Latest news with #ElizabethSchoolDistrict
CBS News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Banned books return to a Colorado school district's shelves as legal battle continues
Nineteen books are back on the shelves at the Elizabeth School District in Colorado after being removed and disposed of in September. Earlier this month, a preliminary injunction ordered the banned books be returned to shelves while an ACLU lawsuit against the district plays out. The Elizabeth School District appealed. On Monday, an appeals court denied that request and gave the district a deadline to re-shelve the books by Friday at noon. But the books were already replaced as of Thursday afternoon, according to the superintendent of Elizabeth Schools. "Obviously we're disappointed. We still feel like there's a lack of understanding of the content of these books, but obviously we're complying with the court order," said Dan Snowberger, superintendent of Elizabeth Schools. It's a win for the ACLU, who brought suit against the district alleging the removal violated free speech protections. "We think government ought to be out of the business of telling people the ideas that are acceptable," said Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. Most of the books feature stories of LGBTQ+ individuals or people of color. Titles include Toni Morrison's Beloved, The Kite Runner, The Hate U Give and Thirteen Reasons Why. The books in question are as follows: "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas "Beloved" by Toni Morrison "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini "You Should See Me in a Crown" by Leah Johnson "#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights" by Rebecca Felix "George" (now published and referred to as "Melissa") by Alex Gino "It's Your World-If You Don't Like It, Change It" by Mikki Halpin "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher "Looking for Alaska" by John Green "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins "Glass" by Ellen Hopkins "Fallout" by Ellen Hopkins "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins "Burned" by Ellen Hopkins "Smoke" by Ellen Hopkins "Redwood and Ponytail" by K.A. Holt. "It's a viewpoint discrimination, and it's a violation of the First Amendment and the Colorado Constitution to say we're going to take books out because we don't agree with the political orthodoxy. They don't align with our political values, and so we're going to purge them. The Constitution prohibits that," Macdonald said. "These are not books about LGBTQ or people of color. These are books that have obscene content and that children should not access them at school," Snowberger said. Snowberger says the books were thrown away with support from a majority of parents, and three months later, the ACLU filed the lawsuit. "Anyone who reads content in the books sees a graphic depiction of child rape, sees graphic depictions of incest, sees directions on how to commit suicide, sees vivid descriptions of school shootings. People who feel that belongs in child's hands -- it's sad. I'm very sad about that," Snowberger said. When the district was ordered to return books to shelves, law firm Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell donated copies of the books to the district, but the board voted to reject them. "The Elizabeth School District claimed it could not comply with the court's injunction because the school district already had disposed of the books. As part of our representation of our clients in the case, we provided copies of the books used during the litigation to the school district's lawyer to help facilitate the school district's compliance with the federal court order," a firm spokesperson told CBS Colorado. But after the district's appeals failed, new copies were donated by a local group that wishes to remain anonymous, and returned to shelves Thursday. "We'll put them on the sensitive topic list so that parents who are concerned about this type of content can protect their children from accessing it," Snowberger said. According to Snowberger, the books were primarily shelved in the high school, with one title in an elementary school and five in the middle school. The district received the exact number of copies as they threw out. For most of these titles, the district only ever had one copy. Many of these books have been on the school's shelves for decades, and some have never been checked out. While the books are back in schools, the legal battle isn't over. "The case will move forward in the trial court, and we look forward to prevailing at trial," Macdonald said. "We don't want a liberal school district saying you can't have conservative ideas in the school library. And we don't want self-described conservative school districts saying, 'Here are ideas that we disagree with, and we don't want in the library.'" "We'll take this to court until we get the outcome we need to. There has not been a decision on library books from the Supreme Court since 1982," Snowberger said. Macdonald says this is the first case of its kind that's been litigated in Colorado to his knowledge, but he says it's part of a concerning trend of book banning in the country. "Some groups that have cropped up, like a group called Moms for Liberty, that has pushed an agenda of banning books that involve LGBTQ+ characters or authors and diverse authors. And we've seen it around the country, and it looks like that's the playbook that was run in the Elizabeth School District," Macdonald said. There is no trial date set yet, but both sides say they're prepared to take this fight to the Supreme Court.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Judge: Elizabeth School District must return banned books to libraries during appeal process
