{"id":581800,"date":"2023-07-07T20:57:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T17:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/i-help-librarians-handle-book-bans-heres-why-its-getting-worse\/"},"modified":"2023-07-07T20:57:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T17:57:53","slug":"i-help-librarians-handle-book-bans-heres-why-its-getting-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/i-help-librarians-handle-book-bans-heres-why-its-getting-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"#I help librarians handle book bans. Here’s why it’s getting worse."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\u201cBook ban movements are shutting down important conversation, rather than encouraging diversity of thought and exposing kids to new lived experiences\u201d\n<\/div>\n
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(Photo by iStock)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 1987, I became a school librarian at a middle school in Maple Ridge, B.C. By the early 2000s, I was president of the Canadian School Libraries, or CSL, and I later joined the Centre of Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University. I now work as the coordinator of the Teacher Librarianship program at UBC. Throughout my years as a librarian, I\u2019ve seen several book ban attempts at school libraries. In 2009, I helped a teacher-librarian at a B.C. middle school deal with a parent demanding to remove books with sexual content, gay characters or profanity (including swear words or symbols representing them). That particular school had a policy that allowed parents to make decisions about which books were available in the school\u2019s library. With the support of the CSL and the local teacher union, we managed to have the policy rescinded and the books in question were kept on the shelf.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, there has been more misinformation than ever before spread on social media<\/a> about what happ<\/a>ens in libraries. People have accused school libraries in Canada of having books with child pornography and accused teacher-librarians of trying to indoctrinate children with LGBTQ+ ideology through books about gender identity and sexual orientation. It\u2019s become easier for parents to rally around this misinformation and advocate for book bans. In 2022, the American Library Association reported an unprecedented 1,269 demands to censor library books\u2014nearly double the previous year\u2019s number.<\/p>\n

Though Canadian data is limited, I\u2019ve noticed more parents asking librarians to justify books in their collections. Books discussing themes of sexual orientation and gender identity have come under fire\u2014titles like the young adult novel All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/em> by George M. Johnson, a series<\/a> of essays about growing up as a queer Black man. In the past few years, parents have asked B.C. librarians to remove Harry Potter<\/em> books from their shelves because they believed the book\u2019s reference to black magic was a negative racial stereotype. Other parents wanted to ban the Diary of a Wimpy Kid<\/em> series because the book deals with bullying. Last year, parents complained to a B.C. library about Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator<\/em> by Roald Dahl\u2014it had scenes they thought were racist. Another parent complained about Emily\u2019s Runaway Imagination<\/em> by Beverly Cleary because one character mocks another\u2019s English. There\u2019s also been backlash directed at B.C. libraries for carrying Abigail Shrier\u2019s book Irreversible Damage<\/em>, about the rise in gender dysphoria and transgenderism in young women.<\/p>\n

These books shouldn\u2019t be stowed away because someone doesn\u2019t like them or disagrees with topics they cover. Restricting access to books goes against our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which upholds freedom of choice, expression and thought. I\u2019m worried that book ban movements are shutting down important conversations, rather than encouraging diversity of thought and exposing kids to new experiences. Some might argue that banning one children\u2019s book at one school does little to impact the greater discourse. But removing even one book from a library anywhere in the country can bring about other book bans elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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For the past two decades, I\u2019ve been helping teacher librarians navigate book ban requests. If parents have a concern with a book, librarians ask them to fill out a \u201crequest for reconsideration form\u201d to review the item. The result is often the same: the book stays on the shelf, and parents receive an explanation why. But that protocol isn\u2019t always followed. Last year in the Durham School District, the book The Great Bear<\/em> was removed from library shelves after the board said it received complaints about it from the local Indigenous community. When media outlets wrote about the incident, the board met and reinstated the book within weeks. I attended the board meeting on Zoom and sent questions as part of the CFLA Intellectual Freedom Committee\u2019s concerns with how the district followed the process. After the book was returned to library shelves, I wrote an article saying that next time, the board should first ask parents to articulate their complaint and then be more critical as to whether or not the complaint is justified. The challenge is that districts themselves are businesses that cater to parents. One person criticizing a book shouldn\u2019t be enough to have it removed\u2014we don\u2019t want to create a precedent for book banning that erodes debate and discussion in our libraries.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s easier than ever to find like-minded people on the internet and organize hostile book-banning movements. There are a number of Facebook groups and websites, usually run by parents, that target libraries for carrying titles related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Tiffany Justice, who leads Moms for Liberty\u2014an organization in Florida and Texas working to ban books on LGBTQ issues and by some minority authors\u2014has said that Canadian moms have reached out to her to set up chapters. In my opinion, these groups stoke fear and misinformation, encouraging parents to join them to \u201cprotect\u201d children.<\/p>\n

In February, Action4Canada\u2014a B.C. organization with chapters across the country and a strong online presence that promotes conservative ideals\u2014demanded that libraries in B.C. and Ontario remove books discussing sexual orientation and gender identity, like Gender Queer<\/em> by Maia Kobabe or\u00a0The Bluest Eye<\/i>\u00a0by Toni Morrison. They accused Chilliwack\u2019s public school libraries of housing some books that depicted child pornography\u2014a claim the RCMP investigated and found no basis for. To me, the organization\u2019s emails read like an attempt to restrict books they don\u2019t agree with rather than an earnest effort at protecting kids.<\/p>\n

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The dangerous alternative to Canada\u2019s democratic book evaluation processes is a set of rigid regulations seen in the United States. In Louisiana, each time a librarian adds a new book to the school\u2019s collection, they have to read it, write a report on its content and then send it to their district and state governments, who then determine whether or not the book is appropriate. They repeat this process with every book. In Texas, a state law stipulates that each book warrants another with an opposite point of view. For each book about climate change, for example, you need a book that tells you that climate change hasn\u2019t been proven.<\/p>\n

Our charter protects against laws like these. In what has become known as the Surrey Book Case of 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that a B.C. school board was wrong to ban three children\u2019s books that favourably depicted same-sex marriages. The court determined that\u00a0 \u201ctolerance is always age-appropriate\u201d and parent complaints weren\u2019t enough to warrant a ban. Children should be afforded the freedom of choice to read what they want, and it\u2019s with that spirit we should approach conversations about the kinds of books we add to school libraries. People have the right to question books they deem offensive and voice their opinion about books they don\u2019t like, but as the Supreme Court stated in 2002: \u201cPersons are entitled to hold such beliefs as they choose, but their ability to act on them, whether in the private or public sphere, may be narrower.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending books is a constant battle that we must take seriously. If you\u2019re concerned about a book, you don\u2019t have to read it. As a parent, you can decide your kids shouldn\u2019t read it. But one person or group shouldn\u2019t be allowed to decide what an entire community reads.<\/p>\n

\u2014As told to Alex Cyr\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n