The librarian who couldn't take it anymore

[sl8]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/florida-book-bans-school-rules/
(18 minute audio at link)

The librarian who couldn’t take it anymore

She loved books. And in a time of spreading book bans in public schools, that’s why this Florida librarian had to quit.

By Ruby Cramer
Photographs by Thomas Simonetti
Nov. 11 at 6:05 a.m.

Deep Reads features The Washington Post’s best immersive reporting and narrative writing.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — It was her last Monday morning in the library, and when Tania Galiñanes walked into her office and saw another box, she told herself that this would be the last one.
Inside were books. She didn’t know how many, or what they were, only that she would need to review each one by hand for age-appropriate material and sexual content as defined by Florida law, just as she’d been doing for months now with the 11,600 books on the shelves outside her door at Tohopekaliga High School.

Last box, and then after this week, she would no longer be a librarian at all.

[...]

That was before the school board meeting on April 5, 2022, when Tania watched parents read aloud from books they described as a danger to kids. It was before she received a phone call from the district, the day after that, instructing her to remove four books from her shelves. It was before a member of the conservative group Moms for Liberty told her on Facebook, a few days later, that she shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near students. It had been 18 months since then. Nine months since she had taken Florida’s new training for librarians, a mandatory hour-long video, and heard the state say that books in the library must not contain sexual content that could be “harmful to minors” and that violating this statute would result in a third-degree felony. “A crime,” the training had said. “Districts should err on the side of caution.” It had been seven months since she began collecting Florida’s laws and statutes in a purple folder on her desk, highlighting the sections that made her mad, and also the ones that could get her fired. Six months since she broke out in hives, since eczema crept up the side of her face, since she started having trouble sleeping and got a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication. Five months since she stood in her house crying and her husband said it wasn’t worth it anymore. He could work two jobs if he had to. “You need to quit,” he’d told her. Six weeks since the start of another school year. Five weeks since she had given her notice.

[...]

[scarletlib]

1. There really are no words strong enough to express my thoughts.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Denying books to anyone. Shutting the doors to learning and opportunities to expand one’s horizons.

Harm to children who may never realize what has been done to them by selfish politicians and other so called adults.

[Walleye]

2. And they are trying to protect children from information, children who probably know a lot more about the subject

Than they do. Kids will find stuff out, it’s their main job. Prohibiting it is a good way to make them want to see it. Do these moms for liberty really have children in school, I wonder

[GreenWave]

5. They should be rebranded as Moms Against Puberty.

[area51]

14. Or my personal fav,

Moms for Hitler.

[Lonestarblue]

6. I don't think it's about protecting children.

I would guess that every child of anyone in the Moms for Liberty groups or the parents who support them has a mobile phone where their children can access far worse content than they’ll see in library books and at younger ages. It’s a strategy to win elections for Republicans. Moms for Liberty did not just spring up overnight as grass-roots organizations across the country. It was heavily funded by right-wing sources and I believe was modeled on the women’s groups that were so successful in preventing integration and keeping Jim Crow alive for decades. Why else would those who started the organization show up at school board meetings to stir up anger and hatred when they didn’t even live in those states or counties?

Republicans are very good at finding ways to use fear and anger to create political agreement and get votes. I think their culture wars make be backfiring a bit on them as the results in Virginia showed. The large majority of parents still want public education, and they want their schools to have enough teachers and librarians. Republican attacks are causing too many to leave. Democrats need to highlight the damaging results of the Republican culture wars in their campaigns.

Edited to add this:

The article has these words the librarian used on her last day: “Lights out. Doors locked.”These words perfectly describe what Republicans are doing to public education and would make a great campaign slogan for Democrats.

[Mister Ed]

15. I would say that their object is simply to damage public schools.

I don't think their aim is so much to win elections for Republicans as it is to sow chaos and division in the public school systems in order to weaken and ultimately do away with public schools.

