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TO BORROW A PHRASE FROM THE EASD SUPERINTENDENT,
HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT:

Parents in the Elkhorn Area School District (Elkhorn, Wis.) received an email on
Dec. 5, 2023, detailing a “challenge of materials from a parent to reconsider
the use of 163 books at the middle school and 281 books at the high school.”

The full list of challenged materials is available here.

The email went on to list the next steps that the school district will take in
response to this “challenge:”

 * Per policy 361 rule, the books will be temporarily removed from circulation.
 * Principals will review these books, render their decisions, and respond
   accordingly.
 * Upon completing their study, the principal shall stipulate “continued use,”
   “discontinued use,” or “restricted use” of the materials involved, which
   shall be effective immediately.
 * Principals have been directed that when evaluating a challenged book for
   grade level appropriateness, they use Common Sense Media, Barnes and Noble,
   and Amazon.com for age-level ratings.


WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

These types of challenges are typically put forth by groups connected to “Moms
for Liberty.”

In their own words:
“Moms for Liberty welcomes all that [sic] have a desire to stand up for parental
rights at all levels of government.”

From its founding in Jan. 2021, the group has grown to 285 chapters in 45 states
with a membership of more than 115,000. The group also boasts massive growth in
annual revenues in the nearly three short years of its existence - $2.1 million
in 2022, up from $370,000 the year before.

While the group's claim to stand for parental rights is a noble one at face
value, it often does so in a way that infringes upon the rights of parents and
individuals who don’t directly fall in line with all of its views.


THEIR TACTICS

There are some important things to know about how these groups go about a book
ban.

 1. They’ll say “it’s not a book ban.”
    One Moms for Liberty Chapter in Iowa even created a website called
    itsnotabookban.com, claiming “This is not an exhaustive list by any means,
    but we hope it gives a clearer picture of what we are addressing in Iowa...
    and it's not To Kill A Mockingbird.”
    
    They claim they’re only going after the most explicit, most obscene books,
    not books with literary merit, like "To Kill a Mockingbird." But the list of
    challenged books provided to the EASD suggests differently, with books like
    “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Color Purple,” “The Things They Carried,” “A
    Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and more – 444 books in total.
    
    They will often cherry-pick extreme examples from books – some of which are
    taken out of context, many of which come from materials not even available
    in the specific school library of which they are trying to ban – and they
    will use these examples as justification to push through the banning of all
    the books they list.
    
    Another Iowa chapter laid out its tactics in a 111-page document, in which
    it highlights a suggested rating system (created by the group itself).
    Again, it appears as though this group has appointed itself as the arbiter
    of what constitutes appropriate content for ALL students and families, not
    just their own.
    
    
 2. They’ll say “we’re not banning anything, we just want them removed. If you
    want your child to read that book, they can get it at the public library or
    buy it.”
    But the removal of books from the school library effectively equates to a
    ban for a lot of families and students who don’t have the ability to access
    (because of time/travel/etc.) the public library and who don’t have the
    means to buy books.
    
    Additionally, this argument is a two-way street: If you DON’T want your
    child to read those books, then don’t let them. We should be empowered to
    decide what content our children should be able to access without limiting
    that ability for other students and families.
    
    
 3. The removal of book fairs.
    Recently, an Oklahoma chapter of Moms for Liberty put out a news release
    calling for an end to Scholastic Book Fairs in public schools, claiming that
    the fairs are “a regularly occurring conduit for inappropriate books into
    schools.”
    
    This same tactic is being used in districts across the U.S., and will
    presumably be suggested in Elkhorn.
    
    But even more telling is this part of the news release: “We encourage school
    board members to look further into finding an alternative for their district
    and implementing a replacement as soon as possible.”
    
    Moms for Liberty runs a foundation called “Moms for Libraries” that boasts
    partnerships with a number of "Moms for Liberty"-approved publishers and
    offers direct links to purchase their books, as well as opportunities to
    support the fund monetarily.


LINKS AND RESOURCES

The full list of challenged materials at EASD.

Red Wine and Blue Parent Playbook

NCAC Kids' Right to Read Action Guide

EASD School Board Meeting: Monday, 12/11/23, 6 p.m.

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