Need help with book banning policy issue

[Neurotica]

Because of a recent controversy in our community (removal of "And Tango Makes Three") from elementary school libraries, our school board is trying to revise the policy on challenging materials. Needless to say, this is not an easy task, especially when all the writing gets done by committee.

I'm working with some other parents to offer ideas in two policy areas, but I need some help.

First, I'm specifically looking for information on how school systems notify parents/community members that a book has been reviewed, restricted or banned based on a complaint. In other words, if a parent lodges a complaint against a book in your schools, do you find out about this? If the school system (whether the principal, superintendent, or school board) restricts or removes the book, do you find out about it? If so, how? Is there a specific part of your school policy that addresses this? If so, if you could provide me with a link, I would greatly appreciate it.

We don't want to have to FOIA this information every month. We want public notification to be part of the policy. However, we want to offer an efficient solution, not something that becomes a logistical nightmare and ends up opening the door to more challenges via groups like PABBIS.

Second, I'm also looking for any specific policy language that allows the community to appeal a decision to restrict or remove a book. (Of course, the notification factor above would apply because the community would have to know about what's been done in order to appeal -- kind of a catch-22).

(I'm already working with the ALA, NCAC, etc.).

Thank you!

[Gore1FL]

1. for what it is worth:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/07/07_books.html

[Neurotica]

4. thanks

I just don't understand why people want to restrict what other people can read.

If you don't like a book for whatever reason, don't read it or don't let your children read it. Or if your children do read it, use that as an opportunity to discuss your feelings/opinions about the subject matter with your child (a teaching moment).

[Warpy]

9. The best way to settle this stuff is to get a note from the parents

when the kid comes into school, just a checkmark indicating whether the kid can read only bland, wholesome, non challenging books or whether the kid can have access to a restricted area of the library where the stuff right wing parents complain about is shelved.

No book should ever be banned from a school library, not even Mein Kampf or The Turner Diaries. However, I can see why some parents would want to restrict their own children's reading. Let them. The children will turn 18 and the first thing they will do is read all the books the other kids in school were talking about.

Controlling parents just shouldn't be able to control anybody else's kids.

[Neurotica]

12. The problem is that most parents could find something objectionable

in almost anything. So what goes into the "restricted section"? Who determines its contents? Parents in some areas of the country have complained about "The Golden Compass"? Should that go into a restricted section then?

Making a restricted section stigmatizes the students who would want to access the books within. And once again, it causes the librarians to have to police what people are reading.

Libraries should be open places of learning. If parents don't want their kids to read certain things then they should inform their children and act accordingly. However, they shouldn't be able to control what my children or other children have access to in the library. The librarians have already used their judgment and training to select the books.

[Warpy]

13. When the Stupids organize to get a book banned

it goes into the stacks, shelving behind the main desk.

The public library I practically lived at in high school did this. I had access to the stacks at 14. It's where I discovered all sorts of wonderful things on the Legion of Decency's "condemned" list.

[The Straight Story]

2. I dunno - what is the difference between R rated and X rated movies and books?

The whole idea is to give parents a choice about things their kids can see, and I am not books are all that different - but as someone who values freedom, etc, I also want young adults to be able to have more open choices.

[Neurotica]

5. It would be hard to allow parents to select or de-select books for every child

One parent in our community has actually made that suggestion -- allowing parents to use technology to pre-approve books. The end result would be insanity -- librarians don't want to police what the students are doing and take books away from them.

Librarians select books under "collection development" policies. They use their professional judgment and training to make decisions about what to make available with the goals of providing information and enlightenment. Librarians in school settings are naturally more restricted than librarians who work in public libraries.

That being said, books aren't rated as movies are. In my opinion, as a parent you should be aware and involved and know what your child is reading. My children read books well beyond their grade levels, but I am careful to ensure that my younger child doesn't read content that he might not be ready to understand. And when he does read something that might push that border a bit, we talk about what he's reading.

