Boom! MSBSD Faces Lawsuit Over Unconstitutional Book Removals
The Northern Justice Project, LLC, in concert with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska, has filed a lawsuit against the Mat-Su Borough School District (MSBSD) for the removal of 56 books from school libraries that contained ideas that the Board desired to suppress.
Today’s announcement of the lawsuit is a glimmer of hope for MSBSD students who have had their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression stripped by book-banning extremist members of the school board and their handpicked allies on the District’s sham citizens library advisory committee.
The lawsuit alleges that the Matanuska Susitna School District violated the “critical constitutional rights” of its students when it ordered the removal of 56 books from all of its school libraries on April 21, 2023.
Not mentioned in the lawsuit, but most certainly relevant, is that the order to ban books came down mere weeks after extremist organization Moms for Liberty launched its Mat-Su chapter in early April. The group is led by four registered Alaska Republicans, including chapter co-founder Kali Ponder, the wife of former school board president Ryan Ponder.
Kali Ponder was not so coincidentally handpicked by school board member Kathy McCollum to serve as the District 3 representative on the library citizens advisory book-banning committee. The committee has recommended the banning or censoring of LGBTQ-themed books in addition to literary works written by, about, and for Black people.
The school board voted in October to oust Ponder from her role on the District’s book-banning committee, noting that she had never actually come before the school board for approval. Whoops!
Anyway, getting back to the thing before I drone off recounting every terrible act that the school board has committed against students this year, Ruth Botstein, Legal Director for the ACLU of Alaska, shared this statement about the lawsuit to the ACLU website:
“The District acted in a way that put its personal views and prejudices ahead of the fundamental rights afforded to Alaskan students. Removing classic reads and award-winning literature from bookshelves violates students’ rights to receive ideas and information. This is a foundational component of the rights of young Alaskans to exercise freedom of speech, press, and political expression. Book banning in any public setting is unacceptable.”
Fact check ✅
If you’re interested, everything I’ve written thus far about Moms for Liberty and their efforts to dismantle public education can be found here. While I don’t have the time to write often, I’ll continue to document Moms for Liberty’s efforts in Alaska as best I can. There will definitely be more to come.
