Latest news with #Slaughterhouse-Five
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota Gov. Strikes Down Conservative Bill Restricting Books For Minors
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R) blocked a bill that would have required libraries to put books that feature sexually explicit material in areas that are 'not easily accessible' to minors. The bill, which would have applied to public libraries and libraries at public schools, also threatens prosecution against those that don't comply. A two-thirds vote in favor of the bill in both the state's Senate and the House could override Armstrong's veto. But it passed narrowly in both chambers with neither side of the legislature hitting the two-thirds threshold — by a 27–20 vote in the Senate in February and a 49–45 vote in the House earlier this month. 'While I recognize the concerns that led to its introduction, Senate Bill 2307 represents a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship,' Armstrong wrote in a Tuesday letter explaining his decision. 'The bill imposes vague and punitive burdens on professionals and opens the door to a host of unintended and damaging consequences for our communities.' 'In the last 10 years, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Kite Runner, 1984, and To Kill a Mockingbird have all been targeted by obscenity laws,' Armstrong added. 'I don't pretend to know what the next literary masterpiece is going to be. But I want it available in the library. And if a parent doesn't think it is age-appropriate for their child, then that is a parenting decision. It does not require a whole-of-government approach and $ 1.1 million of taxpayer money.' The move comes as many conservatives across the country, including President Donald Trump, attack libraries and academic freedom. It also follows former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's decision in 2023 to veto a bill that threatened criminal prosecution against librarians and aimed to require them to screen all books in the libraries for sexually explicit content. He did, however, sign a bill into law removing books with explicit material from children's sections in libraries. North Dakota Library Association President Andrea Placher said in a statement that the association was 'very pleased' about Armstrong's veto. 'Libraries in North Dakota are experiencing increasing usage each year, with more visitors, program attendees, and library card registrations,' Placher wrote. 'The North Dakota Library Association firmly believes that SB 2307 is an unnecessary bill that would significantly hinder the operations of libraries in the state. All libraries have established policies and procedures that make this bill irrelevant.' By contrast, proponents of the bill argue that it is necessary to 'protect' children from pornography. 'We are harming our children, that's all there is to it,' Republican State Sen. Keith Boehm, a sponsor of the bill, argued in a committee hearing, according to The New York Times. 'The bill is all about protecting kids from this material. It has nothing against adults,' he added. 'To fight this battle against the pornographers, pedophiles and groomers, we must cover this issue comprehensively,' Boehm also said in another instance, according to North Dakota Monitor. 'Not every library in the state has this material, but there is enough to support this legislation.' Rep. Ben Koppelman, another sponsor of the bill, said he is 'confident that most red-state governors would have signed that bill, and we'll just be back next time around to do it again,' according to The Associated Press. North Dakota Mayor Who Sent Lewd Video To City Attorney Resigns Supreme Court Signals Support For Religious Parents Against LGBTQ+ Books Michigan Townspeople Move 9,100 Books To New Home One By One
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
How Dresden in Germany is capitalizing on its spirit of renewal
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). 'Safe travels. And don't touch the bomb!' It's a disorientating message to hear crackling through my phone as my Deutsche Bahn train glides through the outer suburbs of Dresden on a chilly, darkening evening. I feel like Billy Pilgrim, the time-travelling protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, barrelling headlong into the 1945 firebombing that remains intertwined with the fate of this German city. But the caller, art historian Dr Rudolf Fischer, is delivering his message with a chuckle. An unexploded Second World War bomb has been uncovered by builders in the Elbe River, and Dresden's Old Town is to be evacuated while it's defused. An hour later, Dr Fischer — a smiling, grey-haired man in a dark blazer — is standing before me in the Archiv der Avantgarden, the art museum of which he's director, just north of the Old Town. It's set in an extraordinary edifice known as the Blockhaus. Built in 1732 as a guards' house by Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong, the building later became a cultural centre, the House of Soviet-German Friendship, during the days between the Second World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Dresden was part of Communist East Germany. It then became a Russian restaurant before falling into ruin and, finally, being converted into a modern conceptual art space in 