Tag: first amendment

Today’s Links

• No Butts About It
• We’ll Ban All the Books, Even the Digital Ones
• Colophon

No Butts About It

In case you haven’t heard, an assistant principal was recently fired because he chose to read the children’s book “I Need a New Butt” to a group of students.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/11/toby-price-principal-fired-childrens-book/

Toby Price found out that, even though this is the dumbest reason for firing anyone in the history of ever, he still isn’t getting his job back.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2022/05/11/toby-price-butt-book-school/

Toby has shared his thoughts on this announcement in a thread of Tweets, posted here for your enjoyment.

On April 28th I had a chance to speak in front of the Hinds County School District Board.
The following thread contains a story that sums up what happened.
Thank you – Toby Price 1 of 22 pic.twitter.com/VOHtxVIK8k

— Toby Price (@jedipadmaster) May 11, 2022

I’ll just say this right now: with the content of most children’s books out there, to fire someone over a book about butts requires a special kind of an asshole.

There is a spot reserved in hell for administrators, parents, and members of the general public who think it’s ok to fire a teacher over reading a wildly popular children’s book that is available everywhere books are sold.

I would rant more on this but I can’t. It’s just dumb.

We’ll Ban All the Books, Even the Digital Ones

Public education is facing an unprecedented level of hatred from conservative Americans right now. New laws are being crafted to punish teachers for teaching content that is not “approved” by parent groups or might be offensive and entire curricula and books are being banned.

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/heres-the-long-list-of-topics-republicans-want-banned-from-the-classroom/2022/02

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-anti-critical-race-theory-bills-are-taking-aim-at-teachers/

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093277449/florida-mathematics-textbooks

Now, some schools are banning access to digital books from repositories like Overdrive and Epic, removing thousands of resources from the hands of students and families.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/library-apps-book-ban-schools-conservative-parents-rcna26103

Thousands of schools and public libraries use these services to provide a much wider array of books than they could within the limits of the physical space in their buildings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, families easily accessed books from home comfort to keep their kids engaged and learning while sheltering.

Enter the fear mongers.

With new laws in place requiring that any book used in a school be reviewed and chosen by a faculty member, the number of books available will drastically decrease.

With over two million titles, trying to get someone to review every book in Overdrive is not only an impossible request, it’s downright foolish.

No one could review all that content and approve it for student usage.

How much longer will we abide by such unsubstantiated fear and hatred?

“That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also”

Heinrich Heine