Hank Sanders , The New York Times; Five Charged in Cheating Scandal That Helped Over 200 ‘Unqualified’ Texas Teachers
"More than 200 “unqualified teachers” in Texas were able to get jobs or promotions at schools across the state under a board scheme in which impersonators were paid to take more than 400 certification exams for them, prosecutors said this week."
Elizabeth A. Harris , The New York Times; Removing Books From Libraries Often Takes Debate. But There’s a Quieter Way.
"Thousands of books have been removed from schools and libraries over the past several years, often accompanied by stormy public meetings and acrimonious debate. But there is a quieter way books have been pulled from libraries — a process called weeding.
The practice is standard for librarians, a regular part of keeping their collections current. Traditionally, weeding involves removing books that are damaged, out of date or haven’t been checked out in a long time. This makes room for new editions and titles that are of more interest to the community.
Now, three years into surge in challenges and removals of books from libraries, weeding is sometimes being used to remove books because of the viewpoint they express or the story they tell. The issue is now working its way through the court system.
Advocates say that, increasingly, administrators and library board officials are using this approach to avoid the public spectacle of formally pulling them because of their content."
Olivia Empson, The Guardian; South Carolina implements one of US’s most restrictive public school book bans
"South Carolina has implemented one of the most restrictive book ban laws in the US, enabling mass censorship in school classrooms and libraries across the state.
Drafted by Ellen Weaver, the superintendent of education and close ally of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, the law requires all reading material to be “age or developmentally appropriate”. The vague wording of the legislation – open to interpretation and deliberately inviting challenge – could see titles as classic as Romeo and Juliet completely wiped from school shelves.
South Carolina’s recent regulation is part of an alarmingly broader nationwide fight against literature exploring race, sexuality, or anything seemingly contentious or divisive. The severity of this particularly draconian law, however, sets it apart from what is happening in most other states.
The broad-reaching policy took effect automatically on 25 June despite not being debated or voted upon by the state senate or house, as the process typically necessitates."
Sophie McBain, The Guardian, Book Review; The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt – a pocket full of poison
"The American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes this mental health crisis has been driven by the mass adoption of smartphones, along with the advent of social media and addictive online gaming. He calls it “the Great Rewiring of Childhood”.
Children are spending ever less time socialising in person and ever more time glued to their screens, with girls most likely to be sucked into the self-esteem crushing vortex of social media, and boys more likely to become hooked on gaming and porn. Childhood is no longer “play-based”, it’s “phone-based”. Haidt believes that parents have become overprotective in the offline world, delaying the age at which children are deemed safe to play unsupervised or run errands alone, but do too little to protect children from online dangers. We have allowed the young too much freedom to roam the internet, where they are at risk of being bullied and harassed or encountering harmful content, from graphic violence to sites that glorify suicide and self-harm...
The Anxious Generation is nonetheless an urgent and essential read, and it ought to become a foundational text for the growing movement to keep smartphones out of schools, and young children off social media. As well as calling for school phone bans, Haidt argues that governments should legally assert that tech companies have a duty of care to young people, the age of internet adulthood should be raised to 16, and companies forced to institute proper age verification – all eminently sensible and long overdue interventions."
American Library Association (ALA) Press Release; Public Libraries Saw 92 Percent Increase In Number of Titles Targeted for Censorship Over The Previous Year
"The number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels ever documented by the American Library Association (ALA). The new numbers released today show efforts to censor 4,240 unique book titles* in schools and libraries. This tops the previous high from 2022, when 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship.
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. Four key trends emerged from the data gathered from 2023 censorship reports:
“The reports from librarians and educators in the field make it clear that the organized campaigns to ban books aren’t over, and that we must all stand together to preserve our right to choose what we read,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Each demand to ban a book is a demand to deny each person’s constitutionally protected right to choose and read books that raise important issues and lift up the voices of those who are often silenced. By joining initiatives like Unite Against Book Bans and other organizations that support libraries and schools, we can end this attack on essential community institutions and our civil liberties."
