Anticipation towards shared objectives under revised book regulations by CBE

New Rules for School Libraries in Alberta: Premier Smith's Government Targets Graphic Novels

Alberta's education minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, is revising the ministerial order to ensure that classic literary works remain in school libraries, while books containing graphic pornographic images are not available to children. The new rules, announced by Premier Danielle Smith's government, aim to remove such graphic materials from school libraries.

Nicolaides has shared a list of schools that carried graphic novels flagged to the ministry. These schools include high schools, junior high schools, and K-9s in Calgary. However, there is no publicly available information specifying which schools in Calgary have the graphic novels Gender Queer, Fun Home, Flamer, and Blankets in their middle school libraries over the past months.

CBE chief superintendent Joanne Pitman stated that there was no single elementary school that carried these particular books, but they were all schools that had middle school grades within them. Pitman looks forward to seeing the changes and ensuring that students have developmentally appropriate books and can be critical thinkers.

The pause in the removal of books came after Edmonton's public school division put together a list of over 200 books to remove, including Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

The premier is clear about the distinction between graphic pornographic images and classic literary works. The premier's policy intends to keep classic literary works in school libraries.

The minister is currently working on a new version of the ministerial order and is not commenting on specific changes at this time. There is no announced timeline for the release of the new ministerial order.

Pitman's goal is to ensure that students have developmentally appropriate books and can be critical thinkers. The government will not play any more games in implementing this policy. The list includes schools under the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and Edmonton Public Schools.