DENVER (KDVR) — While the Elizabeth School District is working to appeal a ruling that prevents the district from removing books for expressed views from its libraries, a judge ruled that the banned books must be put back on the shelves while the trial plays out. On Thursday, a U.S. district court judge for the District of Colorado announced that the school district needs to return the removed books to their libraries by 5 p.m. on Saturday. This came after a U.S. District Court judge ruled the district must return all books it removed no later than March 25, which the district appealed. Elizabeth School District facing further legal action regarding book ban The Elizabeth School District argued to keep the books off the shelves during the appeal process; however, on Thursday, a judge ruled that the books must be put back by Saturday while the appeal is underway. This court ruling stems from an ongoing effort by the district to remove several books from libraries. In August 2024, the Elizabeth School District 'temporarily' pulled 19 books from the shelves and adopted a 'sensitive topic protocol' due to the material in the books. This material includes LGBTQ+ topics and racial issues. These books included: 'The Hate U Give,' Angie Thomas 'Thirteen Reasons Why,' Jay Asher 'Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights,' Rebecca Felix 'You Should See Me in a Crown,' Leah Johnson 'It's Your World — If You Don't Like It, Change It,' Mikki Halpin 'The Kite Runner,' Khaled Hosseini 'Beloved,' Toni Morrison 'The Bluest Eye,' Toni Morrison 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' Stephen Chbosky 'Looking for Alaska,' John Green 'Nineteen Minutes,' Jodi Picoult 'Speak,' Laurie Anderson 'Identical,' Ellen Hopkins 'Fallout,' Ellen Hopkins 'Glass,' Ellen Hopkins 'Burned,' Ellen Hopkins 'Crank,' Ellen Hopkins 'Smoke,' Ellen Hopkins 'George,' Alex Gino The district was sued in December 2024 after the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, representing two students in the Elizabeth School District and other stakeholders, claimed that the books were removed because they violated some 'school board members' partisan and political values.' The lawsuit claimed that removing the books violated the First Amendment. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox A U.S. District Court judge ruled in March that the district can't remove books if it 'disagrees with the views expressed therein or merely to further their preferred political or religious orthodoxy.' The judge ordered the district to lift the ban while it plays out in court, but the district appealed that ruling. The district is still working to appeal this ruling, but for now, the books are ordered to go back on the shelves by Saturday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
27-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Colorado school district responds to lawsuit after removing certain books off library shelves
A battle over books has put the Elizabeth School District center stage of what it says has been false information about why it chose to remove 19 book titles from its school libraries. "This is not about political views. This is not about ideology. This is about inappropriate content," said Dan Snowberger, superintendent of schools at the district. It was last spring when the district first reviewed the material inside its school libraries. "During that process, we were looking for content that was sensitive, and not to remove it, but we have parents who were concerned," Snowberger said. "Instead of removing books that were sensitive, our board felt like we wanted to empower our parents." Eventually, the board decided to bring 19 book titles before parents to decide if they wanted to keep those books on library shelves or remove them. "Those 19 books were identified by the reviewers as probably being inappropriate in our schools," Snowberger said. "Many districts may just remove them. We felt like ... it was our community's decision to review and make that decision. So we put them on display for 25 days, [and] invited our parents to come in and say, 'What do you think? Should these books remain in our libraries? Should they be added to our sensitive topic list, or should they be removed?' And overwhelmingly our community felt they had no educational value, and they should be removed." That was back in September 2024 when the district says the school board decided, following an overwhelming support from families, to remove those 19 titles: Snowberger said, ultimately, some of those books were deemed inappropriate for certain ages levels. "If anyone were to read the books, if anyone took the time to actually read some of the quotes, if I read them on air, you probably would be fined by the FCC," Snowberger said. "I can't even transmit the contents of these books through my child internet protection act filter." However, months since this decision was made, The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the district on behalf of two students, the NAACP and the Author's Guild, claiming the removal of these books violate a student's first amendment right to be able to access different information and ideas. "Just because parents believe that the books shouldn't be put back on the shelves does not alleviate the school district from its requirements under the First Amendment to not ban books based on viewpoint and content discrimination," said Sarah Neel, an attorney for the ACLU of Colorado. A district court judge's ruling siding with the ACLU last week would've ordered the school district to reinstate these books back on the school shelves. Yet, this week, Snowberger says they were granted a stay of the order this week pending their appeal of the decision. "So they remain off