Censorship in School Libraries

Introduction

No librarians are more vulnerable to censorship attack than school librarians. The reasons for this are best seen by comparing school and public libraries. Public libraries are fairly well understood as places holding all sorts of materials for all sorts of readers, including adults, children, and teenagers. Their broad mandate gives them some degree of protection. In addition, many public libraries have strengthened their position by adopting an open-access policy. Open access makes all materials in the library available to everyone regardless of age. This means that the librarians do not interfere with patrons choosing and borrowing any materials that they desire. Such policy declares that librarians will not assume responsibility for a child's selection and use of library materials. This burden is placed back on the parents, who are generally required to sign a child's borrower's card acknowledging this arrangement.

Although this approach has been effective in discouraging censorship challenges in public libraries, it cannot be used by school libraries. Most school librarians sign teaching contracts when they are hired. Such contracts contain clauses specifying that all teachers act in loco parentis, that is, in the place of the parents. In the case of school librarians, this principle is taken to mean that librarians must assume responsibility for all the library materials that students borrow or read.

Censorship and Selection

School library censorship cases occur when the interests and rights of parents, teachers, students, and school boards come into conflict. The school resource center, unlike the public library, is seen as specifically intended for the use and instruction of children and young adults. There are differing views, however, about the nature of the educational process and the role of the school library in it. Some parents regard education as a process in which young people, like empty vessels, are filled to the brim with good things. The resource center, according to this model, ought to consist solely of exemplary materials. To include books in a school library is to endorse and sanctify them, according to this philosophy. (Guerrero, p. 12)

The alternative argument, that education is a process in which children are taught to think critically for themselves, and that this is best accomplished by exposing them to a wide range of materials, is often paid lip service but seldom embraced when political pressure comes. Parents often think that children should be protected from books that are seen as harmful, and that schools should transmit traditional societal values by bringing the best in classic literature to the students. Teachers, however, may wish to use novels and texts that are current, engaging, and sometimes controversial. School boards, for their part, must answer to diverse community concerns, and as a result, are frequently sensitive to complaints and are quick to remove offending materials. Students, caught up in the resulting controversies, may be offended by the way in which their freedom to read has been abruptly abridged by adults who ban library or classroom materials. In the center of such cases is the ...