ALA will unveil its highly anticipated list of the top 10 most challenged books in the U.S. on Monday, April 8, which is Right to Read Day of National Library Week, along with its full State of America's Libraries Report.
"Every challenge to a library book is an attack on our freedom to read. The books being targeted again focus on LGBTQ+ and people of color. Our communities and our country are stronger because of diversity. Libraries that reflect their communities' diversity promote learning and empathy that some people want to hide or eliminate,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski. “Libraries are vital institutions to each and every community in this country, and library professionals, who have dedicated their lives to protecting our right to read, are facing threats to their employment and well-being."
In response to the surge of book challenges and efforts to restrict access to information, ALA launched Unite Against Book Bans, a national initiative to empower readers everywhere to stand together in the fight against censorship. The coalition will mark its second anniversary during National Library Week.
For more information about ALA and its intellectual freedom efforts, visit www.ala.org. For a breakdown for censorship challenges by state visit this heat map."
Scott Pelley, CBS; Beaufort, South Carolina, schools return most books to shelves after attempt to ban 97
"Ruth-Naomi James: I'm a combat veteran, right? There's no way I went to Iraq thinking that when I moved back home, I would have to do this to make sure that the freedom that we fight for in this country is taken out of the hands of students and parents.
The final votes came this past December. Five books were judged too graphic in sex or violence. But 92 returned to the schools. Dick Geier says this lesson reaches beyond the classroom.
Dick Geier: Diversity brings tolerance. The more you understand what other people think and realize that what they say is important, but who they are, what their story, what their background is. The more you know that, the more you see the power of diversity. And then, be kind, and be understanding. And don't make judgments because you haven't lived their story. They have.
In the city that's lived a story of letters and learning, one book that was banned and restored was "The Fixer," a novel of antisemitism that won the Pulitzer prize. In its pages, the book's hero expresses this opinion, "There are no wrong books." "What's wrong is the fear of them."
Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle; Someone complained about a book in a Great Barrington classroom. Then the police showed up
"What baffles and disturbs educators, parents and librarians is that a police officer was allowed into a school to investigate a book. It is also that the teacher was not alerted beforehand.
One librarian said it harkens to something dark.
“It brings you back to 1930s Germany, when law enforcement was behind censorship,” said Wendy Pearson, director of the Stockbridge Library, which has Kobabe’s novel on its shelves.
The teacher whose classroom was searched pointed also to the absurdity of it.
“I will never condone book-banning,” she wrote in another social media post about the incident. “Respect for parental and educational guidance? Absolutely! But a police officer should never, ever search classrooms for award-winning literature to remove. Period.”"
The Mountain Mail; LWV to explore censorship in libraries and schools
"Jamie LaRue, executive director of Garfield County Libraries, will discuss censorship at an event sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Chaffee County from noon to 1 p.m. Nov. 13 in the Sangre de Cristo Electric Association community room, 29780 U.S. 24 N. in Buena Vista...
As the former director of Douglas County Libraries, LaRue responded to 250 challenges, which are attempts to remove or restrict access to library resources. As executive director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, he oversaw another 1,000 reports of censorship attempts nationwide and summarized for ALA the public challenges for the following year.
As the current director of the Garfield County Public Library District, LaRue has responded to another dozen or so, including packed public meetings and a campaign to force the library to restrict or remove specific titles.
Prior to the presentation, at 11:15 a.m., the League will host a social time and short business meeting. A video of the presentation will be available at LWVChaffeeCounty.org following the meeting."
LEE V. GAINES, WFYI; John Green urges communities to stand against censorship in libraries, schools
"Indianapolis author John Green said it’s not the responsibility of a public library to make sure no one is offended by the material on its shelves...
Green’s YA novel “Looking for Alaska” was among the most challenged books of last year, according to the American Library Association. Limiting access to information is an age-old strategy to try to control what people think, Green said. But he also expressed confusion — to the amusement of many in the audience — about why his work has been painted as inappropriate for teenage readers...
