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INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.53   |   NO.2 → that school says that no child can see that book because one parent has written a complaint,” she said. She was supported by senior members of staff and others, but she lost her position regardless. In another school, a parent suggested that a specific book be restricted to older children, and Amy was happy to oblige. But the decision was made that the book should be removed completely. “It seems that when it comes down to it, if a parent complains, the book’s gone,” she said. Another anonymous school library service worker, who we’ll refer to as David, said that his organisation received complaints about LGBT+ content from all faiths, and explained that while headteachers were generally supportive, they haven’t got the tools to formulate a defence. He told Index that policies from groups such as CILIP and the SLA made no impact without a supportive school, describing a landscape where headteachers wanted to take the path of least resistance to shut down complaints. That usually means censorship. “It’s a very small minority of parents, sometimes just one or two, who want to kick up a fuss because they basically say for whatever reason, whether it’s personal, social or religious, ‘I don’t want my child accessing this content’. “And it’s trying to get that message out saying, ‘OK, you don’t want your child accessing this content, but you can’t shut it down for everyone else,’” he said. The books were hidden from sight and a handful of them have permanently vanished “I think people are worried about upsetting certain groups,” he said, explaining how there are some Muslim and Christian parents in his area who don’t want their children exposed to LGBT+ characters. But, he stressed, these groups are not homogenous. “We haven’t even got a central government that’s going to address this,” David said, speaking in April 2024 before the election was called. “What we’ve got is a political climate where they’re stoking these fires.” He described a librarian he knows in a private school who is handing out “offthe-record loans” from a back cupboard. “There’s nothing inappropriate. It’s just stuff that they know the parents will disagree with,” he said. In another private school, a parent tried to get a librarian sacked because their child had been reading an LGBT+ book. In some cases, the censorship is more subtle. The SLA told Index that it has had reports of senior staff having a quiet word with librarians, telling them to keep particular books on the shelves but not to include them in displays. “It also very much puts that librarian in a difficult position, because the children who need those books are only ever going to get them if they’re directly signposted to them,” the SLA’s Tarrant said. Gwen works in a school library service, supporting around 420 schools. She said that most of the book challenges the service faced were from secondary schools, and were usually based on the label given to a book or its content. On one occasion, when it was running a book award for Year 8 pupils (12 to 13-year-olds), it was challenged on the inclusion of some books, including one with a minor LGBT+ element. One secondary Catholic school decided not to give that book to its students. That same school refused to have a book which promoted open conversation around menstruation. “Probably more of the challenges may come in from our Catholic secondaries,” Gwen told Index. “And ABOVE: Parents protest outside a school in Birmingham over children being taught about LGBT+ identities we still have some Catholic primaries who don’t have Harry Potter and books like that on their shelves.” But, she explained, the service has a robust policy, and encourages schools to do the same. It also runs seminars on how to tackle censorship attempts. “I think it’s just slight challenges,” she said. “I think parents are challenging schools more and more about lots of different things. So, it isn’t just censorship.” Gwen isn’t as worried about censorship as some of the other library professionals we spoke to. 18  INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG
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F eat ur es C R E D I T: S t e v e n M a y / A l a m y “I think it’s just so that we’re not leaving some poor, single-staffed library person to deal with any challenges that come in, that we give them all the tools to be robust in any answers,” she said. As well as surveying librarians, Index sent out FOI requests to a selection of schools. One Catholic school in Coventry confirmed that its headteacher complained to the local school library service about a handful of books which contained “inappropriate language and didn’t support the Catholic ethos of the school”. The four titles contained themes of crime and the supernatural. They were replaced with different books. Another – a comprehensive boys’ school in London – told Index that a pupil had requested the removal of Salman Rushdie’s books, but that his request was refused. The school library service in Milton Keynes works with primary schools. In response to an FOI request, it told Index that it had never had a book rejected by a school but had received negative feedback about a children’s picture book of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by Marcia Williams, owing to an abundance of “naked bottoms” and other bawdy content. It added: “It is also worth noting that it tends to be the faith schools that do have higher standards, or are more censorious,” later adding that it avoided sending books about witches and wizards or with antifaith themes to Catholic schools. Several schools and school library services claimed they had not had bookchallenge experiences. Many others failed to respond to the FOI requests. Ofsted said it had found no evidence in inspection reports of censorship in school libraries since April 2021, although it also acknowledged that the automated search method meant this was not a guaranteed result. A spokesman said: “It is for schools to decide what they include in their own curriculum, within the requirements of the law and the Department for Education (DfE).” He added that a good curriculum must ensure “that pupils understand, appreciate and respect difference in the world and its people, as well as engage with views, beliefs and → INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG   19

INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.53   |   NO.2

that school says that no child can see that book because one parent has written a complaint,” she said.

She was supported by senior members of staff and others, but she lost her position regardless.

In another school, a parent suggested that a specific book be restricted to older children, and Amy was happy to oblige. But the decision was made that the book should be removed completely.

“It seems that when it comes down to it, if a parent complains, the book’s gone,” she said.

Another anonymous school library service worker, who we’ll refer to as David, said that his organisation received complaints about LGBT+ content from all faiths, and explained that while headteachers were generally supportive, they haven’t got the tools to formulate a defence.

He told Index that policies from groups such as CILIP and the SLA made no impact without a supportive school, describing a landscape where headteachers wanted to take the path of least resistance to shut down complaints. That usually means censorship.

“It’s a very small minority of parents, sometimes just one or two, who want to kick up a fuss because they basically say for whatever reason, whether it’s personal, social or religious, ‘I don’t want my child accessing this content’.

“And it’s trying to get that message out saying, ‘OK, you don’t want your child accessing this content, but you can’t shut it down for everyone else,’” he said.

The books were hidden from sight and a handful of them have permanently vanished

“I think people are worried about upsetting certain groups,” he said, explaining how there are some Muslim and Christian parents in his area who don’t want their children exposed to LGBT+ characters. But, he stressed, these groups are not homogenous.

“We haven’t even got a central government that’s going to address this,” David said, speaking in April 2024 before the election was called. “What we’ve got is a political climate where they’re stoking these fires.”

He described a librarian he knows in a private school who is handing out “offthe-record loans” from a back cupboard.

“There’s nothing inappropriate. It’s just stuff that they know the parents will disagree with,” he said. In another private school, a parent tried to get a librarian sacked because their child had been reading an LGBT+ book.

In some cases, the censorship is more subtle. The SLA told Index that it has had reports of senior staff having a quiet word with librarians, telling them to keep particular books on the shelves but not to include them in displays.

“It also very much puts that librarian in a difficult position, because the children who need those books are only ever going to get them if they’re directly signposted to them,” the SLA’s Tarrant said.

Gwen works in a school library service, supporting around 420 schools. She said that most of the book challenges the service faced were from secondary schools, and were usually based on the label given to a book or its content.

On one occasion, when it was running a book award for Year 8 pupils (12 to 13-year-olds), it was challenged on the inclusion of some books, including one with a minor LGBT+ element. One secondary Catholic school decided not to give that book to its students.

That same school refused to have a book which promoted open conversation around menstruation.

“Probably more of the challenges may come in from our Catholic secondaries,” Gwen told Index. “And

ABOVE: Parents protest outside a school in Birmingham over children being taught about LGBT+ identities we still have some Catholic primaries who don’t have Harry Potter and books like that on their shelves.”

But, she explained, the service has a robust policy, and encourages schools to do the same. It also runs seminars on how to tackle censorship attempts.

“I think it’s just slight challenges,” she said. “I think parents are challenging schools more and more about lots of different things. So, it isn’t just censorship.”

Gwen isn’t as worried about censorship as some of the other library professionals we spoke to.

18  INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG

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