2024, with a huge, polished concrete cube suspended above the atrium. Today it houses, among other things, around 1.5 million items donated by Italian collector Egidio Marzona. Dr Fischer shows me tubular Bauhaus chairs and desk lamps, expressionist paintings by the 20th-century Dresden art group Die Brücke and blueprints for geodesic domes by experimental US architect Buckminster Fuller. Over the course of its many lives, and through its fusion of traditional and cutting-edge architecture, the Blockhaus has come to embody the spirit that drives Dresden: the spirit of renewal. Dresden is famous to the wider world for its near-complete obliteration by the British and US air forces in 1945, and for its eventual reconstruction, in the original baroque style, of its historic core. With the unearthed bomb safely defused, I set out to explore the cobbled streets of the Old Town, admiring the onion dome of the Zwinger palace, the Corinthian facade of the Semperoper opera house and the splendid cupola of the Lutheran Frauenkirche. Today, these buildings look as stately and handsome as they must have done in their 18th- and 19th-century heyday, but they are, in fact, very new. East Germany's post-war Communist government lacked not only the funds to rebuild most of its destroyed historic buildings but also the inclination — they suited neither its anti-royalist outlook nor its preference for modernist architecture. As such, most rebuilding commenced after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche was completed in 2005, and the renovation of the Royal Palace is ongoing. It's an inspiring and impressive rebuild, but the architecture is only one aspect of Dresden's cultural renewal, which extends to ancient traditions and modern art forms alike. One company dragging Dresden's traditions into the modern world is Meissen, a high-end ceramics company that, in 1710, created Europe's first porcelain. In those days it was a bumpy, horse-drawn journey between Dresden and the Meissen factory, 15 miles away, so the products were packed in giant loaves of bread — a kind of edible bubble wrap. Today, Meissen porcelain is a Dresden icon, displayed most prominently in the Fürstenzug, a huge, yellow-tiled mural depicting a procession of Saxon rulers sprawled across an outer wall of the Royal Palace. Unlike most of its neighbouring buildings in the Old Town, this isn't a post-war reconstruction; the porcelain tiles, having been forged in the fierce temperatures of the kilns, survived the heat of the firebombing. It's fitting that porcelain is such a well-established symbol of Dresden — combining, as it does, both a delicate beauty and resilience. I walk alongside the Fürstenzug into Neumarkt, another Old Town square, where Meissen's modern face is revealed to me from the upstairs window of the company's boutique: a brilliant-white bust of Marilyn Monroe, revolving on a plinth, her mouth blowing a sphere of bubble gum rendered in pink glass. In the days of East Germany, Meissen produced busts of Marx and Stalin. The Monroe sculpture — a collaboration between Meissen and contemporary German artist Michael Moebius — depicts a cult figure of a different kind. Moebius's high-ceilinged apartment and studio is a short walk away, and he greets me at the door, a tall man in his mid-50s with a leather jacket and mop of brown hair. The apartment is filled with artworks reflecting Moebius's characteristic playful style. Daniel Craig, in full tuxedo, glares down at me from a wall, blowing a huge globe of bubble gum. A full-size Star Wars droid stands in a corner, its robotic fingers gripping a Prada shopping bag. Although it's not the festive season, the room is illuminated by a fully decorated Christmas tree. 'I leave it up all year,' he says with a shrug. Moebius's original bubble gum-blowing Marilyn artwork — a hyper-realistic painting — became so widely copied that it now appears on T-shirts and posters worldwide. For the artist, this recognition is just the latest chapter in a colourful life that's also seen him forcibly serve in the East German army, move to California, and live on and off for 17 years in the Playboy Mansion with his close friend, the late Hugh Hefner. It would have been an unlikely trajectory to imagine for a kid growing up in East Germany, dreaming of the cultural icons of the West. 'Growing up in East Germany gave me a hunger for more,' Moebius says. 'My hobby was painting, and I always drew characters from Disney, which was highly forbidden. Symbols like Coca-Cola and Donald Duck were seen as a threat.' It's poetic that the artist has now combined one of Western pop culture's greatest symbols, Marilyn Monroe, with the iconic medium of Meissen porcelain, which far predates the trauma dealt to Dresden by the Second World War or the Communist era. 'Everyone here grew up with Meissen, this white gold,' he says. 'Families would pass it down through the generations. So I couldn't have dreamed of a better collaboration. It means so much.' Another of Dresden's great cultural assets is classical music. The Staatskapelle Dresden, founded in 1548, is one of the world's oldest orchestras. Baroque opera house the Semperoper was largely destroyed in the firebombing of 1945, but was deemed so integral to the fabric of the city that even the staunchly modernist Communist government opted to rebuild it in its original style, reopening it in 1985. The renewal of the surrounding Theaterplatz square continues apace, with the opening in 2023 of restaurant Opera, set in a mid-century modern space in yet another rebuilt historic structure opposite the Semperoper. The restaurant is run by Benjamin Biedlingmaier, who previously helped Caroussel, another rarefied Dresden restaurant, win a Michelin star for its gourmet cuisine. 