Consider This from NPR - The Battle Over Book Bans Takes a Toll on Librarians and Comes at a Financial cost

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

As the battle over book bans in schools and libraries continues to play out in various states across the U.S., the toll it's taking on librarians is coming at a great cost — personally and financially.Many librarians are speaking up about fearing for their jobs and safety.Yet some conservative activists see the current fight playing out as necessary to protect children. NPR's Tovia Smith traveled to Louisiana where tensions have been flaring up — pitting librarians against book ban advocates in the local community.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. Okay, you've heard the titles. The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, stamped by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds, All Boys Aren't Blue, George Johnson's memoir. These are just a few of the many books that have been banned from various libraries and schools all around the U.S. These books tend to revolve around race and racism, sexuality and sexual identity,

or the experiences of LGBTQ people. Do we go back to the wholesome library or are we going to have these libraries that are pushing agendas? Michael Lunsford is executive director of the group Citizens for a New Louisiana. And conservative activists like him say the goal behind banning these books is to protect kids from what he sees as smut in the library. If they're going to use our tax dollars to put these sexually erotic books up and encourage kids to pick them up,

I don't think that's reflective of community standards. But as some people push to limit books in cities around the country, what's at stake is far more than just access for children to these individual books at issue. It's been this battle sort of for the soul of our library and for the principles that it represents. Lynette Mejia is co-founder of the group Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She says the current uproar over certain books is pushing librarians to a breaking point. I mean, we've lost so many good librarians. It's heartbreaking how many have left and continue to leave.

The pressures on librarians have become so intense, the American Library Association set up a kind of recovery room for librarians at its recent national convention, complete with stress balls, coloring books, and a therapist. They've been calling school librarians perverts, pedophiles, groomers. Minda Anderson, a school librarian from Texas, says she cried for 45 minutes as months of pent-up anxiety just came pouring out of her. That's really heartbreaking to think that someone could think that about me. It's hard not to take it personally. Consider this. The battle over books does come at a heavy cost. Beyond the mental health of librarians or the disappearance of some books from library shelves, there are other, larger costs, civic, financial, and human. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Friday, August 11th.

This message comes from NPR sponsor Organic Valley, a co-op of small organic family farms. Farmer Tyler Webb shares what being a steward of his land means to him. When I think of land stewardship, it's taking the opportunity to like slowly walk through your farm. To listen. To look for ways to work in harmony with our environment, with our ecosystem. Discover organic valley dairy at ov.coop slash ethically sourced. It's Consider This from NPR. As the fight over books continues to escalate across the country, so do its costs. We asked NPR's Tovia Smith to check out the toll it's taking on librarians and kids and the country.

And she began in one of the many states where skirmishes have been flaring up. Just a heads up, this story contains references to suicide and sex acts involving children. It's about a year since the start of what one librarian here calls the Troubles. That's when once boring library board meetings in Livingston Parish, Louisiana became bitter brawls over books some consider too sexual and harmful to children. More recently this summer, tempers continued to simmer after a tense board meeting. One board member confronted a conservative activist and demanded he stop insinuating that she's a groomer. He denied using that word, but made it clear he sees her as fair game.

You're now a public person, so you talk about what I need to talk about. It is a new normal. It's not just books under fire, but also library administrators, teachers, and long-beloved librarians. Around the nation, they're shouted down by parents, vilified on billboards, reported to the police, and fearing for their safety. I had an actual death threat. They were coming to get me. Click, click. School librarian Amanda Jones says she was targeted after she spoke out at a Livingston Parish library board meeting against what she called book policing, and her words were twisted online. This was, she advocates for the teaching of anal sex to 11-year-olds. She's pushing

pornography and erotica to 6-year-olds. And then the comments, we're going to put your fat, evil, commie pedo in the dirt very soon. Joan says she was terrified. I was hyperventilating. Like, I didn't leave my room for days. She ended up on medical leave, lost 50 pounds and chunks of hair,

and was so scared she started carrying a gun. Her case may be more extreme than most, but she's hardly the only one feeling the heat. It's scary. This is the first time I have not felt entirely safe in my job. This Livingston Parish librarian asked not to be identified. Because they will fire me in a heartbeat. In decades of library work, she says, she's never seen this kind of exodus, including even the library system's director and assistant director. It was like rats escaping from a sinking ship. We have lost some excellent people.