Green said he trusts trained librarians to decide where books belong in the library, and that the purpose of a library is to allow for equitable access to information — not to appease anyone’s preferences.
“This is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but ultimately the library does not exist for everyone who uses the library to be comfortable with every book in the library,” he said...
Indiana’s new law
Earlier this year, Indiana legislators approved a controversial new law that requires public and charter schools to establish a process to allow both parents and community members to challenge books in school libraries that they believe are inappropriate for children. It also requires schools to publicly post their library catalogs. And it bars public school employees from using a book’s educational value as a defense against charges they distributed harmful material to minors.
In an interview with WFYI after the event, Hunley emphasized that the law doesn’t ban books. But she says it’s had a chilling effect; educators are second-guessing what titles they choose to include in schools out of fear of being targeted by anyone who may disagree with the content of a book...
“And most often, those are books that are featuring the stories of people who are marginalized, right, people that are brown, like me, people in the LGBTQ community, right, people who think differently than those who seek to remove their books from the shelves,” Hunley said.
Hunley, a former Indianapolis Public Schools principal, urged educators not to let a vocal minority dictate what information and material students can access."
EVELYN NIEVES, Salon; As Moms for Liberty spreads, so does school turmoil
"What began in Florida in 2021 with three conservative women (two former school board members from neighboring counties and a current school board member) now claims 130,000 members in 300 chapters in 47 states. ...
But Liz Mikitarian, a retired Brevard County, Florida, kindergarten teacher and founder of STOP Moms for Liberty, says she tried seeking common ground with the group for a year. She posted comments on Moms for Liberty’s Facebook page. “I was looking for dialogue,” she said. “They weren’t interested.”
Mikitarian knew one of Moms for Liberty’s founders, Tina Descovich, who had been on the Brevard County school board before losing her seat in 2020. The connection didn’t help.
She says she attended increasingly unruly school board meetings as Moms for Liberty jelled. “They were saying they were seeing things in classrooms that were not going on,” Mikitarian said. When she objected, she said, things got ugly.
She says she was mocked and doxxed. “They started calling me a pedophile supporter. It was nuts. And I thought to myself: What is going on? Are there other people feeling this is a straight-out attack on public education? That’s when I started STOP Moms for Liberty.”
The group, she said, now has chapters in over 40 states. Unlike Moms for Liberty, STOP Moms is unincorporated and has no paid staff or funding. Its growth, Mikitarian said, has come through social media."
LEXI LONAS , The Hill; Banned Books Week comes at tense time for nation’s libraries and schools
"Banning books has become a top issue around the country, with many Republican states making it easier for parents to challenge what’s available on school shelves while Democratic states try to do the opposite."
Edward Helmore, The Guardian ; North Carolina bans ‘Banned Books Week’ but retracts after media backlash
"North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district appears to be a bit confused as to where it stands in the ongoing battle against books around the US: they banned educators from participating in a weeklong series of events drawing attention to banned books and then … said there was no ban."
Garret Keizer, The New York Times; The Book Banners and I Have One Thing in Common
"More than half a century has passed since I graduated from high school, an eon in digital time, but the project to remove books from schools and libraries was almost as hot an issue then as it is now. Even classics can go out of print, but the war on books is never out of style.
I was as opposed to that war at the age of 17 as I am at age 70. But there’s something I failed to see in my youth that I recognize today: the one piece of common ground between the book banners and me. We both believe that books matter, that they have the power to change a young person’s life. Like it or not, we belong to the same minority, the minority of those who believe in the power of literature in a post-literate age."
Jordan Blumetti , The Guardian; ‘There won’t be libraries left’: how a Florida county became the book ban heartland of the US
"Clay county has become a flashpoint in the state of Florida on the topic of book challenges. According to recent tallies, more than 175 books have been permanently removed from its public school libraries – a number which ranks among the highest of any county in the US – and hundreds more remain unavailable to students due to a policy unique to the county, requiring that books are pulled from shelves as soon as a challenge form is filed with the school district. Conservative activists from two organizations have seized on that policy, often filing multiple challenge forms at a time, which inundates the systems and committees that process the claims.
