whom Gore ousted two years earlier. This time around Gore endorsed Alana, and the two former opponents have since become friends and allies.
“She let everybody know that she had been misled and that she has seen for herself the good things that are happening in our school district,” Alana said. “That the school board can be trusted. That the administrators can be trusted. And she has spoken out on that. And that has made a big difference. And she is very well thought of in our community because of her willingness to step up and say, ‘I was wrong.’”
Some good news in Pennsylvania - sort of - there are strings attached unfortunately. Mountville Borough reinstates donation to Lancaster Public Library
https://12ft.io/proxy
Mountville Borough on Monday reversed its decision to withhold funds from Lancaster Public Library, though it did impose a few caveats.
In a 4-3 vote, Borough Council during a Monday meeting agreed to reinstate funds to the library after the $13,000 donation was pulled last month in response to a Drag Queen Story Hour at the library’s city location in March. Council Vice President Richard Spiegel in April said he wanted confirmation the library would be nonpartisan and would not schedule “controversial” events.
The story hour, originally scheduled for March 23, was canceled after a suspicious package was discovered at the library. Later that day, a bomb threat was sent via email to the library, Lancaster Pride and several businesses in the 100 block of North Queen Street. Police determined the threat came from outside the country but have so far not identified the sender.
Council members approved the funds with the following stipulations: The $13,000 check would be made out to the Mountville branch directly, and the branch must later give council an account of how the money is spent.
...
Last month, library board President Josh Schwartz told East Hempfield supervisors the library would never have considered scheduling a drag story hour in Mountville.
Council on Monday decided the money was already approved for the year and the borough should go forward with its support because there were no stipulations attached at the time of approval.
“To try to micromanage and to look over their shoulder to give approval of the programs they’re going to do, we don’t do that with anybody else that we give money to,” council President Philip Kresege said.
Spiegel, who voted against funding along with Lenny Heisey and Jonah Eastep, disagreed. He said the decision to withdraw funds sent a message to the library.
“This is a right-and-wrong issue,” Spiegel said. “The whole intent was to make it known where we stand on the subject with the library and to prevent that (Drag Queen Story Hour), at least for the foreseeable future, from being (included) here at the Mountville branch.”
Library officials told East Hempfield supervisors they would not consider scheduling a Drag Queen Story Hour for at least a year, though likely longer.
Before Monday’s council meeting, the borough created a committee to create an agreement to give to the library that would reflect concerns about partisan programming, though the group couldn’t come to a consensus. Spiegel said he wanted the library to adopt wording like “non-divisive,” “age-appropriate” and “non-controversial” in its policies.
Kresege argued against that, noting anything could be considered controversial. He noted, too, the library already has its own policy in place that ensures it will not host political or religious groups. Councilor Theresa Baker said whatever language the borough comes up with wouldn’t be very different from the library’s existing policy.
Before the borough withdrew its donation, East Hempfield Township supervisors in early April agreed to withhold the township’s $26,700 donation for the year. The township’s money also supports the Mountville branch.
Officials there similarly said they wanted the library to create a new policy to ensure programming remains nonpartisan and that a Drag Queen Story Hour would never be scheduled again.
Since then, East Hempfield supervisors have said they are working with library officials to find a way to resolve the funding dispute, though there has not been an agreement to reinstate funding.
After East Hempfield’s decision, community members quickly came together via GoFundMe to raise over $36,000 for the Mountville branch. Local activists have also demanded an apology from Republican county Commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino, who they say drummed up controversy around the event and created an atmosphere that could breed violence.
Parsons and D’Agostino have denied those claims. The Republican commissioners took to social media before the event to call it inappropriate for children and suggested the county might consider pulling its own library donation, which is funneled through the Library System of Lancaster County.
Lawsuits are a theme this week, and this one is VERY important. Yolo County, California just settled a lawsuit from Moms For Liberty, who claimed their right to free speech was hindered when the library shut down a program from an anti-transgender speaker. The County lost here because they did precisely what Moms For Liberty claimed: hindered free speech.https://www.davisenterprise.com/news/...
The local chapter of Moms for Liberty reached a settlement Tuesday with Yolo County in its federal lawsuit alleging the shutdown of a contentious meeting at a Davis library last year violated the group’s civil rights.
The agreement calls for the county to pay $70,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees, as well as a policy change that would prohibit library staff from interfering in speech delivered during future presentations or events.
Filed last December in U.S. District Court, the lawsuit alleged Yolo County violated free speech and equal protection rights when its regional librarian shut down the Aug. 20, 2023, presentation at the Stephens Branch Library regarding transgender participation in women’s sports.
