Inappropriately Patterning Young Minds

"I sat down with the parents, and they proceeded to show me files with multiple examples of what I would describe as being incredibly inappropriate passages."

"I was completely shocked and taken aback. [Most concerning were] extremely inappropriate [graphic images that display sexual acts]."

"I cannot think of any rationale or reason why they should be available in a school for a child."

"Given what we've discovered here, we will have to put some more guardrails in place." 

 Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta Minister of Education and Childcare

Alberta Education and Childcare Minister announces plan for library material coming for 2025/26 school year. KAIDEN BRAYSHAW / FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY

"Extremely graphic and age-inappropriate" content was discovered to be present at some kindergarten to Grade 9 schools and high schools at both the Edmonton Public School Board and the Calgary Board of Education, prompting the provincial government to launch a crackdown on materials in school libraries hosting child-inappropriate themes. Concerned parents raised the alarm, contacting the provincial minister of education and childcare.

 

A media release named four graphic novels: Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; Blankets, by Craig Thompson; and Flamer, by Mike Curato. They were not the only questionable-value books on offer at a large number of primary-grade schools, but among the most objectionable. Books whose content focused on sexual activities, molestation, profanity, suicidal commentary, alcohol, drugs, derogatory language, violence and self-harm. Which doesn't leave out too much of concern to parents trusting the public schools to educate their children, not abuse them.

 

The books were located in a total of 57 schools across Calgary and Edmonton. How long the books might have found a comfortable home in those schools is as yet unknown. A big question is why would a librarian in a grade school setting choose to shelve such reading material for the young minds curious about the world around them and seeking information that might explain that world -- but surely not the demi monde world of the sexual underground? 

Individual school boards are free to make their own decisions over housing age-appropriate books in their school libraries, although the province does provide a level of voluntary guidelines for school libraries. The discovery of the presence of this type of reading material in children's hands, placed there at the discriminatory discretion of a trusted school employee, however, has led the province to advance a new set of policies before the start of the new fall school year.

 

Consultations to flesh out the new standards are open in an effort to craft a new policy, and the guidelines will likely be completed as early as "late spring, 2025", reflecting the urgency of the matter. Among the books found wanting was an autobiographical graphic novel, Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe, banned from some 56 American school districts. The book with contents sufficiently graphic that an adult in Florida was removed from a school board meeting when he made his point of concern by reading aloud a few pages for the meeting's records. 

This was a publication promoting gender ideology -- gender spectrum detached from biological sex -- containing graphic depictions of sex and masturbation. It also covers porn, masturbation -- vibrators and dildos under discussion -- and kinks. Some pages in the 200-page book contain graphic sexual content to the extent that the author herself feels it inappropriate for children.

 

In response to the provincial Ministry of Education's move to restrict such reading material from school libraries, the Alberta Teachers' Association implied that the province has set out to target LGBT books in view that the announcement "specifically singled out 2SLGBTQIA+ materials", they claimed. The ministry's explicit purpose is actually to clear out overt, explicit, graphic sexual content, clearly pornographic in nature.

 

The announcement of the Ministry's intention has had a clear effect, in that schools in Calgary and Edmonton have now of their own accord removed the books the minister highlighted, from their shelves. 

Which is, at the very least, a good start on a determined solution, to teach, not corrupt, young minds.

"I would show these images to all of you here and to the media, but they are too graphic for a live-streamed media event."

"Some of the authors of these particular titles that we've identified have even suggested themselves that these are not appropriate for children."

"Many of our school divisions have publicly accessible digital catalogs of all the books that they have available in their school libraries and whether they're on the shelf and/or checked out. So, we were also able to look through that information."

"We want to ensure transparency for parents, so that they know what is available in their school library and to have a process for complaints and concerns about book materials and other library materials."

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides

Calgary Herald