A note to nutty leftists outraged that public schools can’t hand out porn to children: this is what a book ban actually looks like.
A recent policy in Ontario public schools meant to “weed out” offensive and non-"inclusive" books has left more than half the library shelves bare of texts, as parents and students say school officials purge nearly every volume written before 2008.
The whole thing started with a provincial directive from the Minister of Education, which instructed area public schools to remove tomes that weren’t “inclusive,” contained alleged racially offensive content, and didn’t promote “diversity.” That vague and confusing directive has led to more than 50 percent of the school library being emptied out of both classic and popular modern books, including Harry Potter, The Hunger Games. The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank, and A Hungry Caterpillar,
"This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books," said Reina Takata, a 10th grader at Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga. She added that by way of explanation, staff told students last spring that "if the shelves look emptier right now it's because we have to remove all books [published] prior to 2008."
Takata, who’s Japanese, said she’s concerned that books about Japanese history will soon be targeted for removal.
“I think that authors who wrote about Japanese internment camps are going to be erased and the entire events that went on historically for Japanese Canadians are going to be removed,” she told CBC.
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Following an outcry over the bizarre purging process led by a group called Libraries Not Landfills, Education Minister Stephen Leece wrote a memo asking libraries to stop tossing out books until a new process can be figured out.
For their part, the school board claimed they weren’t throwing out books - but didn’t quite explain how entire library shelves are now sitting empty.
“The Peel District School Board follows the library weeding guidelines set by the Canadian School Libraries Association. These guidelines direct the teacher librarians at our 259 schools to keep books with any publishing date that are accurate, relevant to the student population, inclusive, not harmful, and support the current curriculum from the Ministry of Education,” the board said in a statement.
“To be clear, books such as The Diary of a Young Girl by Ann Frank and the Harry Potter series remain in our collections, and where needed, newer versions may be purchased if the book is in poor condition,” the statement clarified. “Regardless of publication date, older or damaged books that are accurate, relevant to the student population, inclusive, not harmful, and support the current curriculum may stay within the school or schools have the opportunity to repurchase newer copies of the same title to replace the damaged ones.”
“Inclusive,” and “not harmful.” You know - to liberals who think giving kids a book by Mark Twain is more evil than handing them gay porn.