In addition to the county, the lawsuit named as defendants Yolo County Librarian Diana Lopez and Regional Librarian Scott Love. The shutdown became the subject of national media coverage and multiple anonymous emailed bomb threats targeting schools, educators and library staff.
“Women have the right to speak about their concerns regarding men competing in their sports, and public officials have a constitutional duty to uphold that right regardless of whether they agree with the point of view presented,” said Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit along with the Institute for Free Speech.
“Shutting down discussions about biological differences between men and women is, sadly, a growing trend among activists seeking to erase women and harm children,” Langhofer added. “While they should never have shut down the event, Yolo County library officials are right to change course and enact policies that align with the First Amendment.”
“This settlement is a clear victory for free speech and the First Amendment,” added Alan Gura, the Institute for Free Speech’s vice president for litigation. “Yolo County officials tried to silence speakers and shut down an event because the ideas expressed there didn’t comport with the officials’ preferred ideology. As a result of this lawsuit, Yolo County has now agreed to respect the right of all Americans to freely express their views in public spaces without fear of government censorship.”
According to an ADF news release, the settlement specifically amends county policy to say that staff “shall not interfere with presentations or other speech by individuals or groups that have reserved meeting rooms based on the content of such speech” and instructs staff to “curtail any disruptive behavior” during events.
“(County) officials also agreed to allow Moms for Liberty – Yolo County, Independent Council on Women’s Sports, California Family Council and other parental rights and women’s advocates to use the library to hold a discussion on fairness in women’s sports after officials shut down their event in August,” the news release said, noting that the event occurred April 13 “without incident.”
Sophia Lorey, a former college soccer player and outreach coordinator for the California Family Council, a religious organization, [spoke about trans women in sports, continually misgendering transwomen.]
A short time later, a member of the audience that included numerous protesters spoke up: "Are you going to misgender people throughout the entire thing?"
As Lorey asked the audience to save their questions for the end of the presentation, regional librarian Love noted that California state law "recognizes transgender women as women."
"This is a library. I don't want any transgender females being called males in sporting events with females," Love said. "If that happens, it's not following our code of conduct and we will ask the person to leave immediately."
orey changed her phrasing to "biological men." At that point, Love delivered another warning about the library's code of conduct.
When Lorey repeated the phrase, Love asked her to leave "or we'll shut the entire program down. ...You were misgendering."
Clare Erin Friday, an attorney and another speaker at the event, said the interruptions violated the presenters' First Amendment right to free speech.
"I love the fact that you have your signs and that you are here today," Friday told the protesters. "But we all have First Amendment rights ... and the library should be enforcing their own rules and asking people to leave who are interrupting my First Amendment rights."
After several more minutes of back-and-forth between protesters and the meeting's organizers, Love shut down the meeting. Police were called out to the library after someone reported it was "getting rowdy," but officers arrived to find the ruckus had calmed down.
Pinellas County School Board member Stephanie Meyer (FL) formally challenged Invisible Monsters, adding to her already numerous list of formal challenges.https://web.archive.org/web/202405160...
Pinellas County School Board member Stephanie Meyer said she first learned of the Chuck Palahniuk novel “Invisible Monsters” last month. She heard residents reading passages at a Hillsborough County School Board meeting.
A quick check revealed that the 1999 book by the controversial author appeared in the collections at East Lake and Clearwater high schools. After reading it, Meyer determined it shouldn’t be there.
The story is about a teen model who struggles with her looks and identity (view spoiler) Reviews have called the book dark, shocking and appalling. [Uh maybe on BookLooks but not actual you know real reviews].
“In what context are graphic descriptions of deviant s----al acts appropriate for minors?” Meyer asked during Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Instead of bringing it to district administrators for review, Meyer filed a formal challenge to the novel, citing state law forbidding p------phic material in schools. She asked that it be permanently removed from the district.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks the challenges, had records of only a handful of school board members making that move.
Flagler County board member Jill Woolbright filed a police report against her district, alleging criminal activity in having the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue” on its shelves. The Sheriff’s Office took no action.
Indian River County board member Jackie Rosario, supporting challenges by Moms for Liberty, warned her colleagues that returning books to school shelves could lead to criminal charges. And Seminole County board member Amy Pennock filed objections on behalf of a parent who wished to remain anonymous.
Others, including Shannon Rodriguez in Hernando County and Alicia Farrant in Orange County spoke about the need to purge titles from their position on the dais but did not file formal complaints while on the board, Florida Freedom to Read co-founder Stephana Ferrell said.
