First of all: Kudos to you!! You are courageous to confront homophobia &
create a library collection that truly reflects all of your student's lives
and/or all ways of "being" in this world. I am familiar with And Tango
Makes Three and it is a charming title.
What a terrible situation to be in?! I know how scared you must be right
now. The elementary library I clerked at 3 years ago in Wilmington, North
Carolina went through a book challenge that made national and international
news over the book King & King. They received death/bomb threats, calls for
the librarian's dismissal, and 32 anonymous donations of the title from as
far away as Australia (if I recall correctly)! The parents of a child who
borrowed the book refused to return it and allow the community to go through
"due process". This made the news; hence the donations.
It resulted in a community hearing w/ a panel of participants; all of whom
were charged to read the book and then determine its merit. In the end the
book was place on a restriced shelf; de facto censorship, really. The
librarian kept her job. However, this was a community decision; not ONE
individual's i.e. principal or superintendant.
The librarian did not necessarily adhere to any ideology that made her feel
motivated to protect a title concerning homosexuality (that isn't really
what the issue should be), in so much as she deeply believed in the
importance of protecting intellectual freedom and negating censorship. She
fought long and hard to convince the community to do the "right thing" and
protected her job and the library collection in the process.
Here is my point: You need to direct this issue to be a policy-driven
debate; not morality-driven.
Some things you need to find out are:
What is your district's selection policy?
Does your district's selection policy require a certain numer of or type of
reviews per title?
Does this book meet that policy?
Does the district have a challenge process?
Contact your union, if you have a well organized one whom you trust.
Start gathering statistics about your collection:
Do you have the bible in it? How many copies? Do you have books about
divorce? interracial families? biracial individuals? blended families? etc.
All of those once taboo issues that a district wouldn't be caught dead
censoring now.
Stay on message: this is a community decision, there is (or should be) a
due process.
You should begin researching intellectual freedom & libraries, find examples
of challenges faced by other librarians.
Here are some helpful links:
http://www.nclaonline.org/intellect/reports/ifrpt040716.html
(find an equivalent to this committee in your state-start w/ the MSLA; go to
ALA.org too)
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/libraries/topic.aspx?topic=banned_books
(“Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves
simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books …”— U.S.
Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees School District v. Pico
(1982))
Of course, in the face of all of this you need to maintain your composure &
listen openly to the ideas of others. You have the best chance of being
heard when you allow others to feel heard. Best of Luck; no matter the
direction you take with this travesty.
Joanna Lemay
Librarian, Saucon Valley Elementary School
Hellertown, PA
>From: "JH@newsonglibrary.org" Reply-To: JH@newsonglibrary.org To:
>LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Subject: [LM_NET] ELEM: HELP!! Banning books? Date:
>Sun, 1 Apr 2007 09:06:37 -0400
>
>Dear Netters, I am a bit frantic because I'm changing providers and haven't
>had email for over a week. So I'm trying to do this via web mail. In case
>I cannot get your answers in my email box, could you please send your
>responses to the list?
>
>I read And Tango Makes Three to my second graders. This is a true story of
>two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo in NYC who were partners and who
>raised a chick. (Their keeper put an egg in their nest.) I had a sub for
>a day and I learned a week after the fact that she had some something to
>the principal about it. The principal, who is new this year, took the book
>to the superintendent. He threatened to consider firing me if anything
>else about like this happened again. [He listed two other times I had done
>this, niether of which had anything to do with me.] I had gotten my hand
>slapped six or so years ago for thrying to deal with homophobic name
>calling in a fourth grade class.
>
>Being terrified of losing my job, I wrote a letter that said I had made an
>error in judgement, apologized, but refuted the two accusations that had
>nothing to do with me. I went back to my library and started pulling all
>books with a mention of two moms or two dads, or a gay uncle, or... Then I
>looked at what I was doing and started feeling sick to my stomach. I
>thought the penguin story was benign. The super's got a reputation for
>hard ball, followed by broken glass. He wasn't here when the name-calling
>incident happened, so all of his evidence is from documents in my file.
>
>I don't know what to do. I don't know the principal well enough to talk
>about any aspect of this. I come to a complete halt at the thought of
>removing all books with even a mention of same-gender partners. But I
>wince at what might happen if a student takes out one of these books and a
>conservative parent files a complaint. Yes, I have a reconsideration
>policy. But if the super got wind of any challenge, I know he'll override
>it.
>
>Thanks! Johanna
>
>Johanna Halbeisen Woodland Elementary K-4 Southwick, MA 10177
>JH@newsonglibrary.org
>
>
>
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