Latest news with #schoollibraries
CTV News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Extended: Alberta announces new school library guidelines
Alberta's Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced the province's guidelines for school libraries on July 10, 2025. Nicolaides says the goal isn't to ban books, but to make sure only age appropriate material is available in school libraries.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rules for explicit books in Alberta schools on the way: education minister
Alberta Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides expects to have a ministerial order ready by the end of the month or early July, giving school boards broad guidelines for graphic and sexual materials in school libraries. The parameters would still leave room for independence, so schools and school divisions can manage their libraries in ways that work for them, Nicolaides told CBC News Thursday. But the goal is to ensure explicit content is inaccessible to elementary school students. "There's consensus and understanding that some material, that we should be cautious of what age it's available," Nicolaides said. "We do this in society in so many different ways that we have ratings for movies … based on sexual content, violence, all this other kind of stuff. So it's not an entirely foreign concept to how we govern our society." The minister spoke with CBC News about two weeks after a public online survey about school library materials closed. It was offered by the provincial government. The survey results, which were released Friday, suggest respondents were divided on multiple questions, including whether the government should set "consistent requirements" for school boards regarding how they select and manage school library materials. Respondents who identified as educators, librarians and as an "interested Albertan" are firmly against, data suggests. Parents, either with or without school-aged children, were more divided. Of the nearly 37,000 survey respondents identified as parents of K-12 students, almost half are cold to potential consistent requirements, data suggests. But 43 per cent are leaning in favour, and eight per cent are unsure. "Decisions about what goes in libraries need to be made by trained librarians and educators," said Laura Winton, past president of the Library Association of Alberta, a non-profit that advocates for public and school libraries alike. "There are already policies and practices in place in schools and school boards across Alberta to make sure that collections are age-appropriate, and there are also processes in place to allow parents to be involved," Winton said. "If they are concerned about material, they can request that their school reconsider that material and a dialogue will be engaged with them about that." Respondents were also divided about what age students should be able to access sexually explicit materials in school libraries, data suggests. Parents of school-aged children said students should be able to access such content at school libraries at some point, particularly by middle school or high school, results suggest. Yet, about two in five of the respondents with school-aged children feel students should never get to access it in school libraries. "That's an overwhelming consensus from parents to keep it out of elementary schools," said Jeff Park, executive director of the Alberta Parents' Union, an advocacy group. "That's a strong basis to at least start there." Nicolaides said last month that new rules would be coming, after parents raised concerns about four coming-of-age graphic novels, most of which show nudity and sexual 2SLGBTQ+ content, found in circulation in Edmonton and Calgary public schools. The minister also said at the time that the government isn't looking to ban books from schools, noting that it doesn't have that authority. He reiterated that while speaking with CBC News Thursday. "I don't think it's really helpful or beneficial for government to start saying, 'This book, this book, this book, this book,' just because of any particular commentary that an individual government official might find offensive to them personally," Nicolaides said. "What one person finds offensive, another person might find enriching. But again, I think we can agree on some really high-level parameters, which are very simple: don't show graphic sexual material to underage children." The Alberta government will use input from the survey, plus feedback from education partners, to develop the school library standards, according to a news release issued Friday afternoon. The government published two sets of survey results: one raw, the other cleaned up. The raw version contains nearly 197,000 responses, but the clean dataset cuts it down to about 77,000 responses. There were signs of possible abuse, Nicolaides said, such as bots or many responses coming from one IP address in a short period. A CBC News analysis found that, of the many exclusions, only 1,000 of the respondents who identified as parents with school-aged children were cut. Most of the exclusions affected responses from alleged school administrators, teachers and librarians. The survey suggests further division around questions like how libraries should handle such materials, and who the authority is that determines what content is age-appropriate. About seven in 10 respondents with school-aged kids agree that parents and guardians should have a role in reporting or challenging the availability of sexually explicit material in school libraries, the results respondents who identified as educators agreed as well. About half of school or public librarians agreed, data suggests. But respondents were divided about who gets to decide what's age-appropriate, with the main responses being librarians, teachers and/or parents. Many felt there should be some kind of restrictions for explicit content, data suggests. But nearly an equal proportion of parents with school-aged children said they want access granted based on age or grade level (35 per cent), as those who said the materials shouldn't be on the shelves at all (36 per cent).