[drmeow]

17. That has been their object

for 50 years. They hate that uppity minorities and "white tr$$$" are proving to be just as, and often much more, intelligent than they are and that those groups might get a good free education. Education should be reserved for them (they wouldn't say "aristocracy" but boy oh boy do they have the same sense of privilege), as should the good jobs lording it over the peons. They should be at the top, period. It was actually one of the elements that most enraged them about Obama - he violated every aristocratic rule in their book!

[snowybirdie]

3. Wish I was a Millionaire

I'd buy lots of these books and park myself near a school and pass out free books for any student who came my way. This banning frenzy is damaging our kids!

[GreenWave]

4. And yet Inglis, Florida has a sexual connotation and they have yet to torch it.

I have to get my ancient Simon and Schuster unexpurgated hardback at my job, but AI assumes I meant something else and I cannot find it.

[niyad]

12. That got me curious, so I looked it up. Found two very different

slang meanings. First is Edinburgh slang for cocaine. Second is a town with one stoplight, two banks, several bars, and no jobs.

[GreenWave]

19. I am thinking that when I drove by that town, it had a testicular connotation.

I need my unexpurgated "Biblia". I will check it on Monday as I have it in the defunct (thanks AI ) area of my office.

[niyad]

20. I look forward to what you find out!

[GreenWave]

34. Hi Nyad, Sorry for the long delay.

It turns out the town is Ingle, Florida, not inglis.
Ingle is Spanish for groin.

[niyad]

35. Snicker. There is a community in CA called Los Banos. I

always wondered why anyone would name a town The Bathroom, but discovered the word also refers to a piece of agricultural land.

[GiqueCee]

7. My wife is a teacher....

... with a Masters in special ed, and more than 30 years of experience, so we keep a close eye on educational developments in Red states. Fortunately, we do not live under the yoke of a raging psychopath with an off-the-scale short-man complex, like Ron DeSepsis. As is so often mentioned when referring to the conservative clown show, when they tell you what they are, believe them.
Talk about projection, DeSepsis and his ilk are the ones doing the indoctrinating, BIG time. Dictating what people can read, and criminalizing any form of dissent, is authoritarianism on steroids. Republicans have always hated education and the critical thinking skills that are a result of it. Because anyone who can think for themselves can easily see through the malicious intent that underlies everything Republicans say, do, feel, or think, if you can call their reptilian reaction to anything they don't understand, thinking.
They have no intention or desire to do anything FOR people – unless they're billionaires with deep pockets who just love those tax breaks they don't need or deserve – they only want to do things TO people. Especially people with the temerity to disagree with their diseased belief system.
When watching the horror show on the Dark Side of the Aisle, especially in the House of Representatives, one can't help but notice that the weasels have taken over Toad Hall, so to speak, and they are wreaking havoc. If they aren't stopped, they will burn this country to the ground so they can rule over the ashes, as Sun Tsu so sagely observed in "The Art of War". The likes of Empty Greene, Matt Gaetz, and the rest of the depressingly long list of psychotic monsters that currently infest the halls of Congress, are irredeemably evil, and one cannot reason with them; the vindictive Old Testament God is on their side. Like their perverted idol, the Gangrenous Boil on the Ass of Humanity, Donald J. Trump, they are too invested in their own lies to ever entertain the notion that they might be wrong.
So gird your loins for battle, 'cause it's gonna get ugly.

End of rant.

[llmart]

11. Welcome to DU and...

great rant! It's been noted on DU quite a bit, but you've made a good point about the GOP's next step in their march toward fascism which is placing their types of people on school boards and library boards. It probably still flies under the radar of most voters, but that's what they are up to.

[GiqueCee]

31. Thanks...

... and there's no place quite like DU for up-to-the-minute news and in-depth analysis. It's my first stop every morning.
Now I need some in-depth LOL Cats!

[niyad]

32. The school and library boards are not their "next" step. They

have been doing this for quite a number of years now, starting, if I remember correctly, with the "stealth campaigns" in CA in the late '90's, early 2000's.

