Calls to investigate claims Lowry Academy removed books from library

This follows reports that a school in Walkden ordered more than 130 books to be removed from their library’s shelves.

Index on Censorship reported in March that The Lowry Academy had removed the books – with the number rising to almost 200 if each issue of the graphic novels was counted.

The school said that no books had been banned, but re-classified – although a number had been removed.

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South and Walkden, said she has written to the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson MP.

Ms Qureshi described as ‘unacceptable’ claims that books including We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Pageboy by Elliot Page were removed.

Other books reportedly removed include a graphic novel of George Orwell’s 1984, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books.

Yasmin Qureshi MP (Image: Office of Yasmin Qureshi MP)

Ms Qureshi said: “A qualified librarian exercised her professional judgement in good faith, only to resign under pressure and face investigation. That is unacceptable.

“School libraries should open young minds, not reflect the personal preferences of senior leadership. Books must be determined by educational need and expertise, not ideology.

“I’ve asked the department what powers it has to investigate and whether they will act on this case and wider library governance issues.

“Our young people and educators deserve better.”

In a statement given to PA the school denied that books had been “banned” and said they had instead been placed into “age-appropriate categories”.

A spokesperson for the academy said: “It is not the case that books have been ‘banned’ by the school.

“Following concerns that a number of books within the library were neither age- nor content-appropriate, an audit was conducted.

“Following this, books have been placed into age-appropriate categories and returned to the shelves. 

“A very small number of books were deemed inappropriate even for older children due to their content and have been removed.”

The Lowry Academy has reportedly removed nearly 200 books from their library (Image: Google Maps)

Teachers at the National Education Union (NEU) conference in Brighton voted for a motion calling on the union executive to oppose censorship in school libraries.

Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary, said: “Any move to censor books in school libraries based on misinformation and fearmongering should ring alarm bells for all of us.

“The USA and Hungary are examples of countries which have implemented book bans in schools, primarily targeting books by women, black and LGBT+ authors, and the NEU is clear that this is not a path we are prepared to follow in the UK.”

The motion also called for the union executive to promote the body as a union for librarians amid reports they are seeing both internal and external censorship of library materials, as well as redundancies, budget cuts and extremely low pay.