C/- Literary Activism
Minnesota will likely be among the few US states where banning books has been banned. Senate File 3567 is part of the state’s omnibus education bill and includes a provision making the practice of banning books more difficult throughout the state and would require that all libraries adopt policies related to selection and reconsideration of collection materials. This week, the bill passed through both the state’s House and Senate and is on the Governor’s desk to sign.
The anti-book banning measures would apply to public libraries and public school library systems–SF 3567 defines public libraries to include both, as well as public institutions of higher education.
“Exposing young minds to a variety of perspectives, even those that challenge their own beliefs, is crucial for fostering social-emotional development as well as their critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” said House Representative Cedrick Frazier in a statement. Frazier authored the initial bill, House File 4373, which was then incorporated into SF 3567.
From the bill:
A public library must not ban, remove, or otherwise restrict access to a book or other material based solely on its viewpoint or the messages, ideas, or opinions it conveys.
Within that section of the bill, professional library workers would still be permitted to select materials appropriate for their collection, as well as to engage in weeding of outdated, incorrect, or materials damaged beyond repair. What it does is make it against the law to remove books based on the so-called “culture wars”–i.e., what we have seen nationwide relating to the unprecedented and enduring removal of books by or about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. This protects both the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of students, faculty, and staff in public schools and libraries, not to mention showcases a commitment to providing access to materials that reflect the diverse experiences of those entities.
The bill goes on to legislate that every public library must have policies and procedures in place that allow parents or guardians to not only opt their children out of specific materials but which also allows them to challenge materials. This is good, as it is part of the First Amendment Rights granted under freedom to petition. That policy would be developed by the institution’s governing body (and it’s very likely most institutions already have them, but this codifies the requirement to have them).
Moreover, the bill would put the responsibility of handling challenges and complaints within the hands of the actual library professionals, which are defined in the bill itself.
(b) The policy must not impair or limit the rights of a parent, guardian, or adult student under section 120B.20.
(c) The policy must establish that the procedures for selection and reconsideration will be administered by:
(1) a licensed library media specialist under Minnesota Rules, part 8710.4550;
(2) an individual with a master’s degree in library science or library and information science; or
(3) a professional librarian or a person trained in library collection management.
Further, results of those challenges would need to be reported to the state educational authority. That information would include identifying information about the materials being challenged, which is helpful for tracking patterns in content or authorship being targeted. In other words, it’s a robust paper trail held by the state’s Department of Education.
Not only does this keep institutions accountable but it will likely have an impact on the biggest and least likely to be identified/reported on issue with book bans: silent/quiet censorship, or the removal and/or failure to acquire books on certain themes or topics by library workers due to fear around the potential challenges those items may face.
“In Minnesota, we are making sure our libraries and schools are a safe space for exploration and discovery, not places where knowledge is censored. Exposing young minds to a variety of perspectives, even those that challenge their own beliefs, is crucial for fostering social-emotional development as well as their critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” said Frazier.
It is very likely Governor Tim Walz will sign the bill into law. He backed the initial proposals early on in the legislative session. While this iteration is not as strong as the initial version, it still provides significant protections for these democratic institutions and those who use them throughout the state.
When signed, it will go into effect immediately.
Other states that have signed anti-book ban bills include Illinois, Maryland, and California. Several other states still have active bills on the agenda.
Also from Literary Activism
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Every school and public library has different policies and procedures surrounding book challenges, and the processes behind the way a book moves from challenge to banned or returned differs, too. This is why some institutions are much more likely to remove books than others — their policies are easy to maneuver or undermine if they have a policy at all.
One reason that a single woman in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, was able to get 444 books immediately pulled from the school district’s middle and high school was a poorly written policy. The policy changed one year prior, and it stated that a submitted book challenge form would lead to the immediate removal of a book while it was being evaluated by the school district administration. That right there gave carte blanche for submitting forms to get the books banned and overwhelm the district.
Moms For Liberty’s BookLooks has been a godsend for that group, similar to how RatedBooks has been such for No Left Turn in Education. These book review databases compiled by individuals with a lot of time and a lack of actual background in education, literacy, or libraries, are not based on any professional standards. They function as easy ways for book banners to submit the paperwork necessary to trigger book bans and review processes at schools and public libraries nationwide. That’s precisely what the book banner in Elkhorn did — she copied and pasted dozens of these “reviews” with her forms, doing little of the work herself to articulate her complaints. In schools across the country, this would be deemed academic dishonesty and cheating, with consequences for the student ranging from failing the assignment to being expelled from the institution.
