‘I’m an English teacher before I’m a legislator’: Stonier introduces bill to protect against book bansSubscriber Exclusive

The American Library Association reported record levels of attempted book bans and challenges in 2022. Most of such attempted bans are happening in schools.

Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, introduced a bill in Washington’s Legislature that she said would protect schools against the wave of attempted bans — a measure she said is partly based on her own experience as a teacher in Vancouver.

“I’m an English teacher before I’m a legislator. It’s really important to me that anything I’m teaching can be as diverse and engaging as possible,” Stonier said.

House Bill 2331 would bolster the review process for books and prevent school boards from removing or restricting instructional materials by protected classes such as people of color or the LGBTQIA+ community.

“A school district board of directors may not refuse to approve, or prohibit the use of, any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or other curriculum for student instruction on the basis that it relates to or includes the study of the role and contributions of any individual or group who is part of a protected class,” the bill states.

The American Library Association said that of the 2,571 titles targeted for censorship in 2022, the “vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.”

“I find (the book challenges) to be incredibly targeted and political,” Stonier said. “That’s what gave me pause. Parents should be able to make decisions for their own children without it impacting others.”

The bill left the House Education Committee earlier this week and will move to the House floor in the coming weeks. The Senate is preparing to consider the companion bill SB 6208.

Personal experience

In her time as a seventh-grade teacher in Evergreen Public Schools, Stonier said she found herself on the other end of a book challenge. While preparing for a social studies unit on world religions, Stonier said one parent reached out to her and “took exception” to teaching about religions other than Christianity.

“What we agreed to was that, whatever the assignment is, it’s just my expectation that your child knows other religions exist,” Stonier said.

Stonier said she worked with the parents so they could teach the lesson to their child at home in the way they saw fit. The agreement, she said, allowed for that student to continue their own learning without one parent’s preferences interrupting other students’ learning.

The bill would require school districts to have a clear, step-by-step policy for how to review books by the start of the 2025-2026 school year. The challenge would have to be made in writing by a parent, and any review would consult the school’s teacher-librarians, where applicable.

Several such challenges in the past have gone through to the school board without properly consulting teachers or librarians, Stonier said.

“There’s nothing in this bill that usurps a parent’s ability to tell their kid what they should and should not be reading,” she said. “Again, there may be materials that are unsuitable for an age group, that’s why we have the review process in the first place. I just want to make it clearer and give it the guidelines it needs to help districts know what to do.”

Other bills

Stonier’s bill is not Washington’s only piece of library-related legislation up for debate in this year’s legislative session.

Senate Bill 5824 would move to protect public library districts against being dissolved or defunded due to community frustrations around featured material. The bill was inspired by an attempt to defund the Columbia County Public Library in Dayton last year after community members learned of the existence of several LGBTQIA+ books in the library.

Jennifer Giltrop, the new executive director of FVRLibraries in Clark County, told The Columbian in January she thought widespread opposition to LGBTQIA+ materials was unwarranted.

“I do believe public libraries have to offer collections for everything. There is something in every library that will offend someone,” Giltrop said last month. “That’s part of a healthy democracy.”

Stonier said she’s been interested in pursuing such a bill for a while and felt now was finally the right time given the dramatic uptick in book challenges since 2020.

“I’ve been finding the right time to introduce this bill for the last few years,” she said. “The question was, ‘How big is this going to be?’ So I decided to stick to the one thing I know best: defending kids’ choice.”