This is the second request to remove books the library board has faced in two months.
GRAND FORKS – Grand Forks Library Board members voted to keep six books about sex education and puberty in the children’s section after residents and a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union spoke out against moving more books.
Last month, board members elected to move three books to a revived “young adult nonfiction” section after a resident appealed to the board to remove three books with similar subject material either from the children’s section or from the library outright.
The board took a different tack Wednesday after several community members raised concerns the board’s previous decision had imposed a form of “soft censorship” on library users.
John Fick, a retired pastor at Sharon Lutheran Church, expressed concern the board had created a precedent that was a “dangerous, slippery slope.”
“Because you accepted those challenges from a couple of people regarding books on sexuality, and that was very public, you will be obligated to accept those challenges from anyone regarding any topic, whether its politics, religion, whatever,” he said.
North Dakota ACLU Advocacy Manager Cody Schuler, who criticized the board’s July decision in a letter published in the Herald, also invoked censorship concerns, pointing to the nationwide surge in book challenges.
He also said the board has an obligation to support its staff’s decision-making amid political rhetoric alleging librarians are distributing pornography to children or were “groomers” – a colloquialism for sexual abusers.
A current Grand Forks County Commission candidate, Ron Barta, leveled both those attacks against Grand Forks Public Library staff in January.
The six books challenged were “Bunk 9’s Guide to Growing Up”, “Ready, Set, Grow!”, “100% Me”, “Who Has What”, and “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life?”
The complainant, Sara Ellenwood, is a homeschool parent who previously filed complaints against several books including “Who Has What” and “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life?”
Library staff would have reviewed Ellenwood’s claim prior to her appeal to the board.
Board member Paul Traynor compared the books’ materials to the “Responsible Living” course he’d taken in the seventh grade in 1976.
“There isn’t anything in these books that I would describe as obscene, or pornographic, or inappropriate,” he said. “There are illustrations I think you would find in any anatomy book or biology book or sex education book in any public school in the United States.”
The board also debated whether they’d erred in creating the young adult nonfiction section entirely.
Library Board President Brad Sherwood, who was among the proponents of the new section, reiterated the point of the young adult nonfiction section was to bring attention to these books, which have generally low circulation numbers, rather than suppress them.
“We looked at it more as stewardship and advocacy than soft censorship,” he said.
He’d noted earlier this was only the second time the library board had been asked to review books over the past 44 years.