{"id":12494,"date":"2016-02-10T12:01:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=12494"},"modified":"2016-02-05T09:51:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T14:51:50","slug":"a-talk-with-pat-scales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/a-talk-with-pat-scales\/","title":{"rendered":"A Talk With Pat Scales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo courtesy of Pat Scales<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pat Scales is the 2016 recipient of the ALSC Distinguished Service Award,<\/a> and we’re thrilled to have her share some memories of her years of working with children, families, librarians, and educators across the country. ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee member Miriam Lang Budin chatted with Pat via email:<\/p>\n

Miriam Lang Budin: First of all, congratulations on receiving the 2016 ALSC Distinguished Service Award! What a well-deserved recognition of your many years of dedicated school librarianship, professional leadership, and continuing guidance to those of us in the trenches.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have any funny stories about your work as a champion of intellectual freedom?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pat Scales: Yes. \u00a0I helped an elementary school in the late 1980s deal with a parent who complained about William Steig\u2019s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble<\/em> because \u201cSylvester has an out of body experience.\u201d \u00a0She was, of course, referring to Sylvester turning into a rock. \u00a0I have used that book in teaching students about the freedom to read. \u00a0I told them about the complaint about the \u201cpig policemen\u201d in the 1970s, and then I told them about the later complaint. \u00a0They asked me to explain an out of body experience. \u00a0I had to say I didn\u2019t know because I had never had one.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite stories is the time I was teaching the First Amendment to eighth graders. \u00a0I told them that My Friend Flicka<\/i> had been banned in Florida because of the word \u201cbitch\u201d in reference to a female dog. \u00a0I asked them to name other words that society has turned into slang. \u00a0A boy on the front row said, \u201cpussy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The students didn\u2019t hear him and asked me what he said. \u00a0I turned to the class and said, \u201cJohn said pussy, and he\u2019s absolutely right.”\u00a0\u00a0I then recited ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat.’ Not one student laughed. Later the teacher and I invited the principal to the class to hear the lecture. \u00a0He was amazed by the students, and said it was one of the best lessons he had ever observed. \u00a0I turned to him and told him that I was sorry he missed \u201cpussy.\u201d \u00a0He collapsed on the floor laughing.<\/p>\n

MLB: Have you ever been afraid for your safety when working in the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: No, not ever. \u00a0There were two incidents that happened when I was at a residential high school for the arts, but they didn\u2019t frighten me.<\/p>\n

I served on a panel at ALA about privacy and the Patriot Act. What we didn\u2019t know until later was that some very conservative organizations had planted people in the audience. \u00a0When I returned home I received some very threatening telephone calls at work. Someone even wrote to our governor complaining about my views. \u00a0I was called from the governor\u2019s office just to inform me that the governor stood behind me. \u00a0Security guards escorted me to my car for about a week. \u00a0I never heard anything more after that week.<\/p>\n

A woman appeared in the library one day around 5:00 and began pulling books, marking specific pages with strips of paper, and stacking them on tables. \u00a0Most were art books that had nude paintings. \u00a0There were a few graphic novels that she added to the stacks. \u00a0She quickly fled when I asked her if I could help her. \u00a0Then I spotted a magazine that had my name on the label. \u00a0She had circled my name and written \u201cthe problem.\u201d\u00a0I never knew who she was.<\/p>\n

MLB: Can you tell us about a satisfying victory?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: I worked with a group of citizens in Fayetteville, Arkansas who were fighting a woman who was leading a campaign to get any books that dealt with \u201csex\u201d out of the school libraries. \u00a0The group addressed the school board in a kind of town hall meeting, and won their battle. \u00a0It was wonderful to see a community group rise in support of books, the right to read, and the right to seek information.<\/p>\n

I was also an expert witness to the Annie on My Mind<\/i> censorship trial in Olathe, Kansas. High school students sued the superintendent of schools after he pulled the book from the library shelves. \u00a0Garden\u2019s book had been in the library for ten years, and there had never been a question until a gay\/lesbian group wanted to gift the book to the school library. That made the superintendent nervous, and he dismissed the selection policy and the materials review policy, and banned the book. The students were brilliant, and they won the case.<\/p>\n

