Latest news with #schoollibraries
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
What's at stake if Alberta removes certain books from its school libraries?
Social Sharing Last week, the government of Alberta revealed plans to introduce new guidelines that will determine what books will be allowed on the shelves of school libraries across the province. The province's education minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, invited Albertans to take part in an online survey to help shape the new rules that will take effect this fall. The move comes after Nicolaides said he received complaints from parents about four particular books that concerned them: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Blankets by Craig Thompson, and Flamer by Mike Curato. Three out of four of these discuss 2SLGBTQ+ themes, leading many advocates to worry that queer literature would be unfairly targeted under the new guidelines. Today on Commotion, guest host Amil Niazi speaks with Mel Woods, senior editor at Xtra Magazine, and Laura Winton, president of the Library Association of Alberta, to discuss what's at stake for Alberta children and libraries. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Amil: Mel, there's 2,200 schools across Alberta. Those books that [Nicolaides] mentioned only appear in 58 schools, and those books are not new books. So why do you think this particular concern is happening right now? Mel: Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that we have to be really clear about with this, is that while the Alberta government has been framing this announcement as some discovery of this lewd material that's been unearthed, the only new thing here is the Alberta government's decision to care about this right now. And we have to look at the larger political context at play here. Nicolaides was saying that he heard from concerned parents. Reporting from the Investigative Journalism Foundation last week showed that those concerned parents were the Christian advocacy group, Action4Canada, which was involved in the Freedom Convoy. And also played a huge role in getting the school pronoun policies in both Saskatchewan introduced and New Brunswick, and the gender-affirming care attacks that the Alberta government's already taken. So this doesn't come in a vacuum. It's not just some genuinely, earnestly concerned parents calling up the government and saying, "Get these books out of libraries." There are coordinated movements and efforts to target these books in specific. These books on this list have been targeted in the States before. There are lists of these books that go around within these types of organizations, and they target specific governments who might seem willing to help them with those campaigns. And we look at the larger political context of what's happening in Alberta right now. [Premier] Danielle Smith and her government are looking at these separatist folks to the further right, to the further socially conservative, and are worried about their base fracturing…. These groups and organizations are coming to governments with intent to get these sorts of policies introduced, and to stoke a culture war, and to stoke a moral panic. We can never talk about these things and take what they're saying at face value and be like, "Oh, some genuinely concerned parents. We're just so worried about these lewd books." No, there are coordinated email writing campaigns. There are very influential political actors involved here, and that's an important context to have. Amil: Laura, how would you have preferred the province initiate a discussion like this? Rather than just jumping to the survey, is there something the Library Association would have preferred to see first? Laura: Yeah, absolutely. I think, first and foremost, we would have loved a conversation — at least a heads up. The Library Association of Alberta wasn't contacted. None of the public school boards were contacted as well. So this came as a total surprise to all of us. If the government had concerns about material that was in school libraries, it seems most appropriate to me that they would have approached school boards, potentially approached the Library Association of Alberta to get a bit more information on what the current processes look like, and then conversations could happen from there. Amil: So the books that we're talking about include Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and Flamer by Mike Curato, all of which discuss and depict 2SLGBTQ+ relationships…. The government's position is that certain books have no place in school libraries. What is the case for keeping books like the ones I mentioned on the shelves? Laura: It's worth noting that these are all award-winning graphic novels. These have been reviewed in major publications. Here's a quote from Publishers Weekly about Gender Queer: "This heartfelt graphic memoir relates with sometimes playful honesty the experience of growing up non-gender-conforming. It's sure to spark valuable discussions at home and in classrooms." So this material is intended to be put in front of children. One of the books, Blankets, I studied in library school years ago in a children's literature class. And what we were talking about in that class was very specifically, "How do we use this as material to help children understand their experiences?" So librarians know how to do this. We're thinking carefully about it. And there is consensus from experts on these books. This is not, as the minister has said, equivalent to a Hustler magazine. This is an award-winning text.