The new director of the Livingston Parish Library System, Michelle Parrish, says staffing is down nearly 30 percent. When you're in this environment and you have the choice to go to a place where it hasn't reached there, then why wouldn't you do that? I would if I, you know, if it were me. Librarians quitting here and around the nation are often doing so at great personal cost, like one in Texas who asked not to be named for fear of provoking the same backlash she was trying to escape. She says she left retirement money on the table because she just couldn't take it anymore. It was like

a dark cloud over me all the time to feel like an enemy, a groomer, all these things, and it just made me feel kind of sick all the time. Giving up what she considered her calling, however, brought its own pain. It's making me tear up because I just felt terrible grief, tremendous grief. Another librarian, Latasha McKinney, also had a hard time quitting her school in Oklahoma that she found hostile to LGBTQ and race-related books. I always thought that I would be the type of person who would just stay and fight. I wouldn't be the type to run. But McKinney says staying felt too big a compromise. Her grandfather was kicked out of a public library in the 50s because he was black, she says, and that's largely why she became a librarian. You know, for representation, for access, for, you know, and now we're going to remove some of the access to books.

And I was just like, no, I'm not. I'm definitely not going to be the one to participate in this. Something has shifted where you have a lot of people who, you know what, they're like, OK, this is it. This is where I get off, you know, and it's extremely concerning. It has a ripple effect on communities. Sonia Alcantara Antoine is national president of the Public Library Association. A recent PLA survey shows 73% of public libraries now cite staffing as their top reason they're limiting services. Libraries are more than just the books on the shelf. And when you attack libraries, you are ultimately jeopardizing everything that libraries do

in service to their communities. So right now we have closed the Dinamarca Ranch for Sundays. We are down quite a few million hours. That recent announcement in Livingston Parish means there are now no libraries open Sundays, much to the dismay of those looking for the air conditioning, the free internet, or the books. Megan Simmons and her three-year-old daughter were crushed recently after they set out for a much-hyped family trip to the library on a Sunday. We all got in the car and we were like, oh, let's get this book.

And then we made it all the way here and I was like, oh my gosh, the library is not even open on a Sunday anymore. So we had to turn around. I had a very upset child. I'm trying to find a nonfiction book on Sacagawea. Let me see what we can find here. Even when the library is open, patrons may be feeling the pinch. The Livingston Parish librarian who asked not to be named says people are waiting longer to find someone to help

them with a book or on the computers to file their taxes or sign up for unemployment. Because one person can't help 10 people at one time. I'll be with you in a minute. I'll be with you. So yeah, I feel it. It's a similar story a few states away for library director Allison Grubbs. She's in left-leaning Broward County, Florida. But because the state is a hotspot for book restrictions, she says people are too afraid to apply. So she too is cutting. We've had to close an entire computer center because we just don't have the staff. And then computer classes, finance, literacy, health education. And that's a tragic disservice to our communities. The ongoing battle over books is also costing libraries in real dollars as they spend countless

hours responding to book challenges, sometimes by the hundreds. Lisa Varga, executive director of the Virginia Library Association, puts the price at millions of dollars. You're talking about the admin who receives the request. You're talking about the FOIA officer who has to answer anything, the school board attorney, the superintendent, the principals, and all the library media specialists who then have to be flagged. This has a real cost. Those challenging the book see that as the price of protecting children, but others see greater risk in removing books, which could make marginalized kids feel more isolated or depressed. It really felt kind of personal, and it really saddens me. Thomasina Brown is a high school senior in Nixa, Missouri,

where an outspoken librarian was transferred away. Brown, who identifies as queer, says it was crushing to lose such a staunch advocate for LGBTQ-themed books, including one of her favorites about a girl discovering her sexual identity. She very well could have been me. And so when they called it inappropriate for children, it kind of felt like I was inappropriate as well. It's one of the reasons Amanda Jones says she decided to return to her school librarian job this year in Livingston Parish. Jones says a dozen or so LGBTQ students she's taught have died by suicide. There's together responsibility. You have to speak out.

