The Daily - When Book Bans Came to Small Town New Jersey

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

This episode contains strong language. In the contentious debate over who controls what happens in America’s schools, a new battleground has emerged: library books.This is the story of what happened when parents in one town in New Jersey tried to remove a handful of books that they said were explicit and sexually inappropriate — and the battle that ensued.Guest: Alexandra Alter, a reporter covering publishing and the literary world for The New York Times. Background reading: As highly visible and politicized book bans have exploded across the United States, librarians — accustomed to being seen as dedicated public servants in their communities — have found themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and their personal reputations at risk.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. In the white-hot debate over who controls what happens in America's schools, a new battleground has emerged. The books that sit on library shelves. Today, my colleague Alexandra Alter, with the story of what happened when parents in one town tried to remove a handful of books that they said were explicit and sexually inappropriate, and the messy battle that ensued.

It's Wednesday, December 7th. Alexandra, tell me about Martha Hickson. Martha Hickson is a high school librarian in Annandale, New Jersey, which is a small town near the Pennsylvania border. And when I spoke to Martha on the phone, she told me she's been a librarian for about 18 years now. So becoming a librarian was not always my life plan. The first half of my career, I was in corporate public relations for AT&T. And after the events of September 11th, I did kind of an inventory of my life. And I always had in the back of my mind that I would

like to teach and work with kids. I wasn't able to have kids of my own, and I really felt that was a piece of my life that was missing. And so I looked into librarianship. And one of the things I love about being in a library, especially a school library, is it's kind of a refuge for kids. She's somebody who sees her library as a resource for her community, not just for what they read, but as kind of a sanctuary for people. You don't have to read if you don't want to when you come in the library. I just want you to relax and feel comfortable. But, you know, on the literary side too, reading is something that they can enjoy for a lifetime. And I really wanted to help kids find that enjoyment. And I think another thing that librarians provide is,

you know, a reflection of the communities that they're serving. Can you tell us a little bit about your school community and what the students are like? So it's been very interesting to see the school community evolve in terms of its demographics. We have definitely seen a growth in our diversity in terms of people of color. I've also seen more students who are describing themselves as somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum. My goal is for every kid that walks in the door to be able to find themselves on the shelves. So as the school librarian, it's Martha's job to choose the books. And like many librarians who are curating collections, she looks at a wide number of sources and factors when she's choosing which books to include. She has a master's in

library science, so she's studied this. And then she consults places like the American Library Association. She looks at book reviews. And she's also thinking about, you know, maybe some adult books that, you know, teenagers who have a wider range of interests might want to see. So really, it's her responsibility to choose what's in the library. So during the height of COVID, the library had been shut. And so Martha was really excited to return to a full school year when everything would be back to normal. But then... It was a typical day in the library. Just after school started in the fall of 2021. At noontime, I was sitting right here, right here.

Her world was turned completely upside down. And it was a Tuesday. And my principal walked in and said that he had a rumor that there was going to be a complaint about a book at that evening's board meeting. And I went home that night. And the board meeting starts at seven o'clock. It was going to be live streamed as they typically are these days.

And instead of watching Jeopardy, as I usually do at seven, my husband and I, you know, I told my husband, oh, this weird thing happened. Let's watch the board meeting. The North 104 East Regional High School District of Board of Ed meeting on Tuesday, September 28th, 2021 is now And the usual boring board business began for about an hour. They went through their usual agenda. And then came the time for public comments. And a parent stood up and started ranting about Blonde Boy. Page 230. I can't believe you, Gobble. You're insane. We sucked each other's dicks. Page 231. This is bullshit.

And genderqueer and was upset about both books. Here are some illustrations taken from another book, Genderqueer, by Maya Kobati, that is also available to check out. They had just cherry-picked these words and passages out of the books, completely stripped them of context, and served them up on a platter and said, isn't this awful? Then she started in on me. As a matter of fact, Martha Hickson, our school librarian, remarked to my son as he was checking out the books, quote, I love that book and whoever wants to read it has very good taste, end quote. How dare I check out, you know, this book to her son. Explain to me how this perversion enriches or benefits the young minds of our students or anyone for that matter.