CTV News
30-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Conservative activists gave Alberta government list of ‘inappropriate' books in school libraries
Seen here in an Edmonton secondary school library, is one of four graphic novels Government of Alberta officials cited as examples of explicit and age inappropriate material that prompted new province-wide content guidelines. (Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter) Social conservative activist groups provided Alberta government officials with lists of books now facing prohibition under new provincial content guidelines for school libraries, the IJF has learned. On May 26, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced the province is bringing in new rules for school libraries after investigations by his office found materials containing depictions of sexual acts, nudity, drug and alcohol use, profanity and other mature content on the shelves in Alberta K-12 schools. Alberta currently has voluntary guidelines for library books, but school boards follow their own processes for selecting age-appropriate and relevant materials for students. Because of the inconsistent standards between school divisions, 'sexually explicit material has made their way onto school library shelves,' Nicolaides said, and so public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools will be required to follow province-wide guidelines starting in the 2025-26 school year. While the province said it identified multiple books with sexually explicit and inappropriate content, it has so far only named four coming-of-age graphic novels: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Blankets by Craig Thompson and Flamer by Mike Curato. Three of the four books focus on 2SLGBTQ+ characters and themes. Nicolaides told reporters in Calgary on Monday he was alerted to the issue by a group of parents who provided him with excerpts from 'many of these books and other materials' and showed him information suggesting they were available in different schools. However, members of the groups Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) and Action4Canada have since taken credit for supplying Nicolaides with the names of books they wanted removed from school libraries. In an email sent to followers, PCE celebrated the launch of Alberta's public consultation on 'sexually explicit' books in K-9 schools, telling members 'your efforts helped make this happen. 'PCE has worked with concerned parents for the past two years to expose this issue. Using a list prepared by Action4Canada, one of our dedicated volunteers submitted examples of graphic books to government officials—proof that titles like Gender Queer and Fun Home are available to children in Alberta schools. This consultation is a direct result of that work," the email newsletter reads. PCE is an Alberta-based parental rights group that has previously taken issue with sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) education in schools, gay-straight alliance laws and other 2SLGBTQ-related policies. Action4Canada is a conservative Christian group with more than 60 chapters across Canada. The group promotes deeply conspiratorial beliefs, claiming the Canadian government and education system have been 'infiltrated by radical LGBTQ activists' and that SOGI education and sexually explicit books are part of a 'global agenda to sexualize children, interfere with parental rights, eliminate the natural family and normalize pedophilia.' After Alberta announced its new library guidelines on Monday, Action4Canada posted on its website, thanking Nicolaides for meeting with their team and responding to their concerns about sexually explicit materials in Alberta schools. In the post, the group said its Calgary chapter has been communicating with government officials over several months, providing evidence of inappropriate books in schools and a 'comprehensive binder' that outlines supposed harms of SOGI education. Nicolaides told the IJF in an email he met with PCE and 'other concerned parents.' He did not respond to questions about whether he met separately with Action4Canada or when these meetings took place. Action4Canada has led campaigns to have sexual education and 2SLGBTQ+ themed books removed from public and school libraries in several provinces. A 36-page list of 'sexually explicit and pornographic books' available in Canadian libraries published by the group includes the novels Gender Queer and Fun Home. The list includes excerpts of text and images from the novels. Many of the same excerpts are found in a document the government of Alberta provided to reporters on Monday showing examples of sexually explicit and graphic content found in library materials. 'Misrepresentation' of meetings by education minister Corinne Mason, professor of women's and gender studies at Mount Royal University, said Nicolaides' initial claim that complaints about school library books had come from parents concerned about books their kids had access to in schools is a 'total misrepresentation of the facts.' 'It's a blatant lie from the minister about what's happened,' they said. Both Action4Canada and PCE are highly organized and well-funded lobby organizations, Mason said. And in the case of PCE, one with strong ties to the UCP government and Alberta's conservative movement. PCE executive director John Hilton-O'Brien was a founding board member and past president of the Wildrose Party of Alberta. During the 2022 UCP leadership race, Danielle Smith and other candidates participated in a forum on education hosted by PCE. Mason said that Action4Canada's campaigns have targeted 2SLGBTQ+ communities as ideological indoctrinators and dangerous to children in a time when the community is being violently harassed by hateful actors as pedophiles and groomers. And that it's problematic if the UCP government has been looking to them for frameworks around what is and isn't appropriate in schools. 'The fact that Parents for Choice in Education and Action4Canada, both of those organizations claim this as a win, I think that should be really, really concerning for folks like myself, who are very concerned about the influence of the parental rights movement generally in Alberta,' Mason said Nicolaides said in an email the actions being taken by the UCP government have nothing to do with the LGBTQ+ community. 