The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Judi Moreillon
The First Amendment rights of protected peaceful protest and freedom of the press are front and center in our daily news. In Tucson and across this country, people are speaking out and demanding redress of their grievances over government actions they feel violate our laws and trample our values. Journalists are actively exercising their freedom to document government activities and to bring the public factual information. We cannot take our rights for granted anymore and must continue to express and protect these freedoms in order to keep them.
Yet, there are threats to our constitutional rights that are happening more quietly in the stacks of our country’s libraries. "The Librarians" film, which has been shown at The Loft and by AzPM on the U of A campus, should be viewed by anyone who treasures intellectual freedom. The film focuses on the courage and integrity of school librarians who uphold library values and shows the professional and personal vulnerability of these undaunted warriors for the right to read.
People are also reading…
Professional librarians adhere to values that uphold the ideals of our democracy and strengthen the fabric of our communities. These values include equitable access for all to ideas and information; library collections that provide diverse points of view; and programming that includes the many voices in the community. These three values of equity, diversity, and inclusion are the foundation for intellectual freedom.
School librarians are in a frontline position with regard to book challenges. They usually receive a challenge complaint directly from a patron, or, as shown in the film, in the case of Texas and Florida, as a result of legislation. School librarians are held accountable for every book in their libraries, even though book collections are inherited from previous librarians. School librarians who uphold everyone’s right to read bear the brunt of the challenge.
In 2003, when the TUSD Governing Board began cutting librarian positions, there were over 90 state-certified librarians serving in the district. Today, there are only 9 school librarians serving just 9 of the district’s 88 schools. Fortunately, a small portion of the recently passed TUSD budget override funds will be used to begin to restore state-certified librarian positions. This will help ensure that more TUSD students and educators will have an ally in the school library who will protect students’ constitutional right to read freely, as decided in the Supreme Court precedent Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982).
"The Librarians" film spotlights censorship legislation in Texas and Florida that is infringing on K-12 readers’ rights. Here at home in 2022, then Governor Doug Ducey signed Arizona House Bill 2495, prohibiting public schools from using any materials — text, audio or visual — that are “sexually explicit.” The law allows exceptions for material that has “serious” educational, literary, artistic, political or scientific value, and requires parental consent for each such book shared with students. This law did not clearly define “sexually explicit” and did not define the penalties for non-compliance by teachers or librarians.
Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who sponsored that 2022 bill, has proposed a 2026 bill, SB1435, “Schools; Libraries; Explicit Materials; Classification.” This bill expands on current laws regulating "sexually explicit" material, extending restrictions to public libraries and employees who facilitate access to such materials for minors. Hoffman proposes a criminal negligence class 5 felony for violators (6 months to 2.5 years in prison). No longer would only school libraries be subject to government censorship. If this bill passes, all city, town, county, and state libraries funded by public money will be regulated as well.
Do we have the will to protect Arizonans’ First Amendment rights this time around? Do we value the freedom to read guaranteed by our Constitution? AzPM will air "The Librarians" on Monday, February 9th at 11:00 p.m. I encourage you to watch it in its entirety. I hope you will contact your representatives in Phoenix regarding SB1435, on which Governor Hobbs' veto pen should be used once again, as she has in the past, to protect Arizonans’ First Amendment rights.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
Judi Moreillon, former school librarian and retired librarian educator, is an active member of the Freedom to Read Foundation and American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Round Table. She is the author or editor of books that support equity, diversity, inclusion, and intellectual freedom.
