The Road to Annual: Sunday, June 9
We met Tom Bober at Clayton High School in Clayton, Missouri, at 9:30 a.m. Ours were the only two cars in the parking lot, a situation that would drastically change a couple hours later when families bearing flowers streamed in to celebrate young children at a local dance recital. Missouri school librarians like Bober have been working under extremely challenging conditions since the passage of SB 775 in 2022. The law criminalizes “explicit sexual materials” in schools and libraries, language that “hits those constitutional law words ‘vague’ and ‘overbroad,” according to Gillian Wilcox, Deputy Director for Litigation at ACLU Missouri.
Emily with Tom Bober, MASL President and librarian at Captain Elementary School.
After filming interviews with Bober and Wilcox, we were joined by two dozen local educators for an afternoon of conversation about reading and libraries in the wake of this legislation. Bober and Wilcox kicked things off with a discussion of SB 775. ACLU Missouri has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians (Bober is president of the organization) and the Missouri Library Association, arguing that the law suppresses the first amendment rights of students and undermines the work of Missouri librarians through threats of prosecution. Librarians across the country are fighting back against the organized censorship movement, and we have so much to learn from each other about strategy and tactics that work.
Clayton High School in Clayton, Missouri.
Following the legal discussion, I moderated a session with three area high school students who shared what access to a school library means for them. We know that school libraries contribute concretely to student learning and literacy—study after study makes this clear. But research outcomes can’t capture what these students could. The library is a home and a haven, a space where everyone belongs, where books are always and endlessly available. For a room full of librarians, hearing these three committed readers explain how much they matter filled our cups. I admitted to disliking science fiction and fantasy—favorite genres of our panelists—and have been tasked with reading Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White. I’ll be following up with you, CHS students!
Kassie King closed us out by booktalking the latest Pride reads from her bookstore, The Novel Neighbor. In addition to offering educator discounts, the St. Louis bookstore’s foundation runs a program that brings authors to under-resourced schools in St. Louis, buying a copy for each student. King hit fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages, including critical resources for parents, and we all snapped pictures of her slides. It’s time to get reading!
Nikita and I then hit the road to Columbia, Missouri. Settling in for the night to reflect on my trip and watch the Dodgers-Yankees matchup I discovered that my laptop was relaxing more than a hundred miles away at the Clayton High School library. The first snafu of the trip! An extra thanks to Tom Bober for helping us reunite. Librarians: connecting people to resources at all hours of the day and night!
Mileage: 125
Soundtrack: The Moth Podcast, Happy Birthday
