Scholastic Responds To New Allegations Regarding Censorship Under New Diversity Offering

Recently, Scholastic shared a statement regarding new accusations of censorship due to a new diverse stories offering called Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice which librarians and school officials hosting fairs must decide whether to offer it or not.

According to the statement, Scholastic said it created the collection for elementary school book fairs as a way to continue providing diverse books as many states and localities have begun to pursue legislation or other policies around content selections that could put school officials and librarians in jeopardy.

There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools – mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country. Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, these laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians, and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted.

Scholastic Statement

Critics, however, have pointed out that many of the books that the collection offers aren’t that controversial, and saying it is unclear if any penalties, librarians or school officials might face for marketing titles with diverse presentation in a book fair setting. Scholastic Book Fairs reaches around 35 million children annually in 50 states and internationally. The complete Share Every Story list is not visible to unregistered website visitors, but it is visible in Scholastic Showcase listings, which are distributed to elementary fair planners.

The controversy began in September on Social Media, when educators began raising concerns that Scholastic was requiring schools to opt into or out of the Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice case, which focuses primarily on diverse content, characters, and creators. This option would allow fair organizers to eliminate a wide selection of titles that foregrounded the representation of BIOPIC, LGBTQIA, disabled, and other identities.

The Mary Sue’s Rachel Ulatowski mentioned in her article that “several librarians…were explicitly asked ‘if’ they wanted a case with diverse books” and that Scholastic does not list the titles “in book fair catalogs sent to parents, even when the school requests the case.” This story would also be picked up by independent journalists such as Judd Legem, who dubbed this as Scholastic’s Bigot Button and mainstream news media companies like The New York Times and CBS News have both picked up the story.

Related: Red-State Libraries Pull Out Of The American Library Association, claiming ALA’s Free Speech Efforts Are Political

PEN America, an organization that promotes free speech and literature weighed in on Tuesday about Scholastic’s decision, saying that they share the dismay they are hearing from authors. The organization also acknowledged the challenges that librarians, Scholastic, and other groups in the face of State Laws targeting some topics, but added that creating a separate group of books dealing with diverse themes “risks depriving students and families of books that speak to them.”

PEN America shares the dismay we are hearing from authors over news that, at Scholastic Book Fairs, access to certain books by a diverse group of authors has been limited or partitioned because of content related to race, racism and LGBTQ+ identities.  We have spoken out repeatedly to condemn legislation that has the effect of restricting what books can be accessed and taught, putting teachers, administrators, and librarians under penalty of discipline if they traverse intentionally vague lines of censorship.

PEN America

Source: Publishers Weekly, Scholastic, The Mary Sue

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