Teachers demand end to school library ‘censorship’ after school removed 130 books from shelves

Delegates at the National Education Union (NEU) conference in Brighton have voted for a motion calling on the union executive to oppose censorship in school libraries and to promote the body as a union for librarians.

It follows claims a Salford school had ordered more than 130 books to be removed from their library shelves.

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“Any move to censor books in school libraries based on misinformation and fearmongering should ring alarm bells for all of us,” NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said.

“The USA and Hungary are examples of countries which have implemented book bans in schools, primarily targeting books by women, black and LGBT+ authors, and the NEU is clear that this is not a path we are prepared to follow in the UK.”

The motion passed by delegates said librarian members of the union are reporting both internal and external censorship of library materials, as well as redundancies, budget cuts, and extremely low pay.

Proposing the motion, delegate Kristabelle Williams said schools must be prepared to defend their book collections in the context of the rise of the far right, warning there is a likelihood of more “challenges and hate campaigns”.

Index on Censorship reported in March that more than 130 books were allegedly to be removed from the shelves at a school library in Greater Manchester, rising to nearly 200 if each issue of the “graphic novels” was counted.

The books reportedly included a graphic novel of George Orwell’s 1984, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series, as well as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books.

The Lowry Academy in Salford denied that books had been "banned" and said they had instead been placed into “age-appropriate categories”.

“It is not the case that books have been ‘banned’ by the school,” a spokesperson for the academy said.

“Following concerns that a number of books within the library were neither age- nor content-appropriate, an audit was conducted.

“Following this, books have been placed into age-appropriate categories and returned to the shelves. A very small number of books were deemed inappropriate even for older children due to their content and have been removed.”

Delegates at the NEU conference supporting the motion spoke about other schools where they had heard reports of books being removed.

Speaking in support of the motion, Laura Butterworth said: “I’ve heard many accounts from librarians in my district of them having to take art books off the shelves because they have historic paintings and sculptures of nudes.”

Delegate Matthew Hobbs, from Luton, said he had also had to fight against efforts to remove books by LGBT+ authors from school libraries.