CBC
22-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Rules for explicit books in Alberta schools on the way: education minister
Alberta Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides expects to have a ministerial order ready by the end of the month or early July, giving school boards broad guidelines for graphic and sexual materials in school libraries. The parameters would still leave room for independence, so schools and school divisions can manage their libraries in ways that work for them, Nicolaides told CBC News Thursday. But the goal is to ensure explicit content is inaccessible to elementary school students. "There's consensus and understanding that some material, that we should be cautious of what age it's available," Nicolaides said. "We do this in society in so many different ways that we have ratings for movies … based on sexual content, violence, all this other kind of stuff. So it's not an entirely foreign concept to how we govern our society." The minister spoke with CBC News about two weeks after a public online survey about school library materials closed. It was offered by the provincial government. The survey results, which were released Friday, suggest respondents were divided on multiple questions, including whether the government should set "consistent requirements" for school boards regarding how they select and manage school library materials. Respondents who identified as educators, librarians and as an "interested Albertan" are firmly against, data suggests. Parents, either with or without school-aged children, were more divided. Of the nearly 37,000 survey respondents identified as parents of K-12 students, almost half are cold to potential consistent requirements, data suggests. But 43 per cent are leaning in favour, and eight per cent are unsure. "Decisions about what goes in libraries need to be made by trained librarians and educators," said Laura Winton, past president of the Library Association of Alberta, a non-profit that advocates for public and school libraries alike. "There are already policies and practices in place in schools and school boards across Alberta to make sure that collections are age-appropriate, and there are also processes in place to allow parents to be involved," Winton said. "If they are concerned about material, they can request that their school reconsider that material and a dialogue will be engaged with them about that." Respondents were also divided about what age students should be able to access sexually explicit materials in school libraries, data suggests. Parents of school-aged children said students should be able to access such content at school libraries at some point, particularly by middle school or high school, results suggest. Yet, about two in five of the respondents with school-aged children feel students should never get to access it in school libraries. "That's an overwhelming consensus from parents to keep it out of elementary schools," said Jeff Park, executive director of the Alberta Parents' Union, an advocacy group. "That's a strong basis to at least start there." Nicolaides said last month that new rules would be coming, after parents raised concerns about four coming-of-age graphic novels, most of which show nudity and sexual 2SLGBTQ+ content, found in circulation in Edmonton and Calgary public schools. The minister also said at the time that the government isn't looking to ban books from schools, noting that it doesn't have that authority. He reiterated that while speaking with CBC News Thursday. "I don't think it's really helpful or beneficial for government to start saying, 'This book, this book, this book, this book,' just because of any particular commentary that an individual government official might find offensive to them personally," Nicolaides said. "What one person finds offensive, another person might find enriching. But again, I think we can agree on some really high-level parameters, which are very simple: don't show graphic sexual material to underage children." The Alberta government will use input from the survey, plus feedback from education partners, to develop the school library standards, according to a news release issued Friday afternoon. The government published two sets of survey results: one raw, the other cleaned up. The raw version contains nearly 197,000 responses, but the clean dataset cuts it down to about 77,000 responses. There were signs of possible abuse, Nicolaides said, such as bots or many responses coming from one IP address in a short period. A CBC News analysis found that, of the many exclusions, only 1,000 of the respondents who identified as parents with school-aged children were cut. Most of the exclusions affected responses from alleged school administrators, teachers and librarians. Division on restrictions, survey suggests The survey suggests further division around questions like how libraries should handle such materials, and who the authority is that determines what content is age-appropriate. About seven in 10 respondents with school-aged kids agree that parents and guardians should have a role in reporting or challenging the availability of sexually explicit material in school libraries, the results suggest. Alberta government survey shows mixed support for policy on age-appropriate books 11 hours ago Duration 2:12 New guidelines are on the way for what books are deemed age-appropriate in Alberta schools. As CBC's Sam Brooks reports, they will be based on the results of a public survey — but not everyone supports that plan. Many respondents who identified as educators agreed as well. About half of school or public librarians agreed, data suggests. But respondents were divided about who gets to decide what's age-appropriate, with the main responses being librarians, teachers and/or parents. Many felt there should be some kind of restrictions for explicit content, data suggests. But nearly an equal proportion of parents with school-aged children said they want access granted based on age or grade level (35 per cent), as those who said the materials shouldn't be on the shelves at all (36 per cent).
CTV News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Survey shows most Albertans don't want province setting standards for school library books, province going ahead
Seen here in an Edmonton secondary school library, is one of four graphic novels Government of Alberta officials cited as examples of explicit and age inappropriate material that prompted new province-wide content guidelines. (Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter) Survey results from the Alberta government show the majority of respondents don't support the province setting standards for school library books. The survey ran between May 26 and June 6 and asked respondents multiple questions on 'sexually explicit content' in school libraries, though no definition was given as to what that included. It was opened by the United Conservative Party in May after the education minister announced plans for new rules around school books. The survey gathered 77,395 unique responses, with an additional 515 responses received on the French Language survey. Nearly half of respondents were guardians of school-aged children. The results show support for provincial standards for school library materials was highest among this group. However, while 44 per cent of that category was very or somewhat supportive, 49 per cent were not at all or not very supportive. Library book survey A screenshot of survey results from a survey by the Alberta government on age-appropriate library materials in schools. (Government of Alberta) Sixty-one per cent of all respondents said they have never been concerned about a school library book being inappropriate due to sexually explicit content, while 62 per cent agreed that parents and guardians should play a role in reporting or challenging sexually explicit content. Opinions on who should decide what materials are age-appropriate were more evenly divided: 23 per cent said school librarians, 20 per cent said teachers and 19 per cent said parents. Library book survey A screenshot of survey results from a survey by the Alberta government on age-appropriate library materials in schools. (Government of Alberta) When asked at what age children should be able to access sexually explicit content, half of respondents said either middle school (22 per cent) or high school (23 per cent). Thirty-four per cent said never, including 42 per cent of parents, and 17 per cent said all ages. Most respondents were also supportive of school libraries handling explicit materials by restricting by grade (41 per cent), requiring parental permission (12 per cent) or keeping it available to all students (17 per cent). The other 30 per cent said it should be removed entirely. Library book ban Alberta A screenshot of survey results from a Government of Alberta survey on appropriate library materials for schools. (The Government of Alberta) On Friday, the province said the survey results showed 'strong support' for a school library policy and it would be using them, and feedback from education partners, to develop province-wide standards. 'Parents, educators and Albertans in general want action to ensure children don't have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries,' said Demetrios Nicolaides, minister of education and childcare. 'We will use this valuable input to guide the creation of a provincewide standard to ensure the policy reflects the priorities and values of Albertans.' CTV News Edmonton has reached out to the education minister for more information and is awaiting a response. The full survey results can be found here.
