Book Banning in Surrey—What Happened?

by James Chamberlain

As the teacher who sparked the book banning controversy in Surrey, I’d like to inform you of the anti-gay motions passed by the Surrey School Board. These stand in direct opposition to our members’ concerns to strive to eliminate homophobia and heterosexism from schools.

In April and May the trustees passed the following motions:

1. "That all administration, teaching and counselling staff be informed that resources from gay and lesbian groups such as GALE or their related resource lists are not approved for use or redistribution in the Surrey School District." This motion effectively banned counsellors from using the handbook "Counselling Lesbian Gay Youth" that had been in all schools for about two years.

2. At the next board meeting the trustees debated the use of three children’s books for Kindergarten and Grade One classrooms. I had submitted these books which included images of same-sex parents in them. My intent was to use them as part of a unit on Families under the K/1 CAPP curriculum to demonstrate the diversity of families within the context of an age-appropriate theme.

   The books were:

   • Asha’s Mums (ISBN 0-88961-143-2 copyright 1990)
   • Belinda’s Bouquet (ISBN 1-55583-154-0 copyright 1991)
   • One Dad Two Dads Brown Dad Blue Dads (ISBN 1-555883-253-9 copyright 1994)

   Please note that the first book is by a Canadian author and the other two are by American authors.

   In a vote of 4-2, the trustees chose to ban these books from all schools in Surrey. They made their decision using no criteria whatsoever and despite presentations in favour of the use of the books. GALE-BC, The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and parents from my classroom all gave convincing arguments as to why the books should be approved. There were no presentations against the use of the books. Eighteen of twenty families from my classroom read the books and presented a petition to the board in favour of their use.

3. At the subsequent board meeting trustees put forth another motion in a futile attempt to gain retroactive support for their book banning. They voted to send home a parent survey with all elementary children in the district. It stated that the majority of trustees felt the three books were inappropriate for elementary aged children. The survey asked only one question:

   "Do you agree with the use of materials such as books, videos and/or presenters from the Gay and Lesbian Educators of BC for classroom instruction for Kindergarten through Grade 7?"

   A simple yes or no response was required. This question was inaccurate and misleading as the board was unaware that GALE did not even do presentations to elementary schools or own the resources in question. The board also felt that parents throughout the district could make an informed decision about the age-appropriate use of the books without even reading them!

Parents in Surrey became outraged at this decision and asked questions regarding the costs of sending this survey out and the accuracy and validity of the results. They further questioned the appropriateness of it given its biased and inaccurate wording. Finally, they called for it to be rescinded as they did not think it appropriate that elementary aged children bring home any referenda from the trustees and they object vociferously to the discriminatory nature of it.

Two parents then brought a motion forward to the District Parent’s Advisory Committee (DPAC) calling for the rescinding of the survey. DPAC voted to urge the trustees to rescind the survey and went to the media calling for the board to stop the survey and focus its attention more properly on budget cuts to schools and classrooms.

The B.C. Human Rights Commission then declared the survey discriminatory as it singled out gays and lesbians as an identifiable group for discrimination. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation released an independent survey done for them (Vancouver Sun Article May 31st, 1997) that showed that 73 percent of parents in B.C. favoured the teaching of tolerance about homosexuality in schools. Under pressure from all of these events, the School Board was forced to rescind the survey with the warning that it may still consider it in the future.

So after all of this, the books are still banned in Surrey and the board is unwavering with their anti-gay agenda. Teachers’ professional autonomy is threatened as we are unable to use books in our classrooms that we feel are age-appropriate. Author’s work is being censored without justification. Any book worth banning is a book worth reading!

Parents, students and teachers from Surrey and the author of Asha’s Mums have launched a lawsuit in the B.C. Supreme Court (July 31st,) against the book banning. The case is expected to be heard in the fall and a positive ruling will set precedents for all school boards in BC and across Canada. It will send a clear message that individual boards cannot ban books and censor them simply because they depict same-sex families.. This case will be expensive and I urge you to help prevent the domino effect of Surrey in other school districts. Every child’s future and ability to learn depends upon it!

How To Stop Book Banning

History of the Surrey School Board

Visit the Bigots Ban Books website

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Advancing equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-identified people and their families across Canada