'The fact that our actions of protecting young students from seeing porn, child molestation, self-harm and other sexual material in school libraries are being labelled as anti-LGBTQ is frankly irresponsible,' he said. Alberta Teachers' Association President Jason Schilling also expressed concern that the government was willing to meet with special interest groups about library materials, but not educators. 'Parents for Choice in Education and Action4Canada are special interest groups who frequently target the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Their claims that the provincial government is taking direction from them and not educators is questionable and alarming,' Schilling said. PCE told the IJF that its interest 'is in the reasonable rights of parents. Nobody who attacks those rights can expect to escape our criticism. Those claiming that we are discriminating against them are merely using the LGBTQ+ community to excuse their egregious actions.' Edmonton Public Schools, the Calgary Board of Education, and the Library Association of Alberta have all said the province hadn't contacted them about the issue of age-inappropriate books in libraries before Monday's announcement. 'Unprecedented' restriction of school library books All provinces provide general orientations about library content, but it remains the business of school boards to decide what books it uses, said James L. Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University. Setting guidelines that block certain types of books from being in any school libraries is 'really unprecedented,' he said. 'What they're doing is censoring books,' Turk said. 'It's an absolute break from whatever any other province has done. It's following the lead of Florida and Texas and Utah and some American states that are moving in this direction.' The Florida Department of Education has removed over 700 books from K-12 school libraries. The agency maintains that no books have been banned in the state and the materials are 'sexually explicit' and don't belong in schools. The number of banned books in Florida spiked after a 2023 law was passed requiring school districts to have a policy for challenging materials that 'depicts or describes sexual conduct, is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented, or is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used.' The four books named by Alberta's government have been frequently targeted by censors throughout North America. Gender Queer has the distinction of being the most banned book in the U.S. in 2021 and 2023, and the graphic novel shared the title of the most banned book in U.S. schools in 2022 with Curato's Flamer. These novels have also received multiple literary awards and continue to be selected for library catalogues by educators because of their ability to grapple with difficult subjects young adults are coping with in their lives, Turk said. 'They do raise challenging issues, but young adults deal with challenging things in their lives, and nobody is forcing anyone to read any of these books when they're in school libraries,' he said. Turk said these books may have been found in K-9 schools in Alberta because for students in grade nine and up they are appropriate. He added that he would be surprised if they appeared in the library catalogues of elementary schools. Nicolaides told the IJF these materials were found in schools across the province, but said they are not naming the individual schools to ensure the safety and security of teachers, staff and students at these libraries. The only specific school that has been identified as part of the province's investigation is an Edmonton public school for students in grades 4-9. Garrett Koehler, press secretary to the minister of education, shared images on social media of Flamer and Gender Queer on the shelves of the school, commenting 'these problematic books were found in and around books like Goldilocks…' Gender Queer has been awarded the American Library Association's Alex Award, given to books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 to 18. The Government of Alberta's press release for its age-appropriate book guidelines policy states the recommended reading age for Flamer is 14 and up, or younger with adult guidance. By Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Investigative Journalism Foundation
Globe and Mail
30-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
Alberta Insider: New fronts in the culture wars
Good morning. Alberta is no stranger to some of the culture wars that have been fought in the United States and abroad in recent years. This week, two new fronts were opened in the province. First, on Monday, the Alberta government announced plans to hold public consultations so it can set new regulations for school libraries, creating rules around books that the province deems age-inappropriate because of what it qualifies as sexually explicit content. 'School libraries spark imagination and foster a lifelong love of learning within our children,' Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told reporters in Calgary. 'Yet, unfortunately, through investigations conducted by my office, we have found books in K-12 schools that show extremely age-inappropriate content.' The province said it found 'multiple books with explicit sexual content' as part of an investigation conducted by Nicolaides's office. Only four examples were provided on Monday, each of which are graphic novels and depict LGBTQ or coming-of-age subjects: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Blankets by Craig Thompson and Flamer by Mike Curato. The Globe's Temur Durrani reached out to the four authors, who all said they were not consulted after their books were flagged and that the content is being taken out of context. Thompson, an Oregon-based graphic novelist, said his book is a coming-of-age autobiography based on his own childhood in an evangelical Christian family. Curato, a Massachusetts-based illustrator, also defended his work. 