“The biggest issue facing Clay county right now is the backlog of challenges and the huge political divide that’s driving it. No other county is dealing with a similar problem,” says Jen Cousins, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) and a mother of four. “They’re creating fake outrage over what’s available in libraries.”"
Zachery Lashway, Click2Houston; Houston’s ‘Little Banned Library’ highlights literature as Texas leads country in number of books banned
"House Bill 900 goes into effect on Sept. 1. This law regulates and establishes new standards for reading material at public school libraries. Book vendors will assign ratings to books based on sexual references. Depending on the level of the rating, a child might need parental consent to check out the book, or the book could be banned and removed from the bookshelves.
Kasey Meehan is PEN America Freedom to Read Program Director.
“An effort to really suppress free speech,” Meehan said.
PEN America is a national non-profit organization that defends and celebrates free expression through literature.
“So, one of the, you know, pieces of rhetoric that we’re constantly pushing up against this idea that there’s obscene material in schools or pornography in schools, and by no definition of those terms is that the case. These books are intended to be in schools.” Meehan said. “Sometimes it can be individuals in the district, in the school district, or in the community that are challenging books. And increasingly, though, we also see the role of legislation influencing what books are available.”
Dave Davies , Fresh Air, NPR; Facing book bans and restrictions on lessons, teachers are scared and self-censoring
"Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson explains how new laws about teaching race, racism, gender identity and sexuality have created new fears and burdens in schools and classrooms."
ANDREW ATTERBURY, Politico; Florida school district and state ed leaders sued over restricting kids book on penguins
"A group of students alongside the authors of a children’s book centered on a penguin family with two fathers sued a central Florida school district and top state education officials Tuesday claiming that limiting its availability is a violation of free expression.
The lawsuit, one of several challenging Florida’s policies for launching local book objections, aims to require Lake County officials to make the book — “And Tango Makes Three” — available to all students."
Tori Otten, The New Republic; A Florida School Has Banned the Poem Read at Biden’s Inauguration
Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” is restricted after just one parent complained about it.
"The school decided in April to restrict four of the titles, including Gorman’s, to middle school students only, the Miami Herald reported Monday. Salinas told the Herald she was not satisfied with the decision because “I don’t see how these books support the curriculum.” But she insisted that she “is not for eliminating or censoring any books.”
This is just the latest book ban in Florida since Ron DeSantis was reelected governor in November. At least 175 books have been banned as of March, according to PEN America. The nonprofit sued one Florida school district last week over the book bans.
“The government should not foster censorship by proxy, allowing one person to decide what ideas are out of bounds for all,” said Nadine Farid Johnson, counsel and managing director of PEN America Washington, in a statement regarding the lawsuit.
The Bob Graham ban has come to light after an elementary school in Pinellas County banned the movie Ruby Bridges in March. School officials in the same county also banned high school students from reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison earlier this year. And in October, the Wakulla County school district decided to remove the graphic novel Little Rock Nine from its libraries. All of these bans were enacted after just one parent complained.""
Hannah Natanson , The Washington Post; Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges
"The Post requested copies of all book challenges filed in the 2021-2022 school year with the 153 school districts that Tasslyn Magnusson, a researcher employed by free expression advocacy group PEN America, tracked as receiving formal requests to remove books last school year. In total, officials in more than 100 of those school systems, which are spread across 37 states, provided 1,065 complaints totaling 2,506 pages...
A small number of people were responsible for most of the book challenges, The Post found. Individuals who filed 10 or more complaints were responsible for two-thirds of all challenges. In some cases, these serial filers relied on a network of volunteers gathered together under the aegis of conservative parents’ groups such as Moms for Liberty."
