Freedom to Read

 

HCPSS Media Specialists were suprised this week to discover a note in their work email wishing them a Happy National School Librarian Day. If you thought they were surprised since National School Librarian Day is in April and not October, you’d be partly right. 

But what really made them scratch their heads was who sent the email: Trent Kittleman, a candidate for the Board of Education, District 5.

Image used with permission.

Thank you Media Staff!

Dear HCPSS Media staff:

Shoutout to all the superheroes behind the shelves!

Happy #NationalSchoolLibrarianDay

Dear Media staff,

I am truly thankful for the dedication, hard work, and commitment you show in providing first-class media centers to all our students --including my five grandchildren!

Trent Kittleman

Candidate for Board of Education, District 5

There are several reasons why this email is puzzling if not downright troubling. It appears to violate accepted boundaries for ethical campaigning. Teachers are being solicited at their place of business by someone who, if elected, would have substantial influence over their professional lives. We have rules that govern what candidates can and cannot do. They can’t place campaign signs on school property, for instance, or actively campaign on school grounds.

Sending a campaign email directly to media specialists at work looks an awful lot like campaigning on school grounds to me.

How do I know it’s meant to be a campaign email? This:

Used with permission 

The email closes with information about participating in early voting and contains the campaign information at the bottom.

For many folks a run for the Board of Education is their first experience with politics and election rules. Sometimes they run afoul of things like sign placing and need to be brought up to speed when it comes to what is and isn’t appropriate. Ms. Kittleman, the veteran of many political campaigns both locally and statewide, can’t be confused with a newcomer. That’s what makes this email so unsettling.

And there’s one more thing. 

Kittleman is well known locally as an early supporter of the Howard County Moms 4 Liberty Group, withdrawing her membership only when deciding to run for BOE. M4L has a national reputation ( and in Howard County, too) for attacking the professional expertise of school librarians/media specialists and demanding the removal of materials they don’t like from school library collections.

In short, M4L has made it their business to undermine intellectual freedom in schools and denigrate the professional ability of school librarians. If you’ve watched any BOE meetings recently, you’ve seen how they operate. They don’t call media specialists the “Superheroes Behind the Shelves”. They call them “groomers” and “woke indoctrinators.”

A vote for Ms. Kittleman to sit on the Howard County Schools Board of Education is a vote for that. Therefore, soliciting the votes of these HCPSS teachers whose field of expertise has already been subjected to such negative and almost threatening scrutiny could very well be interpreted as offensive. Or disingenuous. 

I most certainly cannot explain it. 

If you live in District 5 I’d suggest you go look up her opponent Andrea Chamblee  and learn all you can before casting your vote.

Some good news for today. October 19th is Freedom to Read Day of Action.

Librarians nationwide are facing verbal abuse, death threats, and, in some cases, even criminal charges and jail time. As bastions of intellectual freedom, public libraries are at the forefront of this battle. On October 19, New York City will join our counterparts across the country to stand up for free, unfettered access to information. Upholding diverse perspectives and a broad range of ideas is not only essential to the core mission of libraries, but to our democracy. - - from the American Library Association article on Freedom to Read Day of Action

Throughout the country, Freedom to Read Day of Action is hosting more than 100 events in 35 states to take action to support libraries and to push back against book bans. I haven’t found any events specifically in Howard County. (If you know of any, let me know.)  I do know that one of the best ways to support the freedom to read right now to is to vote for candidates up and down the ballot who have a proven track record of supporting libraries and intellectual freedom. 

That includes how you vote in the Board of Education race. Early Voting begins October 24th, 

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