Alaska high school students are asking local school districts to refrain from following national trends in banning books, which they believe are occurring for political – rather than educational – reasons.
A resolution on book bans was one of three resolutions brought before the Sitka School Board on Wednesday (11-1-23) by local students who had recently returned from the annual meeting of the Alaska Association of Student Governments in Fairbanks.
Sitka High senior Kylie Orlando prefaced her introduction of the student resolution by asking school board members to put aside their personal political agendas. Book bans, she argued, have become weaponized by politics, to the point that advocates don’t really understand what they’re banning.
“The resolution I am bringing is about book bans, and they go much deeper than reading,” said Orlando. “The message behind them goes far deeper. They’re about education and representation and so much more than that. They highlight not only the representation of minorities in the books, but also the representation that we are not receiving from many legislators who should have students wants and needs as a priority.”
The two-page resolution drafted by the Alaska Association of Student Governments contained statistical information compiled by the American Library Association about the significant increase in challenges to books in recent years. The resolution language allows for people to raise concerns about books as an important First Amendment Freedom, but “there should be an effort to verify their claims about the book, to read the work as a whole, and to determine whose information needs are being served by the books.”
Although the Sitka School Board may adopt some or all of the student resolutions in the future, this reading was simply an introduction. Board member Tom Williams said he couldn’t support it in its current form, which reads “Therefore, be it resolved that the Alaska Association of Student Governments does not support book bans in our state and country.”
“My issue with this resolution is it is all-inclusive,” Williams said. “All grades, all books, current books and future books. And without having a provision that would allow a banning of a book, regardless of its topic, its material, or its content seems unwise, and I would not support a resolution and did not have some type of ability to ban material that we either know or don’t know, at this time.”
Orlando was joined by fellow students Jasmine Wolfe and Olivia Skan in introducing a second resolution in support of school staff receiving mandatory mental health training to identify certain issues in students. In her remarks, Wolfe said, “It is no secret that in the past couple of years, we are seeing an increase in mental health issues not only at the state level, but nationally.” She said that she and Skan brainstormed ideas to try and create change, without making things worse. After many conversations with students and teachers, they felt staff training would help shift the burden off students “so it’s not all on them” as they confronted the mental health issues around suicide prevention and social media.
Phil Burdick worked in the district for twenty-five years as a teacher and administrator prior to joining the board. He was supportive of more training, but reminded Wolfe that mental health issues were not exclusive to students.
“We did offer mental health first aid for the entire staff, and I think that has been four or five years ago,” said Burdick. “It was very impactful for many staff, it was very difficult as well because it impacts staff’s mental health, as well as students’ mental health.”
The third resolution of the evening involved gender equity in sports – but it’s not the issue that’s been in recent headlines.
Francis Myers said that students had identified an imbalance in the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) sports program.
“Whereas the ASAA handbook states quote, ‘a school must provide equal athletic opportunity to both sexes in numbers that are substantially proportionate to enrollment.’” Myers continued: “Whereas volleyball is the only unbalanced safe sport at a 3A/4A level that isn’t co-ed, meaning men aren’t allowed to participate.”
Interim superintendent Steve Bradshaw wanted to know how the resolution’s authors proposed funding a new sports program. Myers responded that men’s volleyball had increased in popularity nationwide by 50-percent in just the last ten years. The purpose of the resolution was to support the creation of an ASAA-sanctioned men’s volleyball league, and to provide districts – which had adequate funding and interest – momentum to start the sport in their schools.