Your silence is compliance. So when they want me to be quiet, I always say I'm going to roar. At the same time, Jones worries that the rising vitriol swirling around books will lead to violence. You know, what is this hate rhetoric inciting? I was scared that someone mentally unstable was going to come up to the school to get me

and in the process harm a child. On another level, some say what's ultimately at stake in all the brawling over books is nothing less than democracy itself. You know, Russia bans books. That's not what America stands for. Carolyn Foote, a retired librarian turned activist, worries about the slippery slope. You know, first, maybe it's books that have mature content, and then it's a book about race, and then it's a book about Billie Jean King because a parent didn't like that she was gay. And then it's, well, I don't like the

way that book talks about the police. You know, it just completely ignores the fact that we're a democracy with the First Amendment. Check them out. Put them right up here for me. I just need your library card. Thank you. You're welcome. Polls suggest a majority of Americans oppose book restrictions and want to protect intellectual freedom, as opposed to the smaller but strident faction of conservatives who say they want to protect kids from inappropriate content and ensure parents control what their kids read.

One of those conservatives is Livingston Parish resident Benny Renninger. That's what's wrong with the world right now is indoctrination. Somebody's trying to push an agenda, and you don't need things that are causing confusion, and kids confuse little minds. No one's trying to ban books, Renninger insists. It's just about ensuring they are age-appropriate. But he says he does believe all the furor over cultural issues

like this one is becoming an existential threat. If we're a nation divided, so you can't have civil debates, and we're going to destroy ourselves. Wait a second, this councilman comments, man. Civil discourse has certainly taken a hit in the Livingston Parish Council, where member Gary Talbert is one who's been blasted as something of a firebrand. In retrospect, Talbert concedes he may have stoked the rancor, and it is taking a toll. We politicize crap that doesn't need to be politicized. It's like, you know, all one way or all another, and there is no happy meeting. And so if we all listened, then I think that we would realize that people don't eat their kids for supper.

But in the next breath, Talbert's right in it, bashing some LGBTQ people as instigators. Yeah, there are times that I've been in New Orleans and the decadence parade was coming down the street and I thought, that s*** is just ridiculous. Some of the s*** they were wearing is not acceptable to be outside in any way. Community standards need to rule. Residents will have their say on whether they think libraries violate community standards when library funding comes up for a vote this fall. It seems that the most effective way to take care of issues

is with the purse strings. You know, you're not seeing the light, it's time to feel the heat. Conservative activist Michael Lunsford has spent years raising the heat in nearby Lafayette Parish and leading a stealthy but steady campaign that replaced board members he considered not quite on board. He's now using the same playbook to, quote, reset the Livingston Parish board. And as for librarians feeling the heat, Lunsford shrugs. I've gotten my fair share of death threats. That's just kind of how it goes. Besides, Lunsford says, librarians really shouldn't complain because they started it. I just would like to remind you, shots were fired by the other side. Besides, Lunsford says, librarians really shouldn't complain because they started it.

I just would like to remind you, shots were fired by the other side. These books are new. They haven't been there for 30 years. You know, we haven't had this book on how to perform sex acts on someone else. That's just nasty stuff. And all of a sudden, it's become a problem. And, you know, we'll say this far and no further. It may be the quintessential cost of polarization that it begets even more polarization. The point's not lost on many librarians fleeing for friendlier ground, that it ends up dividing the nation even more deeply into separate camps.

That was NPR correspondent Tovia Smith. And if you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 988. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges. Groundbreaking investments in neuroscience, climate change, Alzheimer's research, and cybersecurity mean IU sets new standards to move the world forward, unlocking cures and solutions that lead to a better future for all.

More at iu.edu slash forward.