School Librarian Rejects Books Sent By Melania Trump, Explains Why
- 7 years ago
An elementary school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, rejected a box of 10 Dr. Seuss books sent by first lady Melania Trump and, in a letter posted Tuesday on the Horn Book blog, explained why
An elementary school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, rejected a box of 10 Dr. Seuss books sent by first lady Melania Trump and, in a letter posted Tuesday on the Horn Book blog, explained why.
One reason given is that the well-supported school simply doesn’t need them.
“I work in a district that has plenty of resources…Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an amazing city with robust social programming," librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro writes. "My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science.”
Phipps Soeiro also mentions that the achievement-based criteria used in choosing the one school in each state that would receive the books may have been misguided.
She notes that there are schools all over the country not as fortunate as her own and asks, “Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”
According to CBS News, parents of students who attend the school appeared largely supportive of the letter, but the school system released a statement distancing itself from the librarian’s actions.
“We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes," it read, in part.
An elementary school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, rejected a box of 10 Dr. Seuss books sent by first lady Melania Trump and, in a letter posted Tuesday on the Horn Book blog, explained why.
One reason given is that the well-supported school simply doesn’t need them.
“I work in a district that has plenty of resources…Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an amazing city with robust social programming," librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro writes. "My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science.”
Phipps Soeiro also mentions that the achievement-based criteria used in choosing the one school in each state that would receive the books may have been misguided.
She notes that there are schools all over the country not as fortunate as her own and asks, “Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”
According to CBS News, parents of students who attend the school appeared largely supportive of the letter, but the school system released a statement distancing itself from the librarian’s actions.
“We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes," it read, in part.