ACLU sues Colorado school district over removal of 'highly sensitive' library books

Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post on Dec 19, 2024

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DENVER — The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued the Elizabeth School District on Thursday for removing books from school libraries — titles that largely feature people of color or LGBTQ individuals — in an act the organization alleges violated free speech protections.

The removed books were voted on by the district’s Board of Education, which the ACLU argued was an injection of the body’s partisan political views into students’ education.

“The board’s action is a violation of the students’ constitutional right to receive information, as well as the authors’ right to share their views without undue viewpoint-based discrimination,” said Tim Macdonald, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, in a news release. “The federal and state constitutions prohibit this kind of politically motivated censorship.”

Superintendent Dan Snowberger said in a statement that the Elizabeth School District, located southeast of metro Denver, only learned about the legal claim Thursday afternoon.

“We are disappointed that the district is being tied up in a political attack,” he said. “It intends to vigorously defend itself and decisions made in the best interest of our children.”

This summer, the Elizabeth Board of Education created a committee to determine which books in their school libraries contained “sensitive topics” including racism, discrimination, mental illness and sexual content. The committee identified 19 books it found to be “highly sensitive” that should be removed from the district’s school libraries.

The removed books primarily featured Black, brown and LGBTQ people, the ACLU said, including “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights” by Rebecca Felix.

“None of the removed books are obscene,” the lawsuit states, further arguing they “contain educational value and are educationally suitable for students” in Elizabeth schools.

In September, the board announced the 19 books would be permanently removed from school libraries. The board also enacted a policy prohibiting students from sharing books with each other, the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Colorado, the ACLU requested the books be returned to the Elizabeth School District’s libraries and asked for an injunction prohibiting the board from removing books based on the ideas contained within them.

The lawsuit also asked for a declaratory judgment that a policy banning the sharing of books among students violated the First Amendment and state constitution.

The ACLU is representing two students within the school district, the Rocky Mountain regional NAACP and the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers, The Authors Guild.

“My love of reading began with some of the authors that ESD has put on the banned and sensitive lists,” said Portia Prescott, president of Rocky Mountain NAACP, in a news release. “They helped show me that I belonged. Children should not be robbed of the ability to read books in their school library that make them feel seen and heard.”

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