'Here, I had to do something new,' he tells me over a glass of crisp, white Saxon wine. 'The idea at Opera is more casual. I don't want another Michelin star; we want to welcome people in from the street.' The food reflects Benjamin's interest in fusing traditional German cuisine with wider influences — alongside veal schnitzel with cranberries, I order spiced cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate, followed by a slice of eierschecke, a Saxon cheesecake topped with a layer of vanilla custard. It's all delicious, but I can't linger for long, as I have one final appointment this evening. It's not just the classical arts that are raising the roofs of Dresden's historic, resurrected buildings. In the nightlife district of Neustadt ('new town'), a former dairy building now houses Carte Blanche, the largest theatre in Europe for travesty — a type of burlesque drag theatre. The show unfolds in a blaze of sequins, diamanté tiaras and lavish costumes, the performers rolling skilfully through a setlist of jazz, vaudeville and French pop standards: an artful take on the drag medium. 'There's a bit of a difference between travesty and drag,' performer Josi Diamond tells me backstage after the show as she removes her 1920s flapper make-up in the mirror. 'Travesty is the older art form. We sing chansons. And there are more feathers.' This last line is delivered with the kind of understatement not typically associated with drag queens — there are so many feather boas hung on every nearby surface it feels like we're inside a huge down pillow. 'We have a big theatre scene in Dresden,' Josi says. 'It's not just the Semperoper, but smaller theatres, too. It's a great place to express yourself artistically.' Nowhere can escape the past, and this is particularly true of Dresden. The clink of hammers still carries across the Neumarkt from workers restoring the Royal Palace, 80 years after its destruction — and, as I learned on my first day in the city, relics of war still lurk beneath the surface. But this isn't a place mired in its history — it's one looking to the future, where the tragedies of the past are stoking the fires of rebirth. Published in the April 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
National Geographic
15-04-2025
- National Geographic
How this German city is capitalizing on its spirit of renewal
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). 'Safe travels. And don't touch the bomb!' It's a disorientating message to hear crackling through my phone as my Deutsche Bahn train glides through the outer suburbs of Dresden on a chilly, darkening evening. I feel like Billy Pilgrim, the time-travelling protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, barrelling headlong into the 1945 firebombing that remains intertwined with the fate of this German city. But the caller, art historian Dr Rudolf Fischer, is delivering his message with a chuckle. An unexploded Second World War bomb has been uncovered by builders in the Elbe River, and Dresden's Old Town is to be evacuated while it's defused. An hour later, Dr Fischer — a smiling, grey-haired man in a dark blazer — is standing before me in the Archiv der Avantgarden, the art museum of which he's director, just north of the Old Town. It's set in an extraordinary edifice known as the Blockhaus. Built in 1732 as a guards' house by Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong, the building later became a cultural centre, the House of Soviet-German Friendship, during the days between the Second World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Dresden was part of Communist East Germany. It then became a Russian restaurant before falling into ruin and, finally, being converted into a modern conceptual art space in 2024, with a huge, polished concrete cube suspended above the atrium. Today it houses, among other things, around 1.5 million items donated by Italian collector Egidio Marzona. Dr Fischer shows me tubular Bauhaus chairs and desk lamps, expressionist paintings by the 20th-century Dresden art group Die Brücke and blueprints for geodesic domes by experimental US architect Buckminster Fuller. Over the course of its many lives, and through its fusion of traditional and cutting-edge architecture, the Blockhaus has come to embody the spirit that drives Dresden: the spirit of renewal. Dresden is famous to the wider world for its near-complete obliteration by the British and US air forces in 1945, and for its eventual reconstruction, in the original baroque style, of its historic core. With the unearthed bomb safely defused, I set out to explore the cobbled streets of the Old Town, admiring the onion dome of the Zwinger palace, the Corinthian facade of the Semperoper opera house and the splendid cupola of the Lutheran Frauenkirche. Today, these buildings look as stately and handsome as they must have done in their 18th- and 19th-century heyday, but they