Weld County teen librarian fired over programming policy & Read Woke Book Club
Weld County's library district is the High Plains Library District (HPLD)
https://bookriot.com/high-plains-library-censorship/
"Due to the Programming Policy changes approved by the board, Administration told me (teen librarian Brooky Parks) that I have to:
Rename the Read Woke Book Club, because the Administration does not like the word “woke” (even though this is a reading program, created by School Librarian Cicely Lewis, that is offered across the nation by many public schools and public libraries). For more info on her Read Woke program: www.readwoke.com "
The issue revolves around the idea that programs "that assist or encourage community dialogue by including a variety of perspectives or acknowledging other perspectives."
"The ability to interpret that line in the policy opened the door to Administrative oversight of library programmings as a means of suppressing the sharing and engaging of ideas and conversation...."
"In the weeks that followed, librarians at various branches within the High Plains Library District were told they had to rename, change, or otherwise cancel a number of planned programs which no longer aligned with the new policy."
Additional changes required by the Administration include:
"Cancel the “Anti-Racism Workshop for Teens” program (before even reading the description of the program) that I (Parks) scheduled Her Flowers (www.herflowersofficial.com) to provide in January 2022. "
"Cancel the “Resistance Through History, and You!” presentation (before even reading the description of the program) that I scheduled OASOS (www.BoulderCountyOASOS.org) to provide during PRIDE month, June 2022.
"In addition, Erie Community Library’s Children’s Librarian was told to cancel a program that she was planning simply because it had the words “Social Justice” in the description. "
"Parks was fired from her job on December 16, 2021. She has retained legal counsel to address her termination from HPLD."
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More at the link above including how to help. Final point, Erie is a fairly nice growing community--lots of new houses and many more to come. To bad the old guard in Weld County can't find a way to straighten this out.
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