[niyad]

13. Welcome to our DU family. A righteous rant!

[GiqueCee]

29. Thank you...

for the welcome. It's wonderful to be a part of DU.

[calimary]

25. Welcome to DU, GiqueCee!

Glad you’re here and thanks for this “piece of your mind.” Seems more like the whole pie (or cake) to me, though.

A really great read!

[GiqueCee]

28. Thank you, calimary!

I have admired your contributions as well.

[Timeflyer]

8. Attacking librarians rather than gun sellers--it's not about protecting children, it's about power.

[gibraltar72]

9. My little hellhole is home to

Christstain Nationalist Hillsdale College. They have highjacked library board 2 employees and a grad. student. We have lost two very good library directors since they started their pogrom. The first Nazi appointed said they weren't banning books, they were curating. strangly one of the things they didn't want children to read about was 2020 election.

[llmart]

10. I feel for you living in that area.

Are your library board members elected or appointed by the township supervisor or mayor? I'm in Michigan and am not familiar with Hillsdale itself, but I've worked in libraries and been a nonvoting member of the board. I ask because I know in my area the library board members are appointed by the township supervisor. It's usually difficult to get people to be on a library board, especially if it's an unpaid position. If it's an elected board, I would suggest you run for a position next time it opens up.

[patphil]

16. Moms for Liberty aren't....for Liberty.

They aren't for freedom, except for their freedom to take away other people's freedom.
They should be called Moms for Fascism.

[Maraya1969]

18. These nitwits are making it harding on the children in these schools. Knowledge is power

Their kids will be at a disadvantage if they are not allowed to read, especially the classics. I remember reading that they took "the diary of Ann Frank" off the shelves. I'm wondering if they did that to prepare them to believe that the holocaust never happened? I know they don't want anything said that implies that white people are sometimes complete assholes. That's why they don't want to teach the history of this country and slavery and Jim Crow.

[gossome]

21. Weird

Weird. Why didn’t they quote the lines that the moms literally read word for word from the books or the pornographic images they showed? This site blocks when I post links to images from the “banned” books. I wonder why.

[Hekate]

23. Speak plainly, gossome. Tell us what you really think. If you agree with the Astroturf Moms...

…nothing stops you from quoting passages they read in those books.

I was 14 when I read the Diary of Anne Frank. I never got over the shock I felt at the foul, smutty, damaging ending — when young Anne wrote that she really believed that people are good at heart.

Keep on keeping on, and enjoy your stay.

[niyad]

33. What flavour pizza do you like?

[Hekate]

22. Angels weep

[Igel]

24. I'm a classroom, not a librarian.

Every year I'm called upon to be trained to proctor STAAR/EOC tests in Texas. Every year, I proctor at least one, solo.

Every year, I have to implement and abide by IEPs and 504s. This year, only about 20 of them for a total of 160 students. I know teachers with triple that for 160 students.

Every year, I get training in proper use of restraint, time-outs, I don't know what all. Then I proctor D-hall or Saturday school.

Why? Because this is my district's abiding by state law requiring them to train their teachers in the state law that governs all sorts of non-instructional practices and policies.

Many of these are felonies. Pretty much all violations have as a penalty revocation of my teacher certifications in perpetuity.

And each and every time I'm told the same thing--if you're acting in good faith and you simply screwed up, it will be okay. You made a mistake. It went wrong.

[vlyons]

26. RW culture wars don't want anything to interfer with Chistian indoctrination of children

They stupidly think that Jesus is coming back, and they will reign and rule with him

There is no invisible sky god, who waves magic wand to suspend the laws of physics.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. MFL -- Meddling Fascist Liars. I detest these book-burning Nazis.

[MichMan]

30. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but IMO some books should be banned from libraries

I don't think books about things like making ghost guns, building bombs, methods to commit suicide, or books promoting white supremacy, for example, should be available in libraries.

I guess the "no books should be banned" proponents will disagree.