On the contrary, this amounts to an effort to groom our kids to make them more willing to participate in the heinous acts described in these books. And in the process of doing that, she labeled me a pedophile, pornographer, and groomer of children. It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult. Those not familiar with pedophilia methodology need to understand what grooming is. Those responsible for this disgusting immaterial in our schools should be required to step down, investigate it, and charge accordingly. Thank you.

You often hear this phrase, you know, my jaw dropped. My jaw literally did drop. I was like, I looked like a fish with my mouth open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Why is this being jammed in our children's throats in the name of peace, equality, and equity? This needs to end today. Thank God. And then several other parents got up to reiterate their concerns about all things library and librarian.

I could not look at those pictures. We imprisoned the pedophiles and teaching that to our children? Amen. We are here now. We are not going to stand here to let this happen. It was definitely a what the hell moment. And did we really just hear that? And oh my God, I can't believe it. And this started making the rounds on social media too. It was humiliating. So what exactly had just happened? So this seemed to come out of nowhere for Martha, and she was really blindsided by it. But the debate that happened in Annandale is

something that we've been seeing happening in school districts all over the country, and it's not come out of nowhere. Explain that. So as you know, during the pandemic, schools were shut down across the country and millions of kids had to learn at home. And a lot of parents were really upset about COVID policies, school closures, but also mask mandates. Right. And we started to see parents forming grassroots organizations and teaming up to oppose COVID restrictions. And from there, a lot of the parents in these groups started paying closer attention to what was being taught in school curriculums. And they were upset about things like how schools were teaching about race and gender and sexuality. And we saw these groups

starting to coordinate with one another, and it's really kind of coalesced into a pretty widespread national movement with a lot of support from conservative donors and politicians that defines itself as the parental rights movement. And in the last few months, especially in the last year, we've seen a lot of these organizations turn their focus to books, what books are in the library, what books are appropriate for students. And they found really effective tactics that they are sharing with one another. Some groups have lists of books that they post online with excerpts of passages that they see as explicit or problematic. Some of the groups urge their members to go to school board meetings and read excerpts of these books aloud and kind of make a big scene.

And, you know, that's pretty similar to what happened in Annandale. The books that parents complained about in Annandale are the same ones that we're seeing getting objected to across the country right now. Okay, so tell me about these books that are being cited over and over again, especially in meetings like the one in Annandale? Well, there are quite a few of them, but one that we see getting challenged over and over again is a title called This Book is Gay. It's sort of a guidebook for coming out and embracing your sexual identity, and it's written in a very casual manner, and it's geared towards young adults. Another one that's been challenged all over the place is Genderqueer. It's a memoir and a graphic novel that explores the author's

experience of being non-binary. And another one that has been widely, widely challenged is a novel titled Lawn Boy, which is a coming-of-age story about a young man discovering his sexual identity. which is a coming-of-age story about a young man discovering his sexual identity. Right. The pattern here seems pretty clear. All these books deal with being gay or bisexual, transgender, and the question of self-acceptance. Exactly. And, you know, these books all feature LGBTQ themes and characters.

And in some cases, you know, many of them have pretty explicit sex scenes. And these are the books that came up at the meeting in Annandale that parents were so upset about. And I actually met a parent who was listening to that same meeting that Martha was watching. I was putting my daughter to bed. So I had an earbud in one ear while I was listening, especially while the passages were being read. I did not, I think I had it on speaker and I immediately took it off. A parent named Caroline Liquinco, and she read aloud some passages to the board and I was shocked. Can you say a little bit about just what was shocking about it? Well, I think it was the shock value with the passages from Lawn Boy that definitely

caught my attention. When it was described as a 10-year-old performing oral sex on someone, that was incredibly disturbing. And I think that's as much of a red flag as any parent needs. So she says this is the first time she's ever heard about these books being in the library, and she decides to start investigating on her own. And what should we know about Caroline? Caroline is married and has three kids and has lived in Annandale for six years with her family, and she's a full-time law student. Our schools have a digital library available as well as the in-person access. So I was able to find out, you know, specifically what books were available. And the one that was most concerning to me was This Book is Gay.

