CO Public Education Good Trouble Team

What this Bill Does: It requires all school districts to adopt a local policy outlining how they choose books and especially how they will decide if a book will be removed from their library should someone challenge it. The law explicitly protects the staff involved from retaliation if they are following state law. WHY the LAW is NEEDED: We need to protect the public school libraries in the State of Colorado. • Times have changed. We need to protect public school libraries, students, staff, parents, communities and Colorado. • Colorado STUDENTS  in public schools have had their rights to access information violated when books were abruptly pulled off shelves and out of classrooms without clear decision-making criteria. • Staff, board & community members in Colorado have been retaliated against for demanding the rights of ALL parents and ALL students are respected. • Colorado public school STUDENTS have been prevented from learning when resources were removed or denied to them based on the whims and narrow biases of a handful of people, politicians and activists. • Some Colorado schools, districts and communities failed to realize they needed a library policy until it was too late! • Colorado PARENTS have had their rights as parents DENIED by school boards and staff who DENIED their children access to information in their school and classroom libraries. • Political activists are being trained by extremist groups to sow chaos in public schools and districts, using book censorship and fear to undermine public schools and intimidate people. • Political activists in Colorado are exploiting weak or missing school library policies. • "Serial book banners" outside Colorado directed extremist groups in our state to use their lists of "objectionable books" to barrage and overwhelm our schools and districts. • Political operatives and extremists keep catching Colorado Districts, Schools, Board & Communities off-guard because policies don't exist.