KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Teachers are responsible for purchasing classroom materials, preparing lesson plans, communicating with parents and teaching students. Now, they are also responsible for helping keep track of what is available in a school library.
At the end of the last legislative session, lawmakers decided to pass a bill that requires schools to prepare lists of materials available in school libraries. That list needs to be submitted to a politically-appointed commission to be reviewed.
The commission needs to create guidance on what it allows to be available to students. It also is able to effectively ban books that the commission deems to be inappropriate for students, forcing their removal from the school library.
It was passed amid national reports of efforts by Republican lawmakers to ban books discussing LGBTQIA+ identities and Black history, preventing children from reading about them or any topics that the commission deems not to be appropriate.
To help alleviate some of the extra work placed on teachers so that their libraries can be reviewed by politically-appointed leaders, a state lawmaker representing Knoxville is offering help.
"I heard some are considering not having a classroom library because the work is daunting on top of everything else. I want to help keep books available for kids," said Gloria Johnson (D - Knoxville). "We will certainly work to fix this situation in the coming legislative session."
She said on social media that Knox County teachers could call her office at 865-660-9800 and she would volunteer to help them catalog their libraries.
"Obviously I can't do everyone's, but I bet I can find other friends to help," she said.
Johnson was a teacher in Knox County for 27 years, primarily teaching children with special needs. She also graduated from Farragut High School and taught at Mooreland Heights Elementary School, South Doyle High School and Central High School.
"This hurts my heart as well, so many kids are missing out because of this law that no one took the time to plan how it would be implemented in a classroom," she said. "Those who voted for it were warned and voted 'yes' anyway. If the state legislature wanted to improve reading scores, they blew it."