Jamie Sarkonak: Alberta's rules on explicit sex books are reasonable. Don't believe the fake news
As for the work of actually limiting access to restricted materials, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told the Post, it can be as easy as 'A librarian, a teacher, an educational assistant or other type of supervisor, just ensuring that students in Grades 9 and under are not checking out any material that might contain really graphic depictions of sexual acts.'
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The news elsewhere initially said otherwise. The Toronto Star headlined a Canadian Press story (which has since been updated): Alberta Bans Explicit Sex Books in Schools, Limits Who Reads About Kissing, Hugging. Which, simply, wasn't true, as hugging and kissing are allowed in all school libraries.
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Global News, using the same wire story as the Star, made the same mistake: 'Students in Grade 9 and younger will not be allowed to read about puberty, menstruation and breastfeeding but religious texts, such as the Bible, will be allowed on the shelves,' read one excerpt. It later issued a correction and deleted an erroneous social media post.
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The Globe and Mail's report stated that, 'Libraries will also no longer be able to provide students in Grade 9 and below with any material that contains non-explicit sexual content, such as the depiction of bodies with references to genitalia, menstruation, puberty or romantic relationships, including handholding and kissing.' It wasn't true, but it sparked outrage online.
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'There must be some misunderstanding or misinterpretation there,' said Nicolaides. 'We've clearly provided a definition in the ministerial order that says those types of things — depictions of bodies, biological functions, menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, kissing, hand-holding — are all non-sexual in nature, and there are no restrictions related to that material.'
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Nevertheless, the first impression of the rules, false as they were, reverberated online. Mount Royal University professor and media commentator Duane Bratt repeated the falsity in a still-public tweet that, as of Friday morning, reached 18 times the audience of his subsequent correction.
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Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders made a similar post and deleted it when he realized it was wrong; however, he went on to write that Alberta had initially banned all books depicting menstruation, puberty and romantic relationships, claiming that, 'Alberta issued a change to the language' and ' updated the policy in response.' That was plain wrong: Alberta's ministerial order hadn't changed; it was the news outlets that had to revise their stories in light of their errors.
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Can the rules still deliver absurd outcomes? Sure: there is a risk that paranoid, risk-averse school administrators will interpret the rules in the most cumbersome, laborious way possible, pulling umpteen young adult romance novels from shelves just to be safe.
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