Friday, Jan. 26, 2024 | 2 a.m.
My oldest daughter once compared her elementary school librarian to a fairy godmother, bequeathing students magical books and offering them as an escape from the ordinary. Now, my daughter has two little girls of her own, who have been regulars at their local libraries since they were born and consider story hour sacred.
I never questioned the recommendations school librarians made to my four children, trusting their judgment and valuing their commitment to nurture lifelong readers. I, too, believe librarians are magical.
Unfortunately, some parents believe librarians are dangerous, as are many of the books in their libraries. Thankfully, the courts are bringing some common sense to the discussion.
The extreme right has turned its wrath on school librarians. At school board meetings across the country, parents angry over what they deem unacceptable books attack librarians and media specialists as purveyors of pornography and smut.
Faced with apoplectic parents reciting graphic sex scenes from teen novels, out of context and often one of the few such passages in the book, school boards have cowered. This has been most visible in Florida, where parents found an ally in censorship campaigns in two pieces of legislation from Gov. Ron DeSantis, the 2022 Curriculum Transparency Act and Parental Rights in Education Act.
The curriculum transparency law empowers parents to review and object to essentially any book about anything, while the parents’ rights legislation forbids materials or instruction that mentions sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade.
Wielding both laws, a handful of parents in Florida’s Escambia County School District have either banned or restricted 1,600 books, including five dictionaries, eight different encyclopedias, “The Guinness Book of World Records” and “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” Also on the list are Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner.”
Censored titles for younger readers include Eric Carle’s “Draw Me a Star” and Mark Weakland’s “When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball.” An Escambia parent who flagged the picture book about Rudolph, a 1960 Olympic gold medalist in track, called her inspirational story about overcoming adversity “race-baiting” and “very anti-white.”
While school boards are buckling to the insanity and overt racism of many book challenges, the nation’s courts are responding with much-needed logic and hope.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit led by the free speech organization PEN America challenging wholesale bans in Escambia County can proceed. “These books need to be returned to the shelves where they belong, and every day that students are refused access is a day they’re not getting the high-quality education they deserve,” said Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America, Florida.
The lawsuit argues that the district’s removals disproportionately target books by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ people, minority communities and authors. Other plaintiffs are Penguin Random House, several authors of banned or restricted books and parents of students in Escambia schools.
In late December, another federal judge blocked enforcement of key provisions of a new Iowa law prohibiting books or instruction “relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six.”
“The law is incredibly broad and has resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from school libraries, including, among others, nonfiction history books, classic works of fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary novels, books that regularly appear on Advanced Placement exams, and even books designed to help students avoid being victimized by sexual assault,” wrote U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher in his Dec. 29 injunction.
Locher cited the law’s broad language, noting, “opponents have sometimes described it as a ‘don’t say gay’ or ‘don’t say trans’ bill. Based on the plain language of the statute, this is not an accurate description. It is actually a ‘don’t say anything’ bill. On its face, it prohibits school districts and teachers from providing any program, promotion and instruction that relates to gender identity (cisgender or transgender) or sexual orientation (gay, straight or otherwise) in any way.”
In legislating that any mention of “sex acts” is sufficient grounds to ban a book, the judge warned Iowa lawmakers that their underlying message was that there’s “no redeeming value to any such book even if it is a work of history, self-help guide, award-winning novel, or other piece of serious literature.”
Rather than condemning school librarians, politicians may want to consult them before passing any more bills narrowing classroom instruction. A school librarian, for example, could have explained to Iowa’s Legislature that it’s impossible to teach pollination or agricultural science without mentioning sex and reproduction.
Maureen Downey is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