are, in fact, very new. East Germany's post-war Communist government lacked not only the funds to rebuild most of its destroyed historic buildings but also the inclination — they suited neither its anti-royalist outlook nor its preference for modernist architecture. As such, most rebuilding commenced after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche was completed in 2005, and the renovation of the Royal Palace is ongoing. It's an inspiring and impressive rebuild, but the architecture is only one aspect of Dresden's cultural renewal, which extends to ancient traditions and modern art forms alike. Repurposed factory buildings are a common sight in the heart of the city Photograph by Christian Kerber Restaurant Anna im Schloss serves traditional East German dishes within the surrounds of the Royal Palace. Photograph by Christian Kerber Old methods, modern art One company dragging Dresden's traditions into the modern world is Meissen, a high-end ceramics company that, in 1710, created Europe's first porcelain. In those days it was a bumpy, horse-drawn journey between Dresden and the Meissen factory, 15 miles away, so the products were packed in giant loaves of bread — a kind of edible bubble wrap. Today, Meissen porcelain is a Dresden icon, displayed most prominently in the Fürstenzug, a huge, yellow-tiled mural depicting a procession of Saxon rulers sprawled across an outer wall of the Royal Palace. Unlike most of its neighbouring buildings in the Old Town, this isn't a post-war reconstruction; the porcelain tiles, having been forged in the fierce temperatures of the kilns, survived the heat of the firebombing. It's fitting that porcelain is such a well-established symbol of Dresden — combining, as it does, both a delicate beauty and resilience. I walk alongside the Fürstenzug into Neumarkt, another Old Town square, where Meissen's modern face is revealed to me from the upstairs window of the company's boutique: a brilliant-white bust of Marilyn Monroe, revolving on a plinth, her mouth blowing a sphere of bubble gum rendered in pink glass. In the days of East Germany, Meissen produced busts of Marx and Stalin. The Monroe sculpture — a collaboration between Meissen and contemporary German artist Michael Moebius — depicts a cult figure of a different kind. Ceramics company Meissen created the first porcelain in Europe in 1710 and is in business to this day. Photograph by Christian Kerber Art like this bust of Marilyn Monroe on display at Meissen's shop in Neumarkt, shows the local blend of new and old. Photograph by Christian Kerber Moebius's high-ceilinged apartment and studio is a short walk away, and he greets me at the door, a tall man in his mid-50s with a leather jacket and mop of brown hair. The apartment is filled with artworks reflecting Moebius's characteristic playful style. Daniel Craig, in full tuxedo, glares down at me from a wall, blowing a huge globe of bubble gum. A full-size Star Wars droid stands in a corner, its robotic fingers gripping a Prada shopping bag. Although it's not the festive season, the room is illuminated by a fully decorated Christmas tree. 'I leave it up all year,' he says with a shrug. Moebius's original bubble gum-blowing Marilyn artwork — a hyper-realistic painting — became so widely copied that it now appears on T-shirts and posters worldwide. For the artist, this recognition is just the latest chapter in a colourful life that's also seen him forcibly serve in the East German army, move to California, and live on and off for 17 years in the Playboy Mansion with his close friend, the late Hugh Hefner. It would have been an unlikely trajectory to imagine for a kid growing up in East Germany, dreaming of the cultural icons of the West. 'Growing up in East Germany gave me a hunger for more,' Moebius says. 'My hobby was painting, and I always drew characters from Disney, which was highly forbidden. Symbols like Coca-Cola and Donald Duck were seen as a threat.' It's poetic that the artist has now combined one of Western pop culture's greatest symbols, Marilyn Monroe, with the iconic medium of Meissen porcelain, which far predates the trauma dealt to Dresden by the Second World War or the Communist era. 'Everyone here grew up with Meissen, this white gold,' he says. 'Families would pass it down through the generations. So I couldn't have dreamed of a better collaboration. It means so much.' Another of Dresden's great cultural assets is classical music. The Staatskapelle Dresden, founded in 1548, is one of the world's oldest orchestras. Baroque opera house the Semperoper was largely destroyed in the firebombing of 1945, but was deemed so integral to the fabric of the city that even the staunchly modernist Communist government opted to rebuild it in its original style, reopening it in 1985. The renewal of the surrounding Theaterplatz square continues apace, with the opening in 2023 of restaurant Opera, set in a mid-century modern space in yet another rebuilt historic structure opposite the Semperoper. The restaurant is run by Benjamin Biedlingmaier, who previously helped Caroussel, another rarefied Dresden restaurant, win a Michelin star for its gourmet cuisine. The Semperoper is the Dresden's emblematic Baroque opera house. Photograph by Christian Kerber Carte Blanche is Europe's largest travesty theatre. Photograph by Christian Kerber 'Here, I had to do something new,' he tells me over a glass of crisp, white Saxon wine. 