Chapman students lock up some Little Free Libraries as segue to larger discussion on censorship and diversity
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A couple walking their dog in a tranquil Corona del Mar neighborhood did a double take as they passed by a group of four Chapman University students wrapping neon caution tape around a wooden box stuffed with books on Orchid Street. More heads turned as they bound the Little Free Library with chains and then secured it with a padlock.
“There was a man driving a truck and kind of stuck his head out, and he took pictures of us, we think,” student Kestyn Hudson said. “We don’t know for sure, but we think he took pictures of us, maybe to submit us to one of the neighborhood watch websites. Because ‘What are these kids doing with caution tape?’”
The display was temporary and similar to others the students created in Orange and Laguna Beach. It’s one of several campaigns developed for the Public Relations Student Society of America’s Bateman Case Study Competition.
This year, contestants were tasked with promoting EveryLibrary. The national organization advocates in support of library funding and opposes what many progressive groups describe as book bans.
The future of local libraries has been on the minds of many students at Chapman’s campus in Orange due to recent events, project partners Hudson, Michael Elkins, Brandon Mahgerefteh and Isaac Persky said. Officials in that city reduced hours at three of its libraries in January. That move came after budget cuts across every department last summer and the failure of a half-cent sales tax increase proposed on the November ballot.
Elkins, Hudson, Mahgerefteh and Persky chose to focus on small community libraries because those are a beloved resource many people see as they go about their business in neighborhoods across Southern California and beyond. Seeing something that allowed people to freely exchange stories and ideas with their neighbors was jarring to many who engaged with their campaign, and became invitation to a broader conversation about access to literature, freedom of speech and censorship.
Most of the reactions to the students’ project have been positive, they said. But a vocal minority of people with conservative-leaning views regarding what type of content children should be allowed to consume have also been a part of the discussion, and there have been “a lot of arguments in our TikTok section,” Hudson said.
“We have had some reactions of people who say ‘I think maybe these books should be banned,’ or having that side,” Elkins said. “But I think getting those people engaged to actually see the other side and understand what we’re fighting for, and what the outcome could be if we continue down the path of defunding libraries and banning books, I think that was important and helpful.”
Some of the most heated debate on those topics have come out of Huntington Beach, which approved the creation of a parent/guardian children’s book review board in April. Supporters of that decision say it protects impressionable youth from exposure to obscene material and gives parents more agency in raising their kids.
They also note that flagged material won’t be removed but instead relocated from the children’s section into an adult section. Parents would still have access to it.
Book bans in other cities have often targeted titles that make reference to sexuality or LGBTQ+ identity. Examples of children’s material that have been restricted elsewhere in America include Judy Blume’s “Are you there God? It’s me Margaret” and Todd Parr’s “The Family Book.” The latter captured the ire of conservatives for a passage that reads: “some families have two moms or two dads.”
Critics say Huntington Beach’s review board is an exercise in censorship that stifles diversity and tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community. On Wednesday librarian Erin Spivey and two local teens joined a coalition of organizations led by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California in a lawsuit challenging the city’s book review board.
Huntington Beach City Council also raised eyebrows after approving the installation of a plaque commemorating the Central Library’s 50th year of service. It prominently lists the words magical, alluring, galvanizing and adventurous, lined up so that their first letters spell out the abbreviation MAGA, shorthand for the phrase often printed onto red baseball caps and worn by supporters of President Trump.
Conservatives and progressives in the coastal Orange County community also clashed over a proposal to privatize the city’s libraries. That plan eventually fell through and prompted its opponents to circulate a petition asking the Huntington Beach council to ensure libraries remain a publicly held resource that garnered thousands of signatures. However, members of the council claimed many were obtained under false pretenses, and they have issued a survey asking those who signed if they were given false information or coerced.
Debates surrounding public libraries in Orange County and across the nation may rage well into the foreseeable future, well past the end of the Bateman competition on March 3. For their part, the four contestants from Chapman University realize the issue isn’t going to simply resolve itself any time soon.
“We would love to go on beyond this competition because it’s such an important thing,” Elkins said. “So we absolutely want to continue to fight for this.”
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