And one of the books that is particularly upsetting to her is This Book is Gay, which does have a chapter that deals with sex and sexual subjects, although that's not by any means the whole context of the book or the whole content of the book, but Caroline is really disturbed by it. And actually was able to check it out supposedly under our 14-year-old's username. And I literally sat down and read the whole thing and I screenshot page after page after page after page. And, you know, because she's a law student, she starts to look into New Jersey statutes around obscenity and things like that.

And she starts to believe that these books might not even be legal to have in the library. And that's been my question this whole time, that if a neighbor walked over to my house with this book and showed it to one of my minor children, they could be criminally prosecuted. Hmm. And does that line up with New Jersey's laws? Well, not exactly. She's right that New Jersey has obscenity laws, but there's a shield law that protects librarians for the books in their school. And also, in order to meet the definition of obscenity or pornography, the works in question are supposed to be totally devoid of any artistic or educational or political or scientific value. So most people, when they looked at a novel like

Lawn Boy, for example, would say, there's a story being told, there is an artistic purpose. You know, there is an explicit sexual scene, but it's not the bulk of the narrative, and there's a lot else going on. But the legal question is just one piece of what's animating Caroline. I just didn't think something like that could slip through the cracks like it did. What's really disturbing to her is the extent to which she feels like parents aren't being listened to. And, you know, maybe the school doesn't have her children's best interests at heart. So she really feels like the system is letting her down. So when I heard some of the passages of what that parent read, that's what got me looking into the issue and saying, what else is in the library?

Right. And it seems like the bigger question Caroline is really asking here is, why don't I as a parent have more of a say in what books are in my kid's library? Clearly, she doesn't trust Martha's judgment on that. So what do Caroline and other concerned parents do next? So after the meeting, a group of parents takes things a step further, and they file formal written complaints. These are objections to books that are filled out and submitted to the school. And some of them even ask for a full audit of the library. They want to know every single title in the library, which is tens of thousands of books in Annandale.

All in all, there were formal complaints submitted about five books. We've heard about three of them, Gender Queer, Lawn Boy, and This Book is Gay, which Carolyn actually submitted a challenge to. And then there were a couple more. There was All Boys Aren't Blue, which is a memoir about growing up Black and queer, and Fun Home, a family tragicomic, which is an illustrated memoir about a young woman who's gay.

Okay, so what ends up happening to these written formal objections that these parents submit? these written formal objections that these parents submit? So in response to the complaints, the school board creates a book reconsideration committee. This is standard practice across the country. This is what schools do when there's an objection to a book. There's a very formal review process. So in this case, they form a committee that includes an English teacher, a community member, the assistant principal, and the principal. And the job of the committee is to read the books, consider them, and review them, and ultimately make a recommendation to the school board about whether the books should be removed from the library or whether they should stay.

Got it. So this process is taking place behind closed doors and both sides decide to gear up and do what they can to influence the review and make their opinions known. So Martha reaches out to students, Caroline and like-minded parents are talking online, and both sides decide their best opportunity to be heard is at the next school board meeting. And so what happens at that meeting? So this meeting happened in October, and it was totally different from the meeting in September. A huge crowd of people showed up. They actually had to hold it in an auditorium to accommodate

everybody. And Martha watched the whole thing. Please line up along the wall if you'd like to make comments. The group that wanted to see the books go numbered about 30. We demand that the school immediately stop exposing our children to unnecessary, uneducational sexual content and protect these deserving students from unnecessary harm and triggers. And the rest of that crowd was there to say, Please listen to the opinions of students and let us keep our books. Hell no, you can't take these books away. They keep saying that school is no longer safe for their child. But where were they when it wasn't safe for us?