'The idea at Opera is more casual. I don't want another Michelin star; we want to welcome people in from the street.' The food reflects Benjamin's interest in fusing traditional German cuisine with wider influences — alongside veal schnitzel with cranberries, I order spiced cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate, followed by a slice of eierschecke, a Saxon cheesecake topped with a layer of vanilla custard. It's all delicious, but I can't linger for long, as I have one final appointment this evening. It's not just the classical arts that are raising the roofs of Dresden's historic, resurrected buildings. In the nightlife district of Neustadt ('new town'), a former dairy building now houses Carte Blanche, the largest theatre in Europe for travesty — a type of burlesque drag theatre. The show unfolds in a blaze of sequins, diamanté tiaras and lavish costumes, the performers rolling skilfully through a setlist of jazz, vaudeville and French pop standards: an artful take on the drag medium. 'There's a bit of a difference between travesty and drag,' performer Josi Diamond tells me backstage after the show as she removes her 1920s flapper make-up in the mirror. 'Travesty is the older art form. We sing chansons. And there are more feathers.' This last line is delivered with the kind of understatement not typically associated with drag queens — there are so many feather boas hung on every nearby surface it feels like we're inside a huge down pillow. 'We have a big theatre scene in Dresden,' Josi says. 'It's not just the Semperoper, but smaller theatres, too. It's a great place to express yourself artistically.' Nowhere can escape the past, and this is particularly true of Dresden. The clink of hammers still carries across the Neumarkt from workers restoring the Royal Palace, 80 years after its destruction — and, as I learned on my first day in the city, relics of war still lurk beneath the surface. But this isn't a place mired in its history — it's one looking to the future, where the tragedies of the past are stoking the fires of rebirth. Published in the April 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
St. Francis Area Schools sued by parents, ACLU over book ban controversy
Parents and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed separate lawsuits against St. Francis Area Schools, accusing the district of unlawfully banning numerous books based on the ideas, characters and stories they contain. The lawsuit in Anoka County District Court filed on behalf of the parents of eight district students was followed up by the ACLU's lawsuit on Monday. Students at St. Francis High School have also protested the book bans, staging a walkout from classes on Monday, with an estimated 100 students participating. The union lawsuit filed by parents and Education Minnesota claims the 'District's policy is antithetical to the values of public education and encouraging discourse. Perhaps more importantly, the policy violates the Minnesota Constitution and state law." It also requests for the judge to declare the policy illegal and reverse the ban on more than 40 books that have been removed or will be soon. Among those publishings include: "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison "Beloved" by Toni Morrison "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood A complaint has also been filed against the Holocaust memoir "Night" by Eli Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Per district policy, it will be removed from the shelves. The book bans come in the wake of the school district adopting last fall to use ratings from the anonymous review site BookLooks in its library. BookLooks has generated headlines for its past links with conservative group Moms for Liberty. The lawsuit alleges the BookLooks rating system discriminates "extensively based on viewpoint, particularly with regard to topics of gender, race, and religion.' The BookLooks states on its website that it is not affiliated for Moms for Liberty, but that it communicates "with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values." The website is now shut down as of Sunday, with a post on the site saying it will be "ceasing operation and taking down all of our reports from the site." No book reviews are visible as of Tuesday. "It has been quite the ride with many ups and downs since God called us to this work in 2022, but after much prayer and reflection it has become apparent that His work for us here is complete and that He has other callings for us," its statement reads. It's unclear why the book review website is shutting down operations. The lawsuit filed by the ACLU is on behalf of two other students in the district and says at least 46 books have been removed or are in the process of removal. St. Francis Area Schools provided the following statement to Bring Me The News on Tuesday: "St. Francis Area Schools can confirm the receipt of lawsuits from Education Minnesota and the American Civil Liberties Union-Minnesota in regards to our District Policy 606.5. The legal team is reviewing the documents from both lawsuits and working with the district on determining next steps. The district is committed to addressing the claims identified in the lawsuits thoroughly and appropriately."