[RainDog]

3. haven't had to deal with this myself

but know of some who did.

I think the best action for such books is to put them on "reserve" behind the librarians desk... or if the book is deemed inappropriate for an age group, put it in another school library with older kids.

the school librarian could have a blog that notes when books are challenged and what's happening with them, or have a listserv for all parents, etc. who want to get the information, since the blog wouldn't (hopefully) be updated very often.

I don't know the book you're talking about, but I would think the school librarians would and should be part of all meetings and communications of such topics.

[Neurotica]

6. That's actually what was done with "Tango" initially -- it was put into a

"professional development collection" that only teachers could access. Fortunately, the superintendent voided all of his previous decisions on this book because proper procedures were not followed during the challenge, and the book has been restored to the shelves. That doesn't solve the problem for future challenges, however.

(BTW "And Tango Makes Three" is an award-winning children's storybook about two male penguins who hatch an adopted egg then raise the chick -- based on a true story that took place at Central Park Zoo. It was the ALA's Most Challenged Book of 2006)

The problem with putting books on reserve (e.g., restricting them) is that 1) children can no longer check out the book, and 2) this type of administrative action leads to self-censorship (what teacher would be brave enough to share this book with her class after all the publicity? Does the teacher think about the career implications if she shares another potentially controversial book?)

Sometimes books are sent up to a higher school level. I guess this can be ok, but it also can be problematic. For instance, "Julie and the Wolves" was sent from one of our elementary schools to a middle school because of a parental complaint.

It would be good as you suggest to have a central district-wide repository for information of this sort.

[DCKit]

10. No doubt some parent found all that gay penguin sex disgusting and inappropriate.

Not to mention those gayguins obviously stole the egg and destroyed a happily married, traditional Xian penguin family with the intent to raise the poor little Tango to help them recruit even more young gayguins for Teh Gayguin Agenda.

Do the people who continually project their filthy mindsets on the rest of us have any clue how stupid and creepy they appear by assuming the rest of us - especially children - are sexualized to the point that it would even occur to us to imagine what kind of sex fictional characters might be having?

Ah, those crazy Republics.

[Sam Ervin jret]

7. get a kid to read - get a kid to think, Never stand in the way

Book banning is only good for getting kids to want to read the banned stuff. Kind of a Catch 22 don't ya think?

[Neurotica]

8. I agree completely -- sales of "Tango" shot up astronomically after

this whole thing became news a couple weeks ago. Local bookstores had to keep ordering more copies and the Amazon.com sales ranking spiked! Kids are carrying copies of the book around with them -- it's wonderful.

[RainDog]

11. someone might want to bring that to the attention of the parent?

that the person's action has the opposite effect?

I agree with above that students should have to "opt out" of being able to read all library reading materials... however strange that would be... that's why I initially suggested the other thing... a librarian could have the book and a student could ask for it... and that's the limit of the librarian's input and responsibility. as noted, it's impossible to monitor every child's reading material and that should be an issue b/t a parent and child.

At public libraries this can be an issue with things like graphic novels, too. are they juv/young adult, or adult... or rather, at what level of behavior does something become too explicit to be in the kids' section. But this doesn't mean they won't carry the book, but simply that they have to make decisions about where to put the books. A widely praised juv fiction bk, The Witch's Boy, isn't in the children's dept in our public library because of the content. As soon as I finish reading it I'll let you know what that offensive content might be. :/

and yes, you're absolutely right about the media specialist at the school being the one who should have responsibility for collection development. Most parents do not have the same level of exposure, do not read the literature, do not attend the conferences to know emerging trends, new authors... The parents who want to get to decide this, I would imagine, are the fundies. Maybe not, but that would surprise me.

I really think it's so sad that Americans have to deal with fundies here. It's such a contradiction - our engineering and science and medical tech vs. someone who cannot handle being told that the earth wasn't created in 7 days.

good luck