No data on how often ‘sexually explicit’ books accessed by Alberta students: minister

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides joins us to break down the recent controversy involving certain reading material in schools

The Alberta government says it doesn’t know how often a list of books it identified as inappropriate for elementary school-aged children were accessed by students.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides on CTV Morning Live Calgary on Thursday defended his department taking action without data.

“We don’t want to limit anybody’s ability to engage and understand a variety of different topics and explore different topics. We just want to make sure that any material that’s in our libraries is appropriate for the age of the students and we did have some concern that some of the material, as you can see here, may be a little too inappropriate for elementary-aged children,” he said.

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Multiple books were flagged to the education ministry, but the province has only released the titles of four graphic novels currently in circulation at elementary school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton.

The titles are Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Flamer by Mike Curato and Blankets by Craig Thompson.

Three of the four books focus on 2SLGBTQ+ characters and themes.

On May 26, Nicolaides announced the province was bringing in new rules for inappropriate books after it was contacted by parent and concerned parties.

Following the announcement, Parents for Choice in Education and Action4Canada took credit for supplying the minister’s office with a list of books they wanted removed from school libraries.

Online, both groups praised the efforts of their members bringing the “sexually explicit” texts to the province’s attention.

“They’re not just pornography,” said John Hilton-O’Brien with Parents for Choice in Education.

“We call them graphic, sexual, images, but they’re kind of instructive. And in a school library, they come across with the force of authority that this is how you should identify, this is how you should think about things.”

He says the organization has met with Alberta Education on two separate occasions. Once three years ago and again last year.

Hilton-O’Brien says it handed over evidence of the books being in specific schools.

“When we give it to children from the school, we give the stamp of authority to it. The school said, ‘This was good for me to read.’”

Warning sign of fascism, author says

The author of one of the books targeted by the government said removing books limits knowledge for readers.

“As a young adult I was filled with doubts and questions about my own identity and my place in the world,” said Maia Kobabe in a statement to CTV News.

“Reading biographies and memoirs of musicians, artists, writers, and queer people throughout history filled me with hope, and opened up my ideas of what my own life could hold. Those books changed my life, and I have heard directly from readers that my memoir did the same for them.”

Kobabe said this is especially harmful when the subject matter focuses on minority identities and “topics less commonly protrayed.”

“A book that might seem pointless to one reader might be life-saving to another. Book banning is an early warning sign of fascism, and I hope that Alberta citizens will speak out strongly against it.”

No influence from third parties: Nicolaides

The province has not made a firm decision to ban those books from schools, but Nicolaides said work is underway to “firm up the guardrails” and make sure kids are accessing material that’s appropriate for their age.

He denied any influence from special interest groups, saying his ministry acted and came up with the proposed new rules on its own.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for elementary-aged kids to be able to access material that has graphic depictions of oral sex, as an example. If older students want to be able to access that material, I think that’s something that they have to explore, but when it come to elementary-aged kids, that’s very concerning.”

Library administrators tell CTV News that while these books are available in schools, educators are present to make sure all reading material accessed by students is age-appropriate.

“Yes, technically that material would be in a library that could be accessed by a Kindergartner, but it would be in a very different section, and educators are not taking them to that section,” said Laura Winston with the Library Association of Alberta.

Winston says that while the lobby groups are well organized, librarians are qualified, trained professionals.

Minister says school boards kept in the loop

Nicolaides said the government researched and confirmed these books were accessible by the groups the province means to protect.

He also said school boards were contacted before the province launched its campaign, adding they were not “blindsided” by the news.

“I’m not a big fan of any of my partners in the education world – school boards or others – learning about government changes or initiatives through the media. I always try to take time to notify our stakeholders and providers and we did just that in this circumstance.”

Nicolaides said the meetings were conducted virtually and during those talks, he confirmed those books existed in schools and shared the concerns he heard from parents.

The proposed book guidelines wasn’t a high priority, the minister said, but his ministry acted on it “when it had time” among its other challenges such as curriculum updates, budget changes and collective bargaining.

No decisions yet

“At this point, the government hasn’t made any decisions,” Nicolaides said, adding his ministry will be working with partners on “the right provincewide standards.”

“I think the vast majority of parents, based on some preliminary polling we have done, agree with us generally that material with graphic depictions of sexual acts should not be in places where elementary-aged students would be able to access them.”

Nicolaides said 94 per cent of parents agreed with that assessment.

“I want to listen to Albertans as a whole, get the province’s collective view and make a decision from there.”