Rules for explicit books in Alberta schools on the way: education minister
CBC
Alberta Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides expects to have a ministerial order ready by the end of the month or early July, giving school boards broad guidelines for graphic and sexual materials in school libraries.
The parameters would still leave room for independence, so schools and school divisions can manage their libraries in ways that work for them, Nicolaides told CBC News Thursday. But the goal is to ensure explicit content is inaccessible to elementary school students.
"There's consensus and understanding that some material, that we should be cautious of what age it's available," Nicolaides said.
"We do this in society in so many different ways that we have ratings for movies … based on sexual content, violence, all this other kind of stuff. So it's not an entirely foreign concept to how we govern our society."
The minister spoke with CBC News about two weeks after a public online survey about school library materials closed. It was offered by the provincial government.
The survey results, which were released Friday, suggest respondents were divided on multiple questions, including whether the government should set "consistent requirements" for school boards regarding how they select and manage school library materials.
Respondents who identified as educators, librarians and as an "interested Albertan" are firmly against, data suggests. Parents, either with or without school-aged children, were more divided.
Of the nearly 37,000 survey respondents identified as parents of K-12 students, almost half are cold to potential consistent requirements, data suggests. But 43 per cent are leaning in favour, and eight per cent are unsure.
"Decisions about what goes in libraries need to be made by trained librarians and educators," said Laura Winton, past president of the Library Association of Alberta, a non-profit that advocates for public and school libraries alike.
"There are already policies and practices in place in schools and school boards across Alberta to make sure that collections are age-appropriate, and there are also processes in place to allow parents to be involved," Winton said.
"If they are concerned about material, they can request that their school reconsider that material and a dialogue will be engaged with them about that."
Respondents were also divided about what age students should be able to access sexually explicit materials in school libraries, data suggests.
Parents of school-aged children said students should be able to access such content at school libraries at some point, particularly by middle school or high school, results suggest.
Yet, about two in five of the respondents with school-aged children feel students should never get to access it in school libraries.
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