Books banned in Colorado school district are back on library shelves — for now
Nine months after being removed banned books were returned to library shelves in Colorado s Elizabeth School District last week following a federal judge s order While the lawsuit over the books removal by the school board has yet to be resolved the books will be available to students for the time being The return of the books which include titles like Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini came after months of resistance from district functionaries who were originally ordered to return the books to school libraries by March They staved off the order twice but on April the th Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed Judge Charlotte Sweeney s earlier order to return the books On Thursday Sweeney ordered the district to confirm by Friday at noon that the books had been returned The district did so by filing a court document certifying its compliance The saga of the banned books which are primarily by or about LGBTQ people people of color or both began last summer when the district in conservative-leaning Elbert County decided to pull books from library shelves because of content school board members deemed disgusting or otherwise inappropriate One of the books Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was part of the library collection but had been checked out and never returned The title wasn t among the books returned to library shelves this week according to the district s Friday legal filing In December the American Civil Liberties Union sued the district arguing the book removals violated federal and state free speech protections The plaintiffs in the situation include two district students a chapter of the NAACP and the Authors Guild a professional organization for writers Since the lawsuit was filed much legal strength has been spent on the question of whether the books should be available to students while the lawsuit proceeds District bureaucrats have argued against that and in fact threw out the books after removing them Related Articles Colorado school district back under court order to return highly sensitive books to its libraries th Circuit freezes order requiring Colorado school district to put books back on shelves Federal judge orders Colorado school district for a second time to return removed books to library shelves Colorado school district rejects donation of banned books to be returned to library shelves Elizabeth authorities did eventually bring the books back to the district after a local donor provided paperback copies of the removed titles That donor Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez stipulated that only plaintiffs in the affair not the general participant body could have access to the books That donation appeared to be part of a legal strategy that allowed the district to argue that it wasn t violating the plaintiffs First Amendment rights as the lawsuit claimed since the books were available to them A law firm affiliated with the ACLU event also donated a set of the removed books to the district but the school board rejected all but one book They agreed to keep Pride Championing LGBTQ Rights but decided it would remain in Superintendent Dan Snowberger s possession rather than go on library shelves This story was originally published by Chalkbeat Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in constituents schools Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe at newsletters Get more Colorado news by signing up for The Denver Post s Mile High Roundup email newsletter