our shelves. We await right now the judge's decision as to whether she will reissue that order after the plaintiffs respond to our motion," Snowbeger said. "We believe that the district court judges opinion here was correct, and we will fight to uphold that at the 10th circuit," said Neel. Snowberger says even if the district court does uphold their decision to have Elizabeth schools reinstate these books, it could take some time before they end up on shelves. "These books have been disposed of," Snowberger said. "We destroyed them because, again, they were removed on Sept. 9, and the lawsuit was filed Dec. 20." The district shared a handful of excerpts of these books with CBS News Colorado to showcase what they say is material its school district does not believe should be on its shelves. However, it does support a family's right to choose what their children read or even bring to school to read on their free time. "It is not our job to change the values of our children," Snowberger said. "We want our children to come to school with whatever values they bring from home, and go home with those values. It doesn't matter if their families are left, right or center politically. We want children to have the values that their parents instilled. That's who we believe should instill values in children [and] not our public school district." The plaintiffs in this case, those being represented by the ACLU, have until Friday to respond to the districts stay of order. "At this point in time, the judge will wait for their response, make a decision, I imagine, early next week, and at that point, we will determine whether we need to continue with our appeal to the 10th circuit or whether that judge will actually hold a hearing and allow the district to present its case," Snowberger said.
CBS News
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Judge orders Elizabeth School District in Colorado to return removed books to library shelves
A US District Court judge has ordered the Elizabeth School District in Colorado to return all removed books to library shelves. This ruling comes after the NAACP filed a lawsuit with students alleging that the school board was trying to "limit students' access to any books that contravene the Board members' partisan, political values." According to the lawsuit, the board appointed a committee to review all books in the libraries in the school district and create a list of books containing "sensitive topics" such as "racism/discrimination," "religious viewpoints," "sexual content," "profanity/obscenity," "graphic violence," and "ideations of self-harm or mental illness." The lawsuit also states that any time a student would check out a book on the sensitive list, their parents would receive an email. The committee identified 19 books on the sensitive list that they believed were "more sensitive" than the rest. Those books are primarily by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ+ people. The removed books included: (1) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; (2) Beloved by Toni Morrison; (3) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; (4) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; (5) You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson; (6) #Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights by Rebecca Felix; (7) George (now published and referred to as Melissa) by Alex Gino; (8) It's Your World—If You Don't Like It, Change It by Mikki Halpin; (9) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; (10) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher; (11) Looking for Alaska by John Green, (12) Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult; (13) Crank by Ellen Hopkins; (14) Glass by Ellen Hopkins; (15) Fallout by Ellen Hopkins; (16) Identical by Ellen Hopkins; (17) Burned by Ellen Hopkins; (18) Smoke by Ellen Hopkins; and (19) Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt. Those books were "temporarily suspended" from all Elizabeth School District libraries and put on display at the board's office so parents could review passages in the books flagged as "objectionable" and weigh in on whether the books should be returned to the school libraries. On Sept. 9, 2024, the board announced its decision to permanently banish all "temporarily suspended" books from the district's libraries instead of returning them. According to the lawsuit, the board decided not to return the books to libraries "because the books contained same-sex relationships, including LGBTQ+ characters, discussed racism, involved police violence or otherwise struck board members as 'disgusting.'" The lawsuit claims the move "denies students access to books in their school libraries because of the ideas contained in those books and denies authors the right to share their books with ESD students free from viewpoint-based censorship" and that "the district cannot block students' access to information in their school libraries based on the board's political preferences nor can it remove authors' books from school libraries because of viewpoints the authors express." On March 19, the judge ordered Elizabeth School District to "immediately return the books to the library shelves." Elizabeth School District Superintendent Dan Snowberger released this statement about the decision, "We are still reviewing the decision with our attorneys. We respect the Judge's order, but we are particularly disappointed with the decision to avoid a hearing so the District could explain the Board's decision and the careful and transparent process it followed before removing the books. We will be appealing the decision, and the District stands by the Board's decision to remove sexually explicit and age-inappropriate content from our school libraries."
