Advocates for delisting library books are now questioning the content on D11, some targeting materials that include LGBTQ | tidings
As Moms For Liberty executives scoured the Colorado Springs School 11 libraries for links filled with hundreds of book titles for “pornographic material,” Courtney Hertner, a D11 parent, says she got a “summary” of disbelief that parents conservatives and their lawyers run the teachers, librarians and the public school system in general.
The mothers gathered at the Ruth Holly Library in early November for a biweekly meeting of the D11 Achievement Alliance, a group formed in June that is focused on “academic achievement and parenting,” as spokesman Joel Sorensen says. “Parental rights” is a term coined by conservatives to mean parents’ assertion of control over what is taught in public education, often overriding the decisions and expertise of school staff. Moms For Liberty supports the priorities of the conservative D11 Board of Education members, who became the majority of the board in the 2021 election on a wave of “dark money” channeled through the nonprofit organization Colorado Springs Forward.
About five non-Alliance members came to the meeting to learn exactly what the group discovered in the school libraries. He had sent a mass email, claiming, “You have a right to know what pornographic material is available to your children, grandchildren and children in your neighborhood.”
Hertner, a member of Neighbors For Education (NFE), the pro-education and public equity organization based in D11 and School District 49, attended for the same reason — she wanted to moderate discussions ideologically opposed to NFE. But she left feeling the “scary and sad” reality that a segment of the community is very suspicious of school staff.
“I really believe it’s not about the books—the books are a symptom,” she tells him Indy. “I really think it’s because they don’t trust the school system.
“It really felt like, ‘We just don’t trust teachers to do the best for our kids,'” she adds. “[As if] teachers will go into the library, pull these books from the library, push them to our kids and say, “Don’t tell your parents.”
For Hertner, the meeting was also a glimpse of what may be on the horizon at D11: formal “book challenges” aimed at removing certain titles from school libraries. Her concern is that LGBTQ-inclusive perspectives are often targeted for exclusion. Books with anti-racism and black history themes have also recently been challenged in Academy School District 20.
Sorensen, a UCCS sophomore who was a student in D11 and D20, claims the Alliance is focused only on “sexually explicit content” — including graphic depictions of intercourse, rape or masturbation. He says the group is “unequivocally” not trying to target LGBTQ materials simply for their LGBTQ content, and tried to distinguish the Alliance’s efforts from those of Moms For Liberty – El Paso County.
That chapter, says its co-chair Darcy Schoening, is organizing against materials they claim are “focused on LGBTQ indoctrination.” (Anti-LGBTQ groups and politicians see “LGBTQ indoctrination” as the presentation and discussion of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender sexual orientations and identities in schools, including content that includes LGBTQ history.) Schoening is based in the Lewis-Palmer School District 38 and the two leaders who were at the Alliance meeting are parents of D11. (They both declined an interview with Indy.)
The binders, which were distributed to both groups, are filled with “book reports” from BookLooks.org, a Florida-based “concerned parents” organization that reviews titles for “objectionable content,” according to its website. The reports include a “summary of concerns” and excerpts from the books.
Sorensen claims the links include titles that have been verified to be in D11 libraries by an Alliance member. (That member declined to be identified or to speak to Indy.) Titles available in any school library are searchable online through Destiny Follett, a digital library tool used by D11.
An example that the group withdrew is Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and illustrated by Jules Scheele, which is available at Palmer High School and features cartoons of women in bondage and domination-style clothing and people having sex (breasts, but no genitalia, are depicted ). The book is described by the library’s online catalog as an exploration of “how we came to see sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas mesh with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology, and sexology; and how these views have been challenged and challenged.”
Hertner says another title was flagged for “alternative sexual orientations” — that is, LGBTQ content.
She noticed in the binders of the Alliance Drama by Raina Telgemeier, a book about a fictional show that discusses bisexuality and being gay. That book is intended to contain “alternative sexualities and sexual activities”. BookLooks.org say.
“I get the concerns about ‘pornography’ and ‘obscenity’ — to me, that’s a bucket list issue,” Hertner says. “But ‘alternative sexual orientations’?” Aren’t we past that? We have lots and lots of kids who identify in ways that aren’t heteronormative in our schools, and they need to see representation in their books, too. It makes me really upset.”