Kids, dozens of them, lined up to speak. My name is Jujep. My name is Becca Thomas. I'm a student at Voorhees High School. My name is Mr. DaCosta. I'm a freshman here at North from Lebanon. And they were incredible. Professional, poised, persuasive, prepared, all the p-words. LGBTQ plus books have really helped me come to terms with my own identity and sexuality and have helped me accept myself. I encourage anyone that is on the fence about this issue makes a vote to keep these books as they can truly help

a student who is in a difficult place in their life. That contrast between students who have a passionate belief about their right to read and parents and community members equally convinced of their right to remove students' ability to read these books, that contrast was pretty stark. So it sounds like at this meeting, the number of people who want to keep the books outnumbers those who want them removed. And that the voices of these students who say that this effort to remove the books feels biased seems to kind of emotionally at least carry the day. Martha clearly feels good about how this all went. I'm curious, how does Caroline feel about it?

So the parents who had come to the meeting to advocate for removing the books were pretty upset about how things went. Caroline especially was upset and angry about being associated with anti-LGBTQ sentiments. For the first meeting where she was raised in September, within 24 hours, people who support the books being in school had immediately switched the narrative, switched it from parents are concerned about obscene books, about obscenity, about vulgarity, about proclivity to this is an LGBTQ issue and parents are fighting LGBTQ books and parents don't support LGBTQ students. And that was and is a complete lie. How do you feel about the idea that students themselves want to be able to choose what they can read and they feel that their rights are being infringed on when those books are removed.

Well, I understand that having something to relate to, having a library book, stories, whatever it may be, it is important for students to be able to have access to resources that resemble them. to have access to resources that resemble them. But in a school setting, there are safeguards in place to make certain that what the school provides is safe material. Hmm.

But of course, all her concerns are about books that are focused on LGBTQ people. That's exactly right. And I think some of the people who spoke at the meeting are about books that are focused on LGBTQ people. That's exactly right. And I think some of the people who spoke at the meeting brought that particular argument up and they brought up examples of other books that have explicit sex scenes and sexual content that involves heterosexual characters

that are in the library and no one has complained about them. For example, John Green's Looking for Alaskas in the library, there's explicit sex in that book. And there's Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which deals with sexual assault in pretty explicit terms. And this is something that the speakers pointed out, you know, this asymmetry. The fact that all the books that people complain about are the ones with LGBTQ content. I wonder if it's possible that Caroline, as she's telling you, doesn't care that these books are focused on LGBTQ people or that isn't really her focus.

But somewhere along the way, it seems pretty clear that somebody did choose these four or five or six books to focus on because they objected to the fact that they were about LGBTQ people. That would be a hard coincidence to fathom. Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that these are the books that were challenged in Annandale. For the groups that I mentioned earlier, the ones that are operating under the banner of parental rights, a lot of them object to books with LGBTQ content, and it's often one of their main starting points. It's what they go looking for in library databases and encourage their members to submit challenges to. But it's not just the same books that we're seeing coming up in these meetings over and over again. It's the same rhetoric.

What do you mean? Well, it's not just objections to the books now. We're seeing a lot of attacks on the people who provide the books. And it's become very common to link providing access to these books, the ones with LGBTQ characters and themes, with grooming, which is an attempt to convince children to accept adults' sexual advances. And this is sort of an old trope, which is associating LGBTQ people or content with pedophilia, but it's coming up more and more in these debates targeting books and librarians. And we heard it in Annandale. A parent said providing these books amounted to grooming.