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge rules Elizabeth schools cannot remove library books for expressed views
DENVER (KDVR) — A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that the Elizabeth School District must return all books it removed from its libraries no later than March 25. The district was also instructed that it could not remove additional books because the district 'disagrees with the views expressed therein or merely to further their preferred political or religious orthodoxy.' Elizabeth School District facing further legal action regarding book ban The books were removed in 2024 and placed on a 'sensitive topics' list which required guardians to allow their students to read the books or check them out from the library. Elizabeth Public School Board Secretary Mary Powell said in a video published by the district in September that the board looked at seven sensitive topic areas when considering which books should be banned, including sexual content, graphic violence, racism, profanity, ideations of self-harm and religious views. 'We put religious views on there because as a Christian, you may not want your child to read the Quran, and as a non-believer, you may not want your child to read the Bible, so we were trying to be fair and even-handed on how we dealt with the religious viewpoint topic,' Powell said. Elizabeth School District had not made a public statement about the ruling on Wednesday but did have a link on its homepage to a fundraiser by Parents United to help pay the district's legal fees. 'Parents United is proud to hose (sic) this fundraiser in support of the Elizabeth School District's fight against an ACLU lawsuit seeking to force age-inappropriate and explicit materials back into school libraries,' the group's statement on the website reads. 'Donations will help the district defend its commitment to providing a safe, focused, and academically-driven education for all students while protecting community values and parental rights.' Superintendent Dan Snowberger spoke to 710KNUS on 'The Jeff and Bill Show' and posted a video of the interview on the district's Facebook page. The district called the case a 'David vs. Goliath legal battle.' In the video clip, the interviewer asked Snowberger why the district wouldn't just return the books to the libraries. 2 Colorado zoo exhibits, 1 zoo named among USA Today's 10 Best 'I think it's the right thing to do to empower parents. I think our public education system has continued to take on more and more responsibility, and this is the right thing to do,' Snowberger said. 'We must empower parents to make important decisions for our children, and our libraries have to support our curriculum program. We have to do better in this country on the education of children, and if things are in our school for purposes other than education, then what are we about?' Snowberger went on to say that he does not want to be educating students on topics that their parents 'may not find in their family values,' and said it's not the district's place to change those values. The case was filed by the ACLU of Colorado on behalf of two students in the district. The ACLU said that the board removed the 18 books from district libraries because officials cited 'inappropriate content, mostly sexual in nature.' The ACLU called the injunction a 'major victory' for district students and 'all Coloradans.' 'Having access to a diversity of viewpoints is integral to the well-being and education of all students, and this injunction gives them that opportunity,' said Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado's legal director, in a statement. 'School Districts that ban books because the officials disagree with the content or viewpoints expressed in those books do a disservice to students, authors, and the community. Such book bans violate the Constitution — period. We'll keep fighting to ensure a permanent end to this practice.' The books removed from the district's libraries included 'Anne Frank: A Diary of a Young Girl,' as well as '1984,' 'Brave New World,' 'The Hunger Games,' 'The Color Purple,' 'Catcher in the Rye' and 'Melissa,' which was previously published as 'George.' These Colorado school districts canceled class Thursday due to staff shortages In emails obtained by the ACLU of Colorado, board members and district officials said they were committed to conservative values, which was part of the platform on which board members had run for the office. '[P]ersonally, LGBTQ is only regarding sexual preference which doesn't belong in any school. . . . Our constituents will not be happy about us returning any of these books. That is who we are beholden to,' said former Board Vice President Heather Booth in an email obtained by the ACLU and shared in the lawsuit. The district judge noted that there is legal precedent barring school boards from removing library books 'simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to 'prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.'' A status conference in the case is scheduled for March 31. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
