Parents clashed with a team of librarians from the Los Angeles Unified School district’s library services division over the removal of hundreds of old books from the Topeka Drive Elementary School library in Northridge. The school had paid the team $500 to spend a day weeding the library, according to the February 9 Los Angeles Times.
The staff librarian and seven parents who came to help asked the team to leave after a heated hour-long debate over which books should go. They disagreed with the team’s decisions on books on historical figures such as football player Joe Namath and rocket pioneer Robert Goddard.
“Our argument is with the process,” said one parent. “Each book should be given a fair trial. Can’t the school have some input to save the books that we deem worthwhile?”
“This is the first time we’ve had a problem like this,” Library Services Supervisor Bonnie O’Brian told the newspaper, saying the district has weeded libraries in about 200 schools since last year.
Posted February 21, 2000.