General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSchools nationwide are quietly removing (non challenged) books from their libraries
LANCASTER, Pa. - Samantha Hull was on vacation when she got the call about the missing books.
Eight titles had melted away seemingly overnight, a panicked school aide told Hull, from the shelves of an elementary school in one of the 22 districts Hull oversees as co-chair of a group representing school librarians in Pennsylvania's Lancaster and Lebanon counties. The books included titles such as "In My Mosque," which instructs children about Islam; "A Place Inside of Me," which explores a Black student's reckoning with a police shooting; and "When Aidan Became a Brother," whose main character is a transgender boy.
Hull, 33, couldn't understand it: None of those books had been formally challenged by parents, even though she knew that activists across the country were targeting books featuring discussions of race, gender and LGBTQ identities for removal. The growing national furor had already arrived in Hull's corner of Pennsylvania: Parents at a high school in Lancaster County, she said, had requested the elimination of "Gender Queer," a memoir about being nonbinary, and "Lawn Boy," a young-adult novel that includes a description of a sexual encounter between two boys.
Slowly - over months of meetings, investigations and secret conversations with fearful librarians across her counties - she came to understand the disturbing reality. Administrators, afraid of attracting controversy, were quietly removing books from library shelves before they could be challenged.
https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Schools-nationwide-are-quietly-removing-books-17020176.php
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)obamanut2012
(25,911 posts)"Administrators, afraid of attracting controversy, were quietly removing books from library shelves..."
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)what the hell are "administrators" doing running things they shouldn't be running? They exist to make sure bills are paid, janitors are hired and paid correctly, broken windows are repaired...
They are NOT around to make professional decisions that librarians and other professionals should be making.
It's like hospital accountants and politicians making medical decisions.
obamanut2012
(25,911 posts)I have friends who are school librarians -- most have no control over stuff like this.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)the librarians. The school nurse has her position, the biology department has its position, etc. Principals too often respond to school boards and public outcry when they should tell the public to just shut up.
Perhaps I am dreaming, but it's a dream I kinds like.
Crunchy Frog
(26,548 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,631 posts)Putin and the GOP have identical goals.
Magoo48
(4,659 posts)Or, to put a sharp metaphor on it: the fucking diseased, malignant tail is beating the dog to death, while the dog offers little defense.
Maeve
(42,224 posts)For the preservation of our sweet land
All:
Till the things that scare us are burned or banned
Or smashed to smithereens!
And once the reefer has been destroyed
We'll start on Darwin and Sigmund Freud
And sex depicted on celluloid
And communists and queens
When danger's near, exploit their fear
The end will justify the means!
Oneironaut
(5,461 posts)Heaven forbid someone be offended! Lets remove any and all books that may cause controversy or thought lest we may be sued! Libraries ought to be a sterile place with only the most inoffensive of books left on the shelves.
Its not enough that I dont want to read a book. Because I dont like a book, nobody should be able to read it either! /s
lindysalsagal
(20,440 posts)These school boards are elected every couple of years, and so it's a political theater. Don't kid yourself.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)common denominator.
Excellence and values mean less each year.