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Brooklyn's library moves to slip books through red state bans - POLITICO
Sep 24, 2022 1 min, 53 secs
The Central Library branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system is visible in New York City on July 7, 2022.

NEW YORK — The front line of America’s culture war now runs straight through the nation’s school libraries — with conservatives in dozens of states outlawing books and instruction and the left working to shield targeted authors.

“The QR code has become — for lack of a better phrasing — it’s become a symbol of resistance locally in my state,” former Norman High School English teacher Summer Boismier said in an interview.

The group No Left Turn in Education, which supports some bans, says it opposes schools that impose the “orthodoxy of the left,” as well as books containing sexually explicit imagery.

Back in Oklahoma, Boismier’s departure galvanized parents in the area to hand out flyers and T-shirts with the QR code that students are wearing to school.

Nick Migliorino, the superintendent of Norman Public Schools, recently said the parent alleged that Boismier made “derogatory and divisive remarks” about state legislators during class time and used her classroom “to make a political display expressing her own opinions.”.

Migliorino also said there was no violation of the Oklahoma state law or State Department of Education rules and that the issue was not about “any books actually on the teacher’s shelves or the use of the public library QR code.”.

And when more states began outlawing books in schools and libraries, the library system felt compelled to defy them.

“The library code is not stopping them from continuing to push these policies in an attempt to disrupt the schools,” said Capo, whose statewide union has 66,000 members, including educators, retirees and school employees.

“The library code may be, I would say, is making them ineffective in keeping books away from kids, absolutely.”

Matt Krause asked schools throughout the state if they have any of the roughly 850 books on a list that he compiled that focus on race and sexuality

New York’s other public library systems — the Queens Public Library and the New York Public Library — have undertaken efforts similar to BPL

Tony Marx, the New York Public Library’s president and CEO, said it is not a “big city pushing liberal agenda” but about libraries doing their jobs to make knowledge and information accessible

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