MLB: Have there been any crushing defeats?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: Yes. \u00a0The Miami-Dade Public Schools removed Vamos a Cuba<\/i> because they didn\u2019t think it accurately represented life in the Communist country. \u00a0They cited the cover of the book where a young boy is smiling. \u00a0\u201cNo child would smile under the Castro regime.\u201d There were other complaints: \u201cOnly the rich would wear the festival dress.\u201d \u201cThe boy pulling the oxen was too clean and neat and didn\u2019t represent hard work.\u201d \u00a0The Florida ACLU took the case to court, and they called me as an expert witness. We won the case in the federal district court, but the school district appealed. \u00a0The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is very conservative, and they ruled that the school board had not violated anyone\u2019s First Amendment rights. \u00a0The book was permanently removed.<\/p>\n

MLB: Is there an ongoing battle that\u00a0you feel is especially important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: We still deal with issues related to \u201clabeling\u201d of content in books, and restricting students to books on their \u201creading level\u201d in school and public libraries. \u00a0This is extremely troubling, because this restricts young readers\u2019 access to books they want, or information they need. \u00a0There are documented cases where books have been removed from a library based solely on a Common Sense Media review. \u00a0This site uses emoticons to label controversial issues in books and media. \u00a0It\u2019s all taken out of context, and the folks working for them aren\u2019t professionals. There are other websites that label in much the same way.<\/p>\n

There have been many censorship cases related to \u201creading levels.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Parents and teachers want their really \u201cgood\u201d readers to read books that have \u201chigh reading levels.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes these books are too mature for the reader. \u00a0For example, a newspaper in Arizona interviewed me when The Perks of Being a Wallflower<\/i> was banned in an elementary school in Apache Junction. \u00a0The school had purchased the book because Accelerated Reader put it on the fourth-grade reading level. \u00a0This case prompted the State Superintendent to send a letter of \u201cwarning\u201d to all school libraries in the state. \u00a0The Perks of Being a Wallflower<\/i> isn\u2019t appropriate for fourth-grade, and shouldn\u2019t have been purchased for the elementary school.<\/p>\n

No librarian should ever allow any company to determine what they purchase for their library. \u00a0We have a number of professional review journals to guide us.<\/p>\n

MLB: What can we do to help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS: Talk the Talk. \u00a0Walk the Walk. \u00a0DO NOT succumb to pressure from organizations from the \u201cright\u201d or the \u201cleft.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Review your selection policies and make sure they include statements related to \u201ccontroversial\u201d materials and cultural and historical accuracy. \u00a0Then stick to your policies.<\/p>\n

Encourage state library associations to sponsor programs; enroll in webinars about the issues; write blogs and articles for journals and newsletters; and, sponsor Banned Books Week activities for kids and adults to make them aware of the issues.<\/p>\n

Pat’s regular column in School Library Journal, Scales on Censorship,<\/a> is a valuable resource for reasoned, practical responses to intellectual freedom concerns. Questions can be sent to\u00a0pscales@bellsouth.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you, Pat!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pat Scales is the 2016 recipient of the ALSC Distinguished Service Award, and we’re thrilled to have her share some memories of her years of working with children, families, librarians, and educators across the country. ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee member Miriam Lang Budin chatted with Pat via email: Miriam Lang Budin: First of all, congratulations on receiving the 2016 ALSC Distinguished Service Award! What a well-deserved recognition of your many years of dedicated school librarianship, professional leadership, and continuing guidance to those of us in the trenches. Do you have any funny stories about your work as a champion of intellectual freedom? Pat Scales: Yes. \u00a0I helped an elementary school in the late 1980s deal with a parent who complained about William Steig\u2019s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble because \u201cSylvester has an out of body experience.\u201d \u00a0She was, of course, referring to Sylvester turning into a rock. \u00a0I have used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[12,272,11,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards-scholarships","category-blogger-intellectual-freedom-committee","category-priority-group-i","category-intellectual-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}