“To be clear, this is the same action that is available to any parent, teacher or member of the community through our board policy,” Meyer said Tuesday.
Last summer, she submitted a list of 28 books she found objectionable to the administration, which later sent them to a team of media specialists for review. Meyer pushed to have the school board make final determinations about books, as is common in other districts including Hillsborough, but her colleagues rejected that approach.
On Tuesday, Meyer read a statement about the issue during the board meeting. She said she supports providing diverse reading materials for students, adding that it’s important to ensure they are age-appropriate, respectful of community values and aligned with district education objectives.
“Invisible Monsters” doesn’t fit that bill, she contended.
Her comments drew criticism from Ant Avila, a local organizer for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, who said it was upsetting to see a board member publicly supporting an “anti-literacy campaign.”
“Parents should be regulating what their children consume,” Avila said. “They don’t have the right to regulate that for every parent and every student.”
Ferrell, of Florida Freedom to Read, said she was disappointed to see an elected official, who holds “a lot of influence” over district decision-makers, attempting to limit access to materials.
“Right now it’s just one book. At what point do we say she has gone too far?” Ferrell said.
At the same time, she said it was positive that Meyer is following a public, transparent process where educators and community members have input into the outcome. She noted that, while leaving room for challenges, state law requires trained media specialists to curate book collections.
“The objection process should be available, but not abused,” Ferrell said.
In her statement, Meyer made clear she does not think challenging “Invisible Monsters” is inappropriate. The book recently was pulled from Orange County schools.
“It is essential to emphasize that this decision was made with careful consideration and in accordance with the Florida state law,” she said. “And rather than subvert the system and bypass the process we all voted on and agreed to implement, I utilized the provisions outlined in this policy which, again, is available to all members of the community.”
The district is forming a committee to consider the challenge.
“Invisible Monsters” has not been checked out at East Lake High since 2014. The district said the copy at Clearwater High was lost in 2011.
___________________________________
The professional reviews I can see in my library catalog, which lists this as an adult book, don't say anything about dark, shocking and appalling! Just the opposite. They say it's a romp, a fantasy, grotesque and mention LGBTQ+ characters and themes which explains why this Mom wants to ban it.
St. Charles County Library (MO) may face closures and staff layoffs following a meeting to be held Friday, May 17. This library has dealt with book banning in their adult collection.Thank you Kelly Jensen of BookRiot's Literary Activism for breaking the paywall!
https://12ft.io/proxy
The board’s consideration of closures and staff cuts apparently has no connection with a running controversy in the district over the past year.
Speakers at library board meetings have repeatedly complained about the s----l content of some books, while others have defended district officials.
After months of criticism, the system announced in December that it would remove books containing explicit photos of s----al acts from library shelves but that they still would be available in the district’s online card catalog and to check out.
Library staffers estimated then that the change would result in fewer than 10 books removed.
In another controversy, about 35 protesters showed up at a library branch last May to complain that a library clerk had been wearing makeup, nail polish and a goatee. They were met by about 60 others who came out to oppose them.
VirginiaHanover County School Board adopts new policy for parental involvement regarding library books in schools
https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/...
) — The Hanover County School Board voted to approve a revised policy regarding school libraries and media centers in schools across the county.
At the board’s latest work session, members reviewed the current policy and requested changes be made. School officials then came with a revised version to the board in early April for review.
The revised version was approved in a 6-1 vote by board members during the evening on Tuesday, May 14.
Of the multiple additions, a new section called “Parental Involvement” was added.
Parents and guardians will now have the option to decide whether or not their children access instructional materials in both classroom and school libraries.
Parents will receive a form in the back-to-school packet received annually which currently is a draft with these options:
My child checkout may check out any materials from Hanover County school libraries
I would like to discuss options for placing limits with the librarian and or classroom teacher, please contact me
My child may not checkout any materials until I have reviewed the title
My child may not checkout any materials from the library, I will support access to necessary reading and research materials outside of school libraries
Should parents not respond and submit the form, their student will have access to checkout any materials available to them in their respective library.
Age-appropriateness has also been considered in this revised version with a policy added called “Age-appropriateness, Educational Suitability, and Controversial Issues.”
As grades encompass various ages, school officials say they want to adhere to this in the revised policy by prohibiting any materials containing s--ually explicit content in elementary and middle school libraries.
In regards to those on the high school level, should a teacher or librarian want to use instructional materials with this content, there would need to be an explicit conversation between the teacher or librarian and principal of the school.