So I asked Caroline if she agreed with that parent. By providing material that is inappropriate to a minor and breaking down the natural walls that children are supposed to have to keep them safe, that is grooming. to keep them safe. That is grooming. When there's a library book that is talking about, hopefully, adults at sex parties or setting up grinder accounts to meet someone just for sexual reasons that's only, that's not natural. That's not natural for a 14-year-old to be looking at in school. And providing this type of information, that is absolutely one of the top ways that people who abuse, sexually abuse children, that is how they break into a child's naturally protective sphere. And so, you know, whether or not Caroline and parents who object to the books feel that they're part of that movement, that's the way the students perceive it. They feel that they're being targeted

and that books that reflect their experience are being singled out as obscene. Okay, so at this point, parents and students have made their case in these back-to-back hearings. This committee is coming to its conclusion. What happens with these books? So all anyone can do is wait for the committee to finish its review of the books. And the whole town has been following this issue. It's made headlines in the local news. It's all over social media. And everyone's kind of on a knife's edge waiting to hear what the committee will decide. And eventually, in January of 2022 2022 the committee does reach a decision about which books should stay and which books should go we'll be right back.

So, Alexandra, what does the school board committee end up deciding to do? Martha gets an email, and it has the review committee's recommendations in it. And then in late January of this year, on a Friday evening, I got an email that the board agenda for the following Tuesday had been posted. So I popped that open to see if there might be any news. And of course there was. The committee had decided that four of the five books could remain in the library, but on the board agenda was a resolution to ban This Book is Gay. The book they want removed is This Book is Gay because it does have information not just about safe sex, but about how to meet other people and hook up and things like that. And so the committee says this is not something that should be in the library. So overall, this looks to be a pretty big victory for Martha and those who are on her side.

I mean, four out of five books staying is a substantial win for her, it would seem. It would seem that, you know, the majority of the books are approved to stay, but Martha was really upset by this decision. I was like, over my dead body. That book in particular. I was like, you cannot.

There comes a point for me as a librarian where we're not talking about a book anymore. We're talking about the reader. And I know the kids who check these books out. And I admire these kids who check these books out. You know, you're 14 or 15 years old. You walk through a crowded library. You find a book on the shelf that is labeled in big block type,

as clear as day, this book is gay. It's got huge rainbow stripes on the cover. You carry it back through the crowded library to this 62-year-old old bag sitting in the front of the computer, who you hardly know, and hand it to her and say, I'd like to check this out. But I think in this day and age, especially when we hear what's going on in our board meetings, that takes a lot of courage for a kid to do. And I'm like, no way are you taking that book

away from those kids. And the school board meeting is held on Zoom and everyone tunes in. You know, Martha's watching, Caroline's watching. Parents, alumni, students, me, 14 or 15 of us spoke in succession and explained to the board why they could not do this. Parents, students, everyone wants to see how the board is going to vote. And in the end, there was a vote. Three of the board members abstained. Two of the board members voted to ban This Book is Gay. And seven said, it's going to stay. And it stayed.

They say, we're keeping all the books. Everything's going back to the library. Wow. And what was the explanation for that? So some of the board members who overruled the review committee said, we have a really high bar for removing books from the library. And this book doesn't even come close. There's educational value in it. It's not inappropriate for students of this age. This is a high school. They really said this is

not in any way obscene, pornographic, or illegal. And so it doesn't meet the bar for removing it. Were you surprised that it went the way it did? I was. And I really kind of held my breath during that vote. And when it was all finally decided, I broke down into like heaving sobs. And it's so trite to say it, you know, but it really did feel like a ton of bricks had fallen off my shoulders. I had been walking around with all this anxiety and tension for four months, and I could finally let a piece of that go. So this is now looking like a total defeat for Caroline. Yeah, she was pretty upset about it. I was absolutely flabbergasted and disgusted. I still can't comprehend why the board voted that way.