The Independent
05-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Publishers, a library and others sue over Idaho's law restricting youth access to 'harmful' books
Several large book publishers, a tiny public library and others are suing Idaho officials over a law that forces libraries to keep some books in an adults-only section if community members believe they are 'harmful to minors.' The Donnelly Library, Penguin Random House and the others suing say the law is overly vague and violates the First Amendment rights of students, librarians and other residents by forcing libraries to sequester literary classics like 'Slaughterhouse-Five' and 'A Clockwork Orange.' It's the second such lawsuit filed in Idaho. A coalition of small private schools and libraries sued last summer, and that case is ongoing. Similar cases have been filed in Arkansas, Iowa, Florida, Texas and other states with laws restricting access to books in libraries or schools. 'Many are first introduced to these books as minors at their schools or local libraries, under the guidance of trained professional educators and librarians,' the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in Idaho's federal court this week. 'Not anymore. Idaho now demands that public schools and public libraries either sequester these books — and others like them — away from young people or face the risk of challenge, litigation, and statutory damages for allowing these classic and valuable books to be accessed by minors.' A spokesman for Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment because the case is pending. Book banning efforts have soared recent years, according to the American Library Association. Public and school-based libraries have been flooded with complaints about allegedly inappropriate books, and the efforts often organized by conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty. In some Republican-led states, lawmakers have responded by passing laws creating new punishments — including lawsuits, fines and even imprisonment — for libraries or individuals that distribute books deemed unsuitable. Some Democratic-led states including Washington and Illinois have responded by banning book bans. Idaho's law took effect last year, requiring schools and public libraries to move material deemed 'harmful to minors' to an adults-only section or face lawsuits. If a community member complains that a book is harmful to minors, the library has 60 days to address it or children or their parents can sue for $250 in damages. The law relies on Idaho's legal definition of obscene materials, which includes 'any act of homosexuality." At the time, the Idaho Library Association warned that the law was vague and subjective, and said it would likely lead to significantly limited access to information for the public. In fact, that's exactly what happened, according to the lawsuit. The Donnelly Public Library operates the only after-school program in Donnelly, a town of about 250 residents, but it had to bar minors from entering unless a parent or guardian first completed a waiver. That's because the library operates out of a small log cabin and a handful of teepees, and there is not enough room to create an adults-only section for some books like 'The Handmaid's Tale,' according to the lawsuit. Christie Nichols, a librarian in the state's largest school district and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said she was instructed to pull roughly 30 books from her library at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian and send them back to the West Ada School District headquarters, 'even though she believes these books have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for her students.' That's because the books were on a list of about 60 the district had deemed problematic. Two students also joined in the lawsuit, including a 17-year-old from Lewiston who noted that even though he is taking college-level courses through his school's dual-credit program, he is restricted from accessing books that he feels he needs to foster his learning. An 18-year-old student from Meridian said in the lawsuit that even though she is now old enough to check out the restricted books from her school library, it's unclear how she can gain that access.