'Protecting the right to read is protecting the right to exist,' he told The Globe. The issue of determining what books are age appropriate has led to numerous political disputes and legal challenges. The fight reached the U.S. Supreme Court last month, when a children's picture book by a Vancouver Island author about a puppy at a Pride parade was among several works at the centre of a court challenge over whether parents have the constitutional right to opt their children out of lessons involving works with LGBTQ characters. Alberta's new policies, when implemented, will apply to public, separate, francophone, charter and independent schools. The second battle of the week came on Wednesday, when the Canadian Medical Association filed a constitutional challenge alongside three Alberta doctors against the province's legislation that limits access to medical treatment for transgender youth. The CMA says it is compelled to step in to guard the relationship between patients, doctors and families in making treatment decisions. Alberta's Bill 26, which became law last December, prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapies for those under 16. It also bans doctors from performing gender-reassignment surgeries on minors (those under 18) – an already rare occurrence in the province. CMA president Joss Reimer said the law has created a 'moral crisis' for physicians, saying an 'ideological influence' does not help the patient. 'When governments get involved and start restricting medical decisions, that means that doctors are then put into a position where they have to choose between following their ethical standards, following what they feel is best for their patients or following the law,' Dr. Reimer told The Globe. At the time of the filing, the Alberta government had not commented on the CMA's legal challenge. The United Conservative government has previously declined to comment on legal action launched against the bill last year by advocacy groups Egale Canada and Skipping Stone Foundation, citing it was before the courts. This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you're reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas parents, school boards may have more control over school library books after House OKs bill
The Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would give Texas parents and school boards a bigger role over what books students can access in public school libraries. Senate Bill 13 would give school boards, not school librarians, the final say over what materials are allowed in their schools' libraries by creating a framework for them to remove books based on complaints they receive. The bill would allow school boards to oversee book approvals and removals, or delegate the responsibility to local school advisory councils if 20% of parents in a district sign a petition allowing their creation. Previously, SB 13 mandated the creation of those councils when it passed through the Senate in March, but the petition requirement was added in a House committee. SB 13, initially passed by the House 87-57, also includes definitions for what constitutes harmful material and indecent content, which led Democratic representatives to express concerns about overzealous bans on books. During the discussion on the House floor Monday, Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, pointed specifically to bill language requiring approved books to adhere to 'local community values,' which he said could lead small, vocal groups of people to limit students' book access. Talarico said titles often taught in public schools — like Catcher in the Rye, Lonesome Dove and the Bible — could end up banned under some of the bill's vague and subjective interpretations. 'If your answer to 'could Romeo and Juliet be banned,' if it is anything other than 'of course not,' then that is a serious problem,' Talarico said. Rep. Erin Zweiner, D-Driftwood, also worried the bill could lead to overly broad book bans. 'What is indecent for a 17 year old is not the same as what is indecent for a five year old,' she said. Rep. Brad Buckley, the bill's House sponsor, called community values the 'bedrock' of public policy, and the Salado Republican dismissed potential removal of classics as a 'red herring' argument. 'A speaker before me said we should cherish the value of books. Well, maybe so, but I would argue we should cherish and value our kids more, and Senate Bill 13 will do exactly that,' Buckley said. Representatives supportive of the bill said SB 13 would give parents better control over what materials their children can access.' About 16% of complaints about school library books last year were initiated by parents, according to a report from the American Libraries Association, while 72% came from elected officials, pressure groups and board members and administrators. Several amendments by Democratic representatives aiming to loosen the bill's language on profane content failed. An amendment by Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, which also failed, would have lowered the threshold to petition the creation of an advisory council to 50 signatures from parents, and would have required that the councils only be made up by people who signed the petition. The bill would also extend regulation introduced by a law passed in 2023 aimed at keeping 'sexually explicit' material out of school libraries. House Bill 900 was partially blocked from implementing a book rating system by a federal appeals court. Opponents of the bill have worried not only about restricting book access, but also about the administrative backlog that having to approve each new library book could create. School boards will have 90 days after complaints on each book are filed to reach a decision on whether to add, keep or remove material from school bookshelves. Roughly 540 books were banned in Texas schools during the 2023-24 school year, according to PEN America, an organization that has tracked book bans throughout the country. The bill, one of Senate leader Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's listed legislative priorities, now heads back to the upper chamber to be approved. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
CTV News
27-05-2025
- CTV News
Alberta creating guidelines around school library books
Edmonton Watch The province is creating guidelines for school libraries after it says books with graphic sexual content were found in schools. CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg reports.
