Wake teachers fear online attacks over new NC library book law, librarians say
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- Wake librarians urge district to omit teacher names from online book catalogs
- Teachers remove classroom libraries or hide books to avoid social media attacks
- Librarians request extended deadlines and nonidentifying catalogs to protect staff
Wake County school librarians are urging the school district to protect teachers by not listing their names on new state-mandated online catalogs of classroom library books.
A new state law, passed in July, requires North Carolina school districts to post the names of all library books in each school, including the books that teachers keep in their classroom libraries. School librarians warned at Tuesday’s Wake County school board meeting that teachers are being put at risk because their names are on the online lists the district are compiling.
“I am hearing from staff members that they are afraid of inadvertently housing a ‘bad book’ and therefore will strip down their literacy-rich classrooms to avoid public persecution on social media from extremists who don’t even have children in our district,” said Linda Dextre, the librarian at Broughton High School in Raleigh.
List teacher names or classroom numbers?
House Bill 805 became law on July 29 over the veto of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. The book cataloging requirement only applies to public school districts. It does not apply to charter schools or to private schools that receive taxpayer-funded vouchers.
The new law allows parents to identify the books in classrooms and the school library that they don’t want their children to read. It requires the book catalogs to be posted on each school’s website so any person can view them.
“Teachers should be excited about the opportunity to show parents what they’re teaching their children in the classroom, and if they’re not, maybe they’re trying to cover something up,” Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, previously told The News & Observer.
School districts across the state are trying to comply with the law. In Wake County, books in 10,000 classrooms need to be cataloged.
Teachers build up their classroom libraries by buying books with their own money or through donations. A classroom library may have hundreds or even more than 1,000 books.
Wake had sent guidance to principals to use a Google Sheets document with a separate tab for each teacher’s name listing the books in their classroom.
On Tuesday, the librarians suggested listing the books by classroom numbers instead, because they said parents can still find out which rooms to check for their children.
During board comments, board member Sam Hershey said he’d support not listing teacher names in the online catalog.
Teachers removing books due to new law
The librarians said Wake teachers are removing their books due to both a tight timeline and out of fear of being targeted online.
“Attaching their names to a list of books that are available to the general public makes them vulnerable to rumors and attacks online,” said Jane Miller, the librarian at Fuquay-Varina Elementary School. “Many teachers have taken their entire book collections home rather than risk social media attacks.”
It’s not just a Wake issue. As The N&O previously reported, teachers across the state have been removing all or part of their classroom library collections.
“Some are choosing to do away with their classroom libraries all together,” said Michelle Wolfson, the librarian at Davis Drive Elementary School in Cary. “I know this from conversations with teachers and librarians from all across the state.”
Teachers want more time to catalog books
The librarians said Wake should extend the deadline for finishing the cataloging. But a district spokesperson said Tuesday that the district had not set a deadline.
The spokesperson said individual principals may be setting deadlines.
Dextre, the Broughton librarian, suggested giving teachers until the end of the second quarter, which would be Jan. 23 for traditional-calendar schools. Dextre said it’s an “unfunded mandate” to require teachers to spend their time cataloging their books.
“Our teachers’ time is already impossibly taxed with instructional time, planning, parent contacts, IEP meetings, committee meetings, supervision duties, staff meetings, grading, student support, coaching,” Dextre said. “And I know I’m missing a few, and that’s just one day.”
Some schools have been turning to parents to volunteer their time to help with the cataloging. But even with parents, Wolfson said schools need more time to finish the task.
“A rushed implementation means empty bookshelves, and that hurts our students the most,” Wolfson said.
