[CASL-L] Powerful and well done statement from Guildford abt censorship and book banning

[Cathy Andronik]

 CASL,
Now that I'm retired, I think it's safe to tell my censorship story.  
For two years around 2007-2008, I had a co-librarian at my high school.  That she did not like me personally was no secret to anyone.  She was always looking for ways to make me or my work look bad to our administration.  Seriously, if I looked at her sideways she'd run to the principal to "tell." One day, a student returned a book and let my co-worker know that there were illustrations she was uncomfortable with.  I looked and concurred that the purchase had been an "oops" based on positive reviews that had left that little detail out.  We've all done it.  No problem withdrawing the book.  But . . . 
Of course my co-worker got the principal involved, because the book had been added when it was just me in the library.  The next day, my co-worker was combing through the entire fiction collection in search of other material she deemed inappropriate.  She delivered every book she personally disapproved of to the principal's office, where the "porn shelf" (teachers' name for it) grew and grew.  Gossip Girls--gone.  The Coldest Winter Ever--gone.  Push--gone.  (Somehow I managed to explain the empty spaces to the kids asking for those books without implicating my co-worker or the principal. I realized how smart those kids were when one girl stopped my explanation and said, "Miss, it's okay.  We know."  They just wanted to know I wasn't okay with it.) For reasons I will never understand, my colleague removed the novel Grendel, which I remember having to read when I was in high school, alongside Beowulf.  She missed a handful that I knew would be on her radar, so I combed the shelves myself one day in her absence and hid books in my desk.  Despite my having tenure, my principal was talking about firing me for making bad decision after bad decision, evidenced by all those "dirty" books.  ALA was not able to help me because the challenges were coming from inside--though they did promise to help financially if I lost my job as a result of censorship, which they agreed this was.  Yes, we had a dated, but serviceable, selection policy; the books in question met the criteria--even, technically, the one that started it all, since it HAD gotten a starred review.
I did not survive this on my own.  I will always be thankful for my psychologist, and for the meds that kept me from committing a murder.  : ).  Colleagues going through this, IT'S HARD.  Get help.
Administration looked a little more carefully into my co-worker's complaints. Not sure what happened, but she was not there when school began the following September, and was replaced by one of my favorite librarians in the world.  The principal retired after a bit, too.  I chose to stay in the job, even after all that, because I genuinely loved working with those kids--and because I'd built that collection, I knew what I had (even if there were one or two oopses that I took responsibility for and eventually weeded out).  
I guess my takeaway is that administration will not always be on your side when a book is challenged.  They may not care that you are following a selection policy.  And the students are your friends in all of this.

For them, we're still doing the right thing; be strong.
Cathy Andronik    On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 02:30:10 pm GMT-4, Laura Hedenberg <lhedenberg at barkhamstedschool.org> wrote:  
 
 I shared with my admin, including superintendent.  They all agree it was well done.
On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 12:33 PM Jenny Lussier <jlussier at rsd13.org> wrote:

Thank you for sharing Melissa! This is remarkable and I wish all districts would do a similar thing.
Jenny
On Tue, Mar 28, 2023 at 10:25 AM Melissa Thom via CASL-L <casl-l at mylist.net> wrote:

Good Morning,
I wanted to share this article with everyone that was shared with me--thanks Dave St. Germain!!
https://www.guilfordps.org/ourdirection/archive/march2023.jsp
It is a great model for anyone (all of us) who is working to get support from admin and spreading the word about the importance of freedom to read!!
Melissa

Melissa Thomshe | her | hers    What is this? 
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