Last fall, in violation of district policy and MN State Statute 134.51, the ISD 15 School Board imposed a book ban on the St. Francis school district. It allowed a “community member” with an agenda, to waltz in with a batch of 46 book titles he got off the right-wing BookLooks’ website, falsely claiming the books were pornographic, and demanding they be banned. The school board ignored the fact that the books on his list, including a Nobel Prize Winner, were curated by professional librarians and educators who selected them for their educational and cultural value. It overrode the lone district librarian’s attempt to review these books with other professional staff in accordance with state statute, and arbitrarily removed them. It had fired the rest of the school librarians due to budget cuts but, somehow, was able to find the money to hire lawyers to litigate the lawsuits brought by the ACLU and Teachers’ Union.
This nationwide book-banning movement is not a noble effort to protect our kids. It is a blatant attempt to undermine the humanitarian values we, as Americans, have striven for over the last 250 years. Many of the banned books deal with race, gender, sexuality, and social issues, ie. diversity, inclusion, and equality, values the present administration is trying to stamp out. This lawsuit may very well decide who will determine our children’s education. Will it be any Tom Dick or Harry with an agenda? Or the professional educators we hire to teach them?
June Gossler Anderson 5/14/25