She was particularly galled that not only did the board vote against the review committee's recommendations, which she agreed with, but three board members abstained from the vote. And that was one of the most interesting parts of it, that those three board members could possibly abstain. And those board members were asked to explain why they abstained during the meeting. And they said, we didn't have enough information and we also don't have to explain. But I think it also demonstrates how hostile the environment was, that I don't think they felt comfortable voting one way or the other. And after the vote happens, Caroline's feeling pretty disillusioned and even disgusted with the whole system. She feels like she was ignored and other parents who voiced

objections were ignored and the review committee was ignored. I think that a lot of parents, you know, we don't think that we're really being heard on the school boards right now. And she makes a pretty big decision. I actually had a girlfriend ask me to run, I think it was July 23rd, and all the paperwork was due July 25th. So it was a very quick turnaround, but people asked me to run, and so I said, okay, I can do that. She decides to run for school board in the district where her youngest child goes to school. I speak my mind. I ask questions. I ask questions for parents who don't feel comfortable asking questions that maybe they hadn't thought about yet,

bumps in the road that they hadn't really anticipated. But certainly, I was expressing the same concerns as a lot of parents in our town. And she's really saying that she wants to be a voice for parents who are feeling like their voices aren't being heard or considered in the school board decisions. So what ends up happening in her race? Well, on November 8th, Election Day, she wins a seat on the board. And already she's thinking about what kinds of things she'd want to do as a board member. So the school, it's at Franklin Township School, is pre-K through eight. So it's not just elementary, it's middle school

too. As a board member, if there comes a time where we're looking to fill that spot. I think there will be a lot of questions asked of the librarian or that I would recommend asking. What kind of questions would you ask a candidate for the librarian position? Well, what standards they use when bringing in books, when bringing in books, what type of audits they run on the current inventory. So just a lot of questions of the how, how and why behind the scenes of a library. So Caroline, having felt unheard and ignored by her local school board, basically is now becoming the local school board in response. Exactly.

And, you know, while she came to that decision on her own, we're seeing the same thing happening coming out of the parental rights movement all over the country. A lot of these groups are funding campaigns for school board seats, endorsing candidates, and trying to get people who share their ideology onto school boards so that they can have more of an influence over everything from what's in the library to the school's policies. And one of the groups that's become really prominent and influential and has seen a ton of success recently in school board races is Moms for Liberty. This is an organization that was formed in Florida in early 2021, and they've quickly spread all over the country and backed hundreds of candidates. Just this year,

they've endorsed 500 school board candidates, and they've had 272 of those candidates win seats. Wow. And my colleague Elizabeth Harris and I have been reporting on how Moms for Liberty and other groups who have gotten activated around books have taken the reins on school boards and are now very quickly making really big changes. Keller, Texas, which is a district in and around Fort Worth. And there, a newly elected school board, which was backed by a conservative group, immediately passed this new rubric that restricts books on certain subjects and makes it easier to get books removed. And they also passed a total ban on any books that reference gender fluidity in any way, including from high schools. And that all happened in a matter of months. And then we recently saw in Berkeley, a county in South Carolina, where a newly constituted school board with a number of Moms for Liberty-backed candidates on it really quickly took action. They already banned the

teaching of what they call critical race theory or anti-racism, and they voted to start a committee to evaluate books and make new guidelines for how to remove anything that was explicit or inappropriate. And, you know, this kind of rapid change is happening in districts all over the place. So these forces of parental rights and proposed book bans are clearly ascendant. They're on the march. They won school board races across the country and are feeling, it seems, pretty emboldened. And, Alexander, that makes me wonder about the strategy of those like Martha who fought so hard to defend these books in a place like Annandale. I mean, Martha,

in the end, had a total victory in her battle to keep those five books on the shelf. But in retrospect, it looks like in the process, she may have, in a sense, lost the bigger war, because that victory helped fuel the successful candidacy of someone like Caroline, which will give Caroline pretty big and lasting power over which books are on the shelf. I mean, just to simplify this question, did winning some of these book ban battles end up costing people like Martha the bigger war over control of school boards? I mean, that's a really interesting question that I think a lot of people are asking right now. If the school board had voted differently and they had