For the adults doing it, though, it’s too frequently allowed books to be yanked from the hands of students.
Because people who don’t see these forms may not know what they look like once completed by the aggrieved, it seems worth highlighting a few examples. Certainly, it’s one thing to hear these concerned citizens offer up their moral panic as performances before school and library boards. But there is something especially egregious about seeing the lack of work or effort put into the forms they’re often required to fill out in order to trigger a formal review process. As you’ll see, the standards students are held to and the standards that institutional staff are held to are not those demanded of book banners.
These forms also show just how much the banners care about actual literature. “Bad author” or “damaged souls” is a meaningless critique and yet, it is being taken seriously again and again.
Hernando Public Schools (Florida)
In a recent school board meeting, many books were being reviewed as part of the formal process in the district. This board packet is enlightening — the example below is but one of the dozens in the packet from the local Moms For Liberty chapter. They’ve copied and pasted their own “reviews” with their complaints, and as is seen in several of the complaints, they’ve lied about the age appropriateness of the books.
Take, for example, Cory McCarthy’s Man ‘o War.
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“The book clearly shows a warning label for 18 years of age and up” is a flat-out false statement. You know where that “warning label” is? If your guess is on Moms For Liberty’s BookLooks website — again, not a professional review source — then you’d be right.
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The complainant is aware of reviews by “literary and/or authoritative critics” and lists…Goodreads 2022 as that. Goodreads is neither literary nor authoritative critics. It’s a social media site for readers to rate and review books based on their personal interests and desires.
The “Please see attached” related to the concerns over the book is, you guessed it, copy-pasted from BookLooks. This is the first of ten pages from the BookLooks review, ending in a count of profanities, which I’ve included for funsies.
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So not only did the complaint form lie about the age rating on the book, the board packet includes several actual professional reviews, including Kirkus’s glowing review and an additional starred trade review.
But in the end, the lies — and the homophobia and transphobia that actually underlie the complaint here — won. The book was removed after the board decided it was against the law.
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The above-linked packet is over 500 pages long, hundreds of which look exactly like this. They’re pages populated with lies about “age appropriateness” derived not from professional resources but from Mom’s own homegrown, agenda-driven database. Again, the complaints don’t even do their own work. They copy and paste.
Clay County District Schools (FL)
Clay County is home to Bruce Friedman, who is one of the most prolific–if not the most prolific–book banner in America right now. Bruce, who I’ve written about before, used my work here as a reason to then target my books in Clay County, where one of those titles was successfully removed.
Anyway, Bruce’s forms are even wilder than the ones in Hernando Count. Here’s one he submitted for 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac, which he successfully got removed from the district. This is a 10-page long document, so I’m including only a couple of screenshots, but you can read the full complaint here (the bulk of it are photo-copied pages from the text with passages underlined). If you’re curious, scanning the QR codes takes you to his database of thousands of books he deems inappropriate.
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Here’s the first page of a similar complaint lodged against Someday by David Levithan in 2022. “Bad author.” Super useful or professional insight as to why a book should be banned and inaccessible to an entire body of students, faculty, and staff in a school district.
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Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle/High School (New Hampshire)
A member of this district school board found my book Body Talk to be offensive. The board split their vote on keeping it — and ultimately did — but here’s a look at the form that a school board member filled out as her complaint. It certainly offers a lot of insight into why the book is inappropriate for every single student in the school doesn’t it?
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Not only does she offer absolutely no insight into why she believes the book should be inaccessible to the entire school, but she doesn’t even fill out the entire form. She can’t be bothered to consider the purpose of the book. She read several chapters, and that was enough for her.
Laurel School District (Montana)
The complaints for the books in this district at least offer a little more context in their written complaints. But you’ll be shocked to discover that they also play the “see attached” with pages from BookLooks. Note: while this is all public record because there is a personal address here for the complainant, I’ve elected to blur that out.
To give context of some of the handwritten notes on this one: the date at the top is the date it was reviewed by the board. The “spokesperson” language is about who showed up at public comment. You can read the full rundown of this book (and a couple other books!) in the board packet from February 2024, as it will also give insight into how each board member discussed the title. The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, below, was kept in the collection.
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If you’re in a library and haven’t updated your challenge policies since 2021, then it’s time to give it some serious consideration. Everyone has the right to petition against materials in a collection they don’t like — that’s a First Amendment right. But they shouldn’t be able to do so by simply copy-pasting the same language and decontextualized passages they can just grab from a website that has the sole purpose of protecting “parental rights” censorship.