County school leaders ask that this policy is not confused with policy 6.5-6 — regarding instructional materials. This policy adheres to materials used by a teacher with students. Parents and guardians are given a 30 day notification if sexually explicit content is present in the material and they can opt-out of their child receiving teaching instruction through the material and ask for an alternative assignment to be given.
School leaders have stressed both decisions under both policies do not impact each other.
Another lawsuit in FloridaNassau County schools facing federal lawsuit over removal of dozens of books
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2...
– A federal lawsuit is accusing Nassau County school officials of violating the First Amendment and Florida’s Sunshine Laws by removing dozens of books from public school libraries behind closed doors last year, including the children’s book “And Tango Makes Three.”
The plaintiffs include students and their parents in the school district, as well as the authors of “And Tango Makes Three.”
That book tells the true story of a pair of bonded male penguins at a New York City zoo who, with the help of a zookeeper, incubated an egg and adopted the chick when it hatched.
The lawsuit says when the book was challenged in Nassau County public school libraries last year, the district found it didn’t contain anything obscene or sexual that violated the law, but decided to remove it anyway.
Now, the federal lawsuit argues the book’s removal was discriminatory
According to the suit, the Nassau County School District violated state and federal law when it removed or restricted 36 books from school libraries last year.
“The removal was done behind closed doors. There was no, you know, public meeting held, or anything of that nature. So I think the local media didn’t even learn of what had occurred until a few months afterwards. And that’s when we learned as well,” said Lauren Zimmerman, who is an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
The suit says back in September, a local representative of a group called Citizens Defending Freedom, or CDF, sent an email to the district requesting dozens of books be removed from the shelves.
an exhibit submitted by the plaintiffs, CDF said their concern is, “This book contains assumed alternate sexuality in animals.”
The lawsuit says: “‘Tango’ is factually accurate…It is a biological fact that same-sex behavior is ‘a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom,’” and “‘Tango’ helps children to learn about science through simple, non-vulgar words and illustrations.”
According to a document filed by the plaintiffs, all 36 books CDF objected to were removed or age-restricted. But the reason “Tango” was removed wasn’t because it was prohibited by law for “depict[ing] or describ[ing] s--ual conduct,” as the district found other books were, but for “lack of circulation.”
The lawsuit claims that was just an excuse.
“Our investigation has shown, first off, that the book was being checked out by students in the district, and also that there [are], you know, hundreds of other books in the Nassau County public library system that have not been checked out at all, or certainly that have been checked out less than ‘Tango,’ and yet they remain. And our view is because they weren’t challenged,” Zimmerman said.
The suit also says after “Tango” was removed, the district implemented a new administrative rule that closely mirrors their actions in removing or restricting the 36 books, allowing books to be banned without public input.
“This new rule seems to be a post hoc attempt to justify the conduct here. But the rule itself, we believe, is violative of Florida law,” Zimmerman said.
The lawsuit is seeking a reversal of the removal or restriction of the 36 books in question, including “And Tango Makes Three.”
Follow-up to the no opt-out of lessons plan in MarylandParents in Maryland are protesting a ruling made by a federal court that rejected a bid that would force a district to allow parents to opt their children out of reading books that include LGBTQ characters.
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/parents...
This is nuts and letting the bad guys win. I hope every sensible parent goes to the polls to vote out these bozos and then promptly change the laws. Repeat after me folks: "There is no pr0n in the library! Librarians are trained professionals with access to professional and peer reviews. They train to learn how to choose age appropriate books for their school or community. There is no you know what in the library!"From Literary Activism:
An Idaho Public Library Will Become Adults-Only July 1, 2024
[A] public library in Idaho will be restricting their entire facility to those 18 and older beginning July 1, 2024. Donnelly Public Library is unable to comply with the state's newly-passed House Bill 710 (HB 710) due to the tiny size of their facility, their small budget, and their lack of an attorney on retainer to handle potential litigation.
HB 710 allows parents or guardians to lodge complaints against materials they deem inappropriate for minors. Once a complaint has been filed, public and school libraries have a total of 60 days to relocate the material to a section that is only accessible to adults. If they do not comply, those parents or guardians can receive $250 in statutory damages, alongside other financial relief for damages.
Donnelly Public Library made a statement on their Facebook page last week that the ambiguity of the bill, coupled with the fact their entire library is a mere 1024 square feet, makes implementing the law impossible. They would be unable to relocate any books deemed "inappropriate" to a section inaccessible to minors. While the library is divided into sections for children, young adults, nonfiction, and adult fiction, the space is small enough that books in the adult section can be touched when looking at books in the designated children's section. The library already has an occupation limit of 16 and utilizes two tipis on the property to make their programming reach larger.
