CHICAGO (AP) – School librarian Jamie Gregory has been called a “pedophile” and a “groomer,” bombarded with private messages threatening harm, accused of distributing pornography in schools, and posted his personal social media address.
He took it on the chin.
“I just don’t give up. I’m not going to let them call me that, especially when I’ve worked my whole life to get where I am,” said Gregory, who was named the 2022 South Carolina school librarian of the year.
The “shocking” allegations made him think: “My whole adult life, and all my education and all my work – what if it ends? I’m not going to let that happen,” Gregory said on Saturday in a room full of about 100 fellow librarians at a training session on fighting book bans at the American Library Association’s annual meeting in Chicago.
The audience applauded Gregory’s declaration.
Book bans and how to fight them were a major focus of this year’s ALA conference. “The world’s largest library event” provides training and education for library professionals, according to the conference’s website. Librarians can attend sessions, as Gregory said, aimed at helping them be confident in resisting book challenges, fighting legislative censorship and ensuring freedom of reading.
The ALA conference hosted thousands of librarians, library staff, authors, publishers and educators as many states pushed to restrict access to books. in schools and libraries – especially around race, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ topics. The association in March released data showing a record 1,269 requests to censor library books. in the US by 2022, a long 20 years.
“Addressing book censorship and protecting the intellectual freedom of library users, protecting the ability of librarians to provide information to their communities, is at the forefront of this year’s meeting,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.
All day Saturday, attendees are invited to climb into a giant chair to read their favorite banned book.
Gregory chose “ Gender Queer“Maia Kobabe’s autobiographical comic about what it means to be nonbinary and asexual — the source of the storm against the school librarian and the most challenged book of 2022, according to ALA. She also chose “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez, a historical fiction novel about an interracial teen romance.
“This one always drives them crazy,” Gregory said, patting down a copy of “Gender Queer” and climbing up the stairs in the big velvet reading chair, books in hand.
Librarians “make information available to people freely and fairly,” and Gregory said he plans to continue doing that.
“I do not impose my own personal moral system on students or patrons. They have to have their own, that’s not my job,” he said.
In Gregory’s conservative community of Greenville, South Carolina, the public library board is pushing branches to remove Pride displays. In March, he testified against a bill that would have allowed parents to challenge any educational materials. they say violate forbidden teachings around white privilege and implicit prejudice.
Still, Gregory said he feels most of his community supports him, despite being a vocal minority.
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me that I don’t even know, saying, ‘We think you’re doing a great job’ — even parents at the school,” he said.
Parents always have the right to choose what their children read, but they don’t have the right to restrict access to an entire community, said Christine Emeran, director of the Youth Free Expression Program at the National Coalition Against Censorship, a First Amendment advocacy organization.
“You cannot agree to the demands of a particular group of parents and censor libraries,” he said.
Emeran, who is scheduled to be featured in a panel discussion called “Tabang! They will come for our books!” at the conference on Sunday, began to notice the increase in book bans starting in 2021, at the beginning of the term of President Joe Biden. He attributed the shift to “a cultural backlash” against changing views on LGBTQ+ issues, women’s rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Local libraries are calling on the National Coalition Against Censorship for help now more than ever. In the past, the organization helped in several book ban cases every year. “Now we get two or three a week,” Emeran said.
“Librarians are under pressure and they feel frustrated, discouraged,” said Emeran, who encouraged readers to support local libraries, attend school board meetings and join their communities to protect the right to read.
Groups like Moms for LibertyNo Left Turn in Education and Citizens Defending Freedom have a significant impact on what is allowed to be read, he said.
“The majority may oppose censorship in general. But the problem is that the majority is silent,” said Emeran.
Gregory and fellow panelists Lindsey Kimeri, coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville Public Schools, and Chris Chanyasulkit, an elected library trustee in Brookline, Massachusetts, advised attendees on how to navigate the book challenge in their communities.
Attentive faces bent over notebooks followed every word.
“No more humble bragging, no more quiet, no more ‘silence in libraries,'” Chanyasulkit said. “No more silence. Today we’re going to talk about how this is a unique, game-changing area for communities, because you need energy. Some are, and we haven’t done enough. “
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Savage is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.