The local Moms For Liberty chapter is going even further, trying to remove material deemed “progressive” and LGBTQ inclusive, Schoening says. Indy.
“It’s being perceived as propaganda and indoctrination when it comes to gay cartoons in the library, rainbows everywhere,” she says. “This is not about inclusiveness; that crosses the line into propaganda.”
Asked what that line is, Schoening says, “when you’re actively encouraging kids to participate in the lifestyle or describing it as ‘cool,’ you’ve crossed the line into propaganda.”
Sorensen tried to distance the Alliance’s efforts from Schoening’s comments.
“I would emphasize in the strongest possible terms that progressive activism and LGBT content that is not sexually explicit is not what we are discussing here,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the Moms For Liberty group other than knowing who they are.”
Hertner is also looking to the D20 as a signal of what the D11 may soon achieve.
A slew of book challenges are currently going through committees at D20, which has been at the epicenter of contentious “book ban” debates since early October. They came after School Board President Tom LaValley made a video encouraging parents to “walk around the school library” looking for “objectionable material.” Indy reported at the time.
An old D20 librarian told him Indy then that the volume of book challenges in the district has increased over the past two school years, and many staff members saw LaValley’s comments as an affront to parents.
Sorensen is also vice president of Advocates for Children D20, which has the same goals as the Alliance, but he says he had no hand in the book’s challenges there. However, that group expressed strong support for LaValley and his comments in the video, arguing that he was supporting “parental rights.”
“You can have concerns, as a parent, that are completely valid, and not be an attack on a librarian or a teacher,” says Sorensen. “I think you can be concerned about certain content in a school library and still have respect for the librarian.”
The latest at D20 is that the Board of Education rejected the removal of two titles on themes of anti-racism, activism and resistance, and how black Americans have been targeted by racist laws and policies throughout US history. Both books were allowed to stay in the Chinook Trail High School library.
Several D20 board members claimed that the books — How do I resist? by Maureen Johnson and We are not equal yet by Carol Anderson — had “prejudice” and they directed district staff to add books to the library that offer “an alternative or different perspective” to those on the challenged books.
As for D11, Devra Ashby, chief communications officer for the district, says in an email that there have been no formal requests to remove books from D11 libraries during the 2022-2023 school year. The District calls them “Library Media Review Requests.”
Sorensen says the D11 Achievement Alliance doesn’t yet have concrete plans for the book’s challenges. For now, they’re focused on making as many people as possible aware of the content the group is objecting to, he says.
D11 Superintendent Michael Gaal tells him Indy he is trying to remain “apolitical” on this issue. He notes that the “reconsideration” process is available for book challengers to use if they wish – it’s part of a board policy and regulations around Library Media Selection – and he’s pleased that the path is available.
But Gaal believes efforts by individuals or groups like the Alliance to remove some books are “misguided”, given the vast amount of information accessible to out-of-school children these days. Parents concerned that their children are consuming “offensive” content should look to the internet, social media and television, he says.
“I find it very ironic that we have parents pulling books off the library shelves,” Gaal tells her. Indy. “If you’re worried about access to information, you’re looking in the wrong space.
“If you really want to go down that road, attacking school libraries won’t change access to information you don’t want your child to have,” he adds. “It is the world that has changed. It’s not the school library.”
Sorensen says, “you have to start somewhere.”
“I would accept that there are other avenues that these children can access [the content], and it’s a real shame because I think it’s harmful to these kids psychologically,” he says. “Anything we can do to help mitigate this in some way is worth pursuing.”
Ultimately, if a challenged book resides in a D11 school library it may result in a board decision (as it did in D20), if school-level and district-level decisions on the matter are appealed, according to the school’s selection policy. library media.
A request for reconsideration first goes through a school-based committee, made up of staff members and “citizens from the school community,” and chaired by senior-level school staff, states the policy, which was updated to last time in December 2020. If a majority of them rule the decision is appealed, the challenge will then go to another committee with members from a wider group of staff and community, and a chairman from the county administration.
The process is an inexhaustible resource, commented Heather Cloninger during two regular D20 board meetings in November. She has been against book challenges and wears a “Read Banned Books” button at meetings.
“I feel like we’ve wasted a lot of money and time,” Cloninger said, “on something that shouldn’t have happened.”