Keller asks library to remove post promoting banned books out of fear of controversy
Some Keller residents were concerned Monday when they saw that the city asked the public library to remove a social media post promoting the national Banned Books Week.
The library posted a tweet that said, ”National Banned Books Week is September 18-September 24.
“Want to check out any of these titles for yourself? Your Keller Public Library card can help you with that!”
Some of the books from the 10 most challenged of 2021 listed are “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie and “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews.
The library’s post also listed reasons why the books were challenged or banned which included references to the LGBTQ community, sexually explicit content and derogatory terms.
Debbie Wolf, a Keller resident who spoke during Tuesday night’s council meeting, said she was concerned that the library was told to remove the post.
“In February of this year, I asked the city council to publicly condemn racist, anti-Semitic material distributed within parts of the city by the Aryan Freedom Network,” she said. “No condemnation was forthcoming. Yesterday, the city removed a Facebook post from our public library about Banned Books Week, which included a list of the most challenged books this year, a list the library has shared many times in years past.”
In a statement sent to the Star-Telegram via text message, the city of Keller said it told the library to take down the social media post out of concern that it could spark controversy in the community.
“City leadership was concerned that residents would think we were trying to cause controversy, given recent debates about books in the school district, so we removed it as that was certainly not the intent,” the text message read.
“We still invite our residents to celebrate Banned Books Week with us at the library this week, as we do every year.”
On Wednesday, Mayor Armin Mizani said in a statement that the city’s policy is to avoid social media posts that can be interpreted as political statements.
“Our award-winning team of librarians has worked hard to make our public library a place for community and coming together, and throughout the day, it became clear that some were using the post to divide us further,” he said in the statement. “As such, the decision was ultimately made to take the social media post down.
As Mayor, I respect the views of all our residents. Although the post was pulled due to our long-standing practice, the Keller Public Library still welcomes residents to check out books we may have in circulation.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 10:38 PM.