CBC
04-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
What's at stake if Alberta removes certain books from its school libraries?
Social Sharing Last week, the government of Alberta revealed plans to introduce new guidelines that will determine what books will be allowed on the shelves of school libraries across the province. The province's education minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, invited Albertans to take part in an online survey to help shape the new rules that will take effect this fall. The move comes after Nicolaides said he received complaints from parents about four particular books that concerned them: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Blankets by Craig Thompson, and Flamer by Mike Curato. Three out of four of these discuss 2SLGBTQ+ themes, leading many advocates to worry that queer literature would be unfairly targeted under the new guidelines. Today on Commotion, guest host Amil Niazi speaks with Mel Woods, senior editor at Xtra Magazine, and Laura Winton, president of the Library Association of Alberta, to discuss what's at stake for Alberta children and libraries. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Amil: Mel, there's 2,200 schools across Alberta. Those books that [Nicolaides] mentioned only appear in 58 schools, and those books are not new books. So why do you think this particular concern is happening right now? Mel: Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that we have to be really clear about with this, is that while the Alberta government has been framing this announcement as some discovery of this lewd material that's been unearthed, the only new thing here is the Alberta government's decision to care about this right now. And we have to look at the larger political context at play here. Nicolaides was saying that he heard from concerned parents. Reporting from the Investigative Journalism Foundation last week showed that those concerned parents were the Christian advocacy group, Action4Canada, which was involved in the Freedom Convoy. And also played a huge role in getting the school pronoun policies in both Saskatchewan introduced and New Brunswick, and the gender-affirming care attacks that the Alberta government's already taken. So this doesn't come in a vacuum. It's not just some genuinely, earnestly concerned parents calling up the government and saying, "Get these books out of libraries." There are coordinated movements and efforts to target these books in specific. These books on this list have been targeted in the States before. There are lists of these books that go around within these types of organizations, and they target specific governments who might seem willing to help them with those campaigns. And we look at the larger political context of what's happening in Alberta right now. [Premier] Danielle Smith and her government are looking at these separatist folks to the further right, to the further socially conservative, and are worried about their base fracturing…. These groups and organizations are coming to governments with intent to get these sorts of policies introduced, and to stoke a culture war, and to stoke a moral panic. We can never talk about these things and take what they're saying at face value and be like, "Oh, some genuinely concerned parents. We're just so worried about these lewd books." No, there are coordinated email writing campaigns. There are very influential political actors involved here, and that's an important context to have. Amil: Laura, how would you have preferred the province initiate a discussion like this? Rather than just jumping to the survey, is there something the Library Association would have preferred to see first? Laura: Yeah, absolutely. I think, first and foremost, we would have loved a conversation — at least a heads up. The Library Association of Alberta wasn't contacted. None of the public school boards were contacted as well. So this came as a total surprise to all of us. If the government had concerns about material that was in school libraries, it seems most appropriate to me that they would have approached school boards, potentially approached the Library Association of Alberta to get a bit more information on what the current processes look like, and then conversations could happen from there. Amil: So the books that we're talking about include Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and Flamer by Mike Curato, all of which discuss and depict 2SLGBTQ+ relationships…. The government's position is that certain books have no place in school libraries. What is the case for keeping books like the ones I mentioned on the shelves? Laura: It's worth noting that these are all award-winning graphic novels. These have been reviewed in major publications. Here's a quote from Publishers Weekly about Gender Queer: "This heartfelt graphic memoir relates with sometimes playful honesty the experience of growing up non-gender-conforming. It's sure to spark valuable discussions at home and in classrooms." So this material is intended to be put in front of children. One of the books, Blankets, I studied in library school years ago in a children's literature class. And what we were talking about in that class was very specifically, "How do we use this as material to help children understand their experiences?" So librarians know how to do this. We're thinking carefully about it. And there is consensus from experts on these books. This is not, as the minister has said, equivalent to a Hustler magazine. This is an award-winning text.
