Censorship

"DON'T TOUCH!"  You have to touch.  "DON'T SCRATCH!"  You have to scratch.  "DON'T READ!"  You have to read.

Censorship is a somewhat controversial concept, and pretty ridiculous.  If you tell someone they cannot read something, they are going to read it.

Back in the 90's, I had no interest in the Harry Potter series.  Then the whole controversy came out about how it is evil (so to speak) and you shouldn't read it.  I said to myself, "If it's worth all the fuss to fight against, it might be worth checking it out."  The controversy, the "DON'T", peaked my interest.  I'm glad it did because it was a wonderful series.  The only problem is, now I can't stop howling at the moon (HA! HA!).

I discovered a few things about selection vs. censorship that I did not know while reading the Jenkins article on censorship.  A library only has a limited budget.  When selecting materials, if a quality book is not selected because it might be challenged, that is censorship.  If a quality book is not selected because of constraints (ex. budget, space, etc.), this is selection.  There needs to be a set of guidelines set in place, in case a book is challenged. 

A set of guidelines is something I am pretty sure we do not have at my work.  A few years back, a teacher saw a student reading an anime graphic novel.  Those books can sometimes have nudity in them.  This particular book had black-line drawing of a girl in a shower.  It wasn't very graphic or anything, and as you're reading the story, the picture wasn't really important.  The joke was something about the brother running into the bathroom to use the toilet, and shocks the sister who is in the shower.  Anyway, the library coordinator really overreacted.

She took the book from the student's hand and tore the pages apart, then threw it in the garbage.  She took the rest of the series off the shelf and did the same.  She said, "I don't want anybody else complaining to me about this stuff."  She didn't even look at the books, just tore them up and threw them in the garbage.

People think that T.V. shows should be removed from the air.  That's terrible.  "If you don't like what's on, change the channel."  A fine example is the Jerry Springer Show.  I thought the show was O.K. but didn't pay much attention to it.  Then they said it should be taken off the air.  That made me watch the show, and like it even more.  "Change the channel or unplug the T.V."

If you want to censor something, censor yourself.  If you don't like a book, don't read it.  But don't ruin it for other people.

Librarian/School Employee Privacy Dilemma

There are codes of ethics that you follow when you are a librarian. There is also a set of responsibilities that you legally must adhere to when you work in a school. Being a high school Librarian (assistant in my case - status not important), which set of guidelines do you follow first.

Here is the situation. A student walks into the school library and asks for books on satanism. O.K. I'm open minded. I tell him that we will most likely not have very much and that most of our nonfiction books try to be curriculum related. He didn't want to know about satanism, he wanted books with instructions and rituals. We don't have that type of material in the library. I told him that we are a high school library and that we can't afford to support, nor do we have room for all materials. He may be able to find some of the information at the larger public library. Then he asked for books on the development of hatred and anger, what makes people violent, etc.

The kid seemed nice enough, polite, quiet, but wore long black zip-up gloves to his elbows, black satanic t-shirt and the black nail polish to finish the look. I've known nice kids like that who were just trying to make a statement. This kid just seemed different. You could feel it in the air you breathed around him.

The dilemma:
As librarians, we should not judge what people read, and everything should be confidential. You don't know what he is using the books for. It may be for a project.
As school employees, we are obligated by law to report any suspicions we have about a student who we feel may be in some form of trouble. It does not necessarilly need to be reported to the state, but it should at least be reported to the counselor.

I was told by the school library coordinator that we are going to act as librarians and be nonjudgemental, not report anything, and leave it at that.

I wanted to tell the counselor that the student was interested in some books on some very serious topics (not tell what they were) and say that it might be worth checking in on him to make sure everything is alright.

What should have been done?

I would actually like to hear several opinions on this question. I don't know how to spread this to more than my group. If someone knows how, can you please spread it?

Thanks