We ALL must call out misinformation and share the truth about school libraries in CBSD
If you were out and about this week you probably saw the new misinformation campaign scattered about Bucks County. You know: the ones where it looks like anyone wants porn in our schools and young children are now asking their parents what that even means. These fear- mongering tactics only serve to divide and upset. They’re meant to distract us from the real issues impacting our kids’ education and our collective power in deciding what solutions might look like.
We must not allow a small group of agitators who spread fear and misinformation to tell us how to raise and educate our kids. Our students succeed when families and teachers work together to provide a high-quality, age-appropriate education.
It’s crucial that we as a community step in and offer our support to protect our kids’ rights to access information and diverse perspectives.
The solution to misinformation requires each and every one of us to share the truth about books in our school libraries with your family, friends and neighbors:
We’re asking everyone who’s in agreement to please choose one or two points below and share them widely.
Everyone without exception opposes pornography in school libraries. Any claim to the contrary is a lie, a scare tactic to undermine our trust in our schools and particularly in our librarians who are trained to know valuable books when they find them. They know how to assist students in selecting age-relevant books and work with parents to ensure students have access to high-quality literature.
While only two books have been removed there are still 60+ book challenges that remain. Most or all of these are in our high school libraries—not in elementary school classrooms. These include award winning books like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Dozens of books are at risk for removal, with no consideration of their critical acclaim, their relevance to our students, or their meaning in their entirety—all of which makes mock of research-based library practices & national standards.
Read any newspaper and you’ll know the freedom to read is facing its most coordinated attack in decades. Nationwide the majority of books being challenged and banned are written by or about underrepresented and marginalized groups.
No school district is immune from such efforts, which is why all school districts must fight for policy that ensures viewpoint discrimination doesn't serve as the basis for books being challenged and banned under the guise of "sexually explicit content."
Pen America has spent a century protecting the freedom of speech. In this year’s report they found that calls for books to be removed have frequently and inaccurately labeled books as “harmful” or “obscene,” and conflated any LGBTQ+ content with “pornography,” in a reliance on long-standing, discriminatory tropes. This is precisely what we have seen in the school boardroom and now in the foul signs that seek to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a person or a group of people.
Right now, Pennsylvania ranks among the top five states in the country for book bans, even though a significant majority of Pennsylvanians oppose banning books.
Under the 1st Amendment, students have the right to read and access information. Prior court cases have resulted in the determination that books must be evaluated in their entirety and not based on excerpts taken out of context. CB library policy appears to violate students' First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court established the Miller Test to determine whether literature can be deemed "obscene" and can therefore be removed from school libraries. CBSD’s library policy does not align with the Miller Test.
Professional librarians are trained to know what books are of educational value to our students. They know the difference between pornography and educational books with sexual content.
Parents have always had the right and a pathway to opt out of books they deem inappropriate for their own children. No parents or community members should have jurisdiction over other people's children.
When the community rose up against the banning of books, somehow the urgent work of the book committees was halted. No further action has occurred on the backlog of challenged books. It appears that the angry outcry on behalf of intellectual freedom threatened the whole anti-education program. Book removal slow-rolled until they could attempt to win public opinion to their side. So much for the presumed corruption of our children that it can be back-burnered for political expedience.
The full reports of the reconsideration committees were withheld from the public. There was no transparency. The committees said their hands were tied by the terrible policy and two books of real interest and help to students had to be removed, very much against best practices.
Here’s some helpful information about how school libraries function:
Books come to our libraries because our librarians choose them. They read dozens/hundreds of books per year, they consult professional reviews of what’s new and well regarded, and they consult with one another. They choose age-appropriate books they believe will help our children.
They know the students in their schools. The kids have asked the librarians questions:
Do you have any books about football legends?
Do you have any books about vampires?
Do you have any dystopian futuristic fantasy?
Do you have any books about Ronald Reagan?
Do you have any books about non-binary people?
Books in the libraries sit on shelves or on a table during book talks, when the librarians help the students find books they wish to read. Books do not leap out at kids. Students have to know what they’re looking for and ask for it or go to find it. Once they locate a book they have to check the book out, which involves a conversation with the librarian and/or the library assistant.
There are a number of safeguards built into this system. Our librarians work to develop a sense of the interests, reading level, and sensitivity of their students. Also, books are very good at letting you know what’s about to happen. The tone shifts, there are clues and foreshadowing… readers know when the big events are imminent. They can close that book and put it away. A book with a lurid passage doesn’t force a kid to read it.
Every book in our school libraries is there for students to choose or leave alone. No child is ever under any circumstance forced to read any book in any of our libraries. These books are options, not requirements.
We want all children to have access to books that answer their questions and that help them to understand their experiences. We want all children to grow up safe and healthy and ready to undertake adulthood when they are mature enough to do so. We want no child to become confused or bewildered or to fall prey to evil intent.
And we believe more strongly than we can express that the short path to all these things is wonderful school libraries, caring school professionals, and the right of each child and family to search out and find the books that speak to them where they are.
Together, we can demand every child have the freedom to read by speaking up at meetings, contacting our elected school board directors, and voting in every election.