The North Kansas City Schools Board of Education recently voted 3 to 2 to keep And Tango Makes Three on the shelves at Bell Prairie Elementary School, despite a parent’s request that the book be removed, reports School Library Journal.
I’m annoyed every time a children’s book with LGBT content is challenged, but I’m especially upset by challenges to Tango. It’s a true story, for heaven’s sake—and not the only real-life example of a same-sex penguin pair. Somehow, though, it has managed to be the most-challenged book in the U.S. for three years in a row, according to the American Library Association (ALA). It seems like it’s off to another good start, so to speak.
Expect many of the new books on the ALA’s just-out 2010 Rainbow List to be challenged in the coming year.
SLJ also notes that the ruling also motivated the school to expand a system whereby parents can view library card catalogs from home and restrict their own children’s reading material. Parents of middle school and high school students had access to the system; now parents of elementary students do as well. I think that’s a wonderful solution that allows parents to take responsibility for their own children without imposing their views on others. Schools elsewhere should take heed.
Bravo to the school board that voted to retain the book, especially in a state known for conservative views of education.
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3:36 pm
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Brian
on Jan 19th, 2010
@ 6:51 pm:
Just because something is true doesn’t mean it passes some people’s standards. Just ask Darwin.
Jen (yup, another one)
on Jan 21st, 2010
@ 2:53 pm:
Parent access to the PAC from home is an interesting solution, but not one without potential problems of its own. Many book challenges are orchestrated by outside groups and this system could make it easier for such groups to identify schools to target. They would have to find a school parent to work with them, but remote access would make it possible for the parent to check the catalog for a “hit list” or worse, to print out or download the catalog and share it with such a group. These things wouldn’t be easy, but home access makes it much simpler than if one had to physically enter the library to find the information. This is the reason that PACs aren’t accessible even to staff in my county. Lack of home access makes my day-to-day job tougher but I am glad the protection is there so my time isn’t wasted fighting book challenges (other than those that arise organically).
I’m also curious how the blocking mechanism works. Can the parent flag a book so that the circulation system will prevent the checkout? If that is true, I *would* like that capacity, although I’d want it restricted to library staff. We do occasionally resolve challenges and concerns by agreeing to limit a child’s checkouts according to the parents’ desires, but have no technological capacity to implement it and rely instead on feeble human memory.
I’d missed this in SLJ. Thanks for pointing it out.