Mat-Su Borough School District ordered to return banned books before school starts

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Dozens of previously banned book titles from the Mat-Su Borough School District are being returned to school library shelves after a judge issued a preliminary decision on Tuesday.

After removing 56 books from library circulation, the school district came under fire for not reviewing the books prior to their removal. The decision to remove books followed after concerns were voiced to the Mat-Su School Board in public comments in April 2023.

In April 2024, the Northern Justice Project lead counsel Savannah Fletcher requested a judge issue a preliminary injunction ordering the books be returned to school library shelves.

According to a Tuesday press release from the ACLU of Alaska, Judge Gleason of the U.S. District Court of Alaska ordered that the school district return all but seven of the 56 book titles it removed before the start of the school year on Aug. 14.

A statement released Thursday by the Mat-Su Borough School District regarding the court order said in part: “This decision validates the work of the library committee and is in line with the decisions made by the board on the reviewed books.”

According to Fletcher, the books will remain available in libraries until a final decision is reached at a trial set for April 2025.

Regarding the concern for appropriate content within the books in question, Fletcher says it’s a matter of constitutionality.

“The Constitution doesn’t discriminate based on age. Everyone has the right to free speech. Everyone has the right to freedom to access ideas,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher went on to add parents who are concerned have a right to preview the material their children can access. According to her, there are systems within the school district to approve or deny the books children are picking up before they’re checked out at the library.

“What we were trying to stop here is a parent asserting their views on someone else’s children,” Fletcher said. “We would never want to give one parent control over another family’s children through this process of allowing mass removal of books because of one parent’s view, and that’s the important distinction here.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated with new information.

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