The only solution to save the library is to make it adults only beginning July 1. Every patron of the library will be required to sign a new agreement to use the facility.
"This change is painful and not what we had hoped for at all. We desire to comply with state and federal legislation, but because of size we have to protect our staff, our library, and our taxpayer money," read the statement published by the library.
HB 710 especially harms libraries like Donnelly, which are already struggling to meet the needs of their community. The library was ranked 98th in size in the state of Idaho but ranked 25th library by program attendance, the 59th library by annual visitors, and 62nd by circulation, per data from 2021. Donnelly Public Library has been working to fund a new, larger facility, launching a fundraiser campaign for it in early 2023.
Although the library's collections would be inaccessible to those under the age of 18, Donnelly Public Library emphasized that they remain committed to serving the young people of their community. They will continue their After-School Programming and Summer Programming. But instead of having access to the library itself, all attendees would have to have a parent or guardian sign an agreement that their child can be part of the program and that they would have access to reading materials "carefully curated by library staff" specifically related to the program.
Sherry Scheline, the library's director, clarified that closing the facility does not mean they plan to empty the library of materials for those under 18.
"This does not mean we are getting rid of our children’s books It simply means your children cannot be in the library without you the parent," Scheline clarified in a comment under the library's official post. "We have 1024 square feet. We don’t have space to make anything inaccessible. Our bathroom is our craft room, also our kitchen, also our private meeting room. We have done everything we can within our power to comply."
The Donnelly Public Library is located in a log cabin in the small mountain town of 258 residents. Voters passed a resolution to make the library a district–opening it up to a larger population and more tax money– in 2017. Becoming a district means that the library is independent from the city and that it reaches a broader population than the city itself. It has a service population of nearly 2,900. Scheline indicated that families currently pay around $2.25 to the district for every $100,000 in assessed home value. As of this year, the Donnelly Public Library's budget was around $75,000. McCall Public Library, a neighboring library with a much larger population and different taxing setup, has a budget of $750,000–ten times that of Donnelly.
"We are d---ed if we do and d---ed if we don’t. Books are constitutionally protected. If we remove a book from the library we can in fact be sued. We are the only Library in Valley County that does not have an attorney on retainer," Scheline further explained. "Donnelly simply does not have room for an “adult only section.” Anyone who has visited the Donnelly Library knows there is simply no room as it is to hold the materials as well as to serve the population adequately. The request for material to be moved to an “adult-only” section at the Donnelly Public Library would in fact result in the removal of books if the particular challenge were met."
Idaho's new law forcing the library to become adults only will be a further financial hardship. In their announcement, the library asks their followers to consider donating funds so they can expand their facility–a goal they'd already been making progress toward prior to HB 710. With more room, Donnelly Public Library would be able to open their collection up to those under 18 again.
Donnelly Public Library's decision to close their library to minors isn't unprecedented nor is it made lightly. In an era of laws meant to hamper library access, libraries are forced to make decisions that actively harm their institutions, as well as their communities.
...
HB 710 is so broad in scope and offers little in the way of what materials are deemed inappropriate that it means libraries have to define "obscene materials" on their own. The only guide appears to be the books being banned nationwide, meaning that perfectly appropriate material for children and adolescents with LGBTQ+ characters are being preemptively moved in libraries statewide. Preston Public Library temporarily restricted access to its collection while they moved LGBTQ+ titles from the YA section elsewhere, and library workers have expressed anger and frustration at having to play the role of censor while trying to protect their libraries from possible financial and legal impact.
Scheline asks those who care about the future of the Donnelly Public Library to both speak out about the consequences of this bill–one passed despite widespread disapproval–and to donate.
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)
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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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[Hmm supposedly... More likely to increase parental/extremist control over what all kids read.]
https://cw39.com/news/local/cy-fair-i...
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the second largest school district in the Houston area and third largest in Texas, is facing serious budget cuts and may have to make cuts to staff, including librarians.
At last week’s board of trustees meeting, the district announced that it is facing a $138 million deficit and must make $68 million of cuts for this upcoming school year to reach its budget.
One part of the budget cuts that Cy-Fair ISD is planning is the elimination of 60 librarian positions within the district.
CFISD superintendent Dr. Douglas Killian said in a statement that the deficit was borne from several factors, including a decline in student attendance, lack of state funding, high inflation and the end of federal stimulus funding.
Killian also said that the district will not conduct layoffs. “We will use vacant positions that have not been eliminated to move staff into,” Killian said. “We have prioritized filling open teacher and paraprofessional positions to help campuses meet their classroom needs first.”