removed a couple of those books, would it have taken some of the fuel out of the fire? And maybe people wouldn't have been as motivated to run for school board seats themselves. That's entirely possible. It seems like in a lot of districts where members of the parental rights movement are running for school board and winning, it's because, precisely like you said, they feel like they've been ignored and unheard, and they've lost some of these battles over individual books. And now what they're trying to do is change the entire policy, not just get a few titles off the shelves, but pass new rules about how you can decide what goes in the library in the first place. And taking, you know, a professional librarian like Martha kind of out of the equation or taking some of the control back from the professional educators and librarians

and putting it in the hands of the school board or sometimes the community. In some places, they're letting community members lodge objections to books, even if they don't have children in the school. So it's really changing the whole process. And I think it's largely motivated by some of those losses when they try to get a book removed and it gets returned. People feel, you know, pretty angry. Right. So what does Martha think about how all of this has unfolded, about the progress that her opponents and people like her opponents have made in these school board elections, and the fact that they now have so much more power and are feeling so much more emboldened. Yes, Martha is really worried about the future, even though this fight

went exactly as she hoped it would and all the books were returned to the shelves. She's really concerned about a growing number of book challenges to the shelves, she's really concerned about a growing number of book challenges and the fact that she's just seeing wave after wave of complaints about books. And she is particularly concerned because one of the parents who complained about the books in the library ran for the school board at Martha's school and won a seat. So she's really wondering, you know, the next time a book gets challenged, the next time the school board takes a vote like this, how is it going to go? I turn 63 in two weeks and retirement is within my grasp and I'm just trying to crawl my way to

that finish line. It's not the way I want to be, and it's not where I want to be in my career. I, up until a year ago, really, really loved my work, and it's harder to love it now. And in the course of our reporting, we've talked to librarians all over the country, and a lot of them say the same thing, that librarians are really exhausted and scared and tired, and they don't feel like this is what they signed up to do. They're finding themselves, you know, at the center of these ideological battles. And, you know, when people used to just complain about books and try to get books removed, now they're complaining about the librarian and trying to get the librarian fired, or in some cases jailed, because they've provided those books to children. So it's just become a really scary time for a lot

of librarians. And Martha, like many other librarians, is pretty fed up with that. Knowing the practicalities and realities of the world of education, I expect that they will hire a baby librarian, probably as young as they can and as cheap as they can. That person will then have four years in which they will not be tenured. And tenure has been a great protection in this situation. So for those four years, that individual will be at a great, great disadvantage. A lot of librarians who are looking at their catalogs or ordering new books, you know, might be thinking, do I want to get into one of these fights and be attacked? You know, why bother? If I'm going to choose between This Book is Gay and a more innocuous title, I'm going to choose the safer one and avoid the whole fight down the road.

Alexandra, thank you very much. Thank you, Michael. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. It is my honor to honor the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy. The people have spoken. In a closely watched runoff race for a Georgia Senate seat, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock defeated his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, a Trump ally whose right-wing policy positions and personal scandals appeared to

turn off the state's moderate voters. Warnock's victory means that Democrats will have a 51-seat majority in the Senate and will no longer need to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie-breaking vote. And on Tuesday, a jury in New York convicted Donald Trump's real estate business on 17 counts of financial crimes, much of it related to tax fraud, in a highly public rebuke of the former president and current candidate for the Republican nomination.

The conviction stemmed from a long-running scheme in which the Trump Organization gave off-the-books perks to executives, including fancy apartments, leased Mercedes-Benzes, and even private school tuitions, without ever paying taxes on any of the gifts. Finally, In the FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, Morocco became the first Arab country ever to reach the tournament's quarter-finals when it defeated Spain in a dramatic penalty shootout. Well, those pictures need no caption. Scenes of wild, wild joy for Morocco, who reached the quarterfinals for the very first time. Its victory touched off jubilant celebrations across both the Middle East and North Africa.

Morocco! Morocco! Morocco! the Middle East, and North Africa. Today's episode was produced by Eric Krupke and Sydney Harper, with help from Rochelle Banja. It was edited by Patricia Willans, fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Alisha Baetube and Marion Lozano, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is

by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.