Santa Rosa County’s Moms for Liberty executive board passed as resolution requesting the Santa Rosa County School Board to sever ties with the American Library Association (ALA) and its divisions and affiliates, such as the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME).
The MOMs board objected to “the alarming influence of the ALA in shaping library collections and promoting content that is inappropriate for children.” It asked the school board to direct “school staff, librarians, administration, and teachers to stop using any standards from the ALA and its affiliates, to remove any links or associations with these organizations from the Santa Rosa County School District website.”
The group cited ALA’s Rainbow Roundtable and its Rainbow Project Book List, a recommended list of over 190 books for young readers from birth to age 18 that represents an array of diverse stories and identities representing the LGBTQIA+ youth experience. MOMs also stated in its press release, “The ALA has been promoting Drag Queen Story Hours in libraries for over five years, encouraging children to explore their ‘gender fluidity.'”
The group didn’t cite any Santa Rosa school that has hosted Drag Queen Story Hours.
Dig Deeper: The American Library Association (ALA) is the oldest and largest library association in the world, founded in 1876 during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
Its mission is “to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.”
ALA has been fighting book bans and censorship.