Province bans sexual images in school books
By Lethbridge Herald on September 9, 2025.
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
The provincial government has revised its school library book ban to clarify what materials are to be removed to make sure children are not exposed to visual depictions of sexual acts.Â
After the original ministerial order was answered by the Edmonton’s Public School Board with a list of over 200 titles that included classics like Brave New World and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the government updated the standards to prevent misinterpretation.Â
On Monday, Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides spoke to reporters about the update and said the intent remains the same as it was in the beginning and the update crystalizes and clarifies their intent.Â
“Our intent is very simple,” he said. “We want to make sure that extremely graphic and visual depictions of sexual activities not be available at school libraries.”
The Ministerial Order states that starting Jan. 5, 2026, a school authority is required to implement the following standards respecting the selection, availability and access of school literary materials:
“The school authority must ensure that school literary materials containing any explicit visual depiction of a sexual act are not accessible or available to children or students in a school, and must ensure that no such school literary materials are selected for inclusion in a school library, unless such materials are for information or reference, such as technical materials, dictionaries or encyclopedias, that are not narrative in nature.”Â
The order specifies the meaning of “visual depiction” as a visual or graphic representation, such as a drawing or painting, an illustration, a photographic or digital image or a video file.Â
This does not include verbal or literary descriptions of sexual acts. When asked about the reason behind it, Nicolaides said the province’s primary concern is images.Â
“It is important for students to be able to read and learn and understand about coming of age and other biological functions and human anatomy, nobody is disputing that in any shape of form. But a graphic depiction of sex or molestation is not an appropriate resource in a school library.”
He said other classic literary works that were to provoke the mind and challenge your thinking, is the type of material that should be provided in a school library.Â
Speaking about the age-appropriateness of the material, Nicolaides said the original order provided direction on any type of content that showed any type of graphic and explicit imagery should not be made available to students in any grade level.Â
“The updated ministerial order continues to follow that same mindset. Although, our main priority is children accessing this type of material at a really young age, that’s not really appropriate for underage children, so we want to make sure that remains the case in our school libraries.”
The ministerial order also indicates that school authorities must ensure that the parents of the children or students who have access to a classroom collection, are informed of the school literary materials contained specifically in the classroom collection. Â
The order defines a classroom collection as a teacher’s collection of literary materials, including books, magazines, comics, graphic novels or other literary or graphic materials, whether in physical or electronic form, that are selected, curated or managed by the teacher for use by or available to children or students in the teacher’s classroom.Â
“Through some mechanism that the school division deems appropriate, whether it’s giving parents an opportunity to scan the classroom library collection during something like a parent-teacher or sending the parents of that class a list of materials that they have in their classroom collection,” said Nicolaides.Â
This is to make sure parents are aware of the type of material their children have access to in their classroom.Â
“We don’t want teachers boxing up their classroom collections, we don’t want school divisions providing that kind of direction to their teachers. That was never required or requested through the ministerial orders,” said Nicolaides.Â
But for some classrooms, his comment comes too late. Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling said Monday afternoon that many schools and teachers have already removed multiple books from their libraries.Â
“Leading up to the Ministerial Order pause, nearly two months after it was released, many teachers and in fact schools, have already removed and discarded books from classrooms libraries,” said Schilling.Â
He pointed out it takes time to record and manage classroom libraries and this legislation has already become one more issue for teachers have to handle without adequate time or resources.Â
 “Teachers have always work to ensure that school materials are age and grade appropriate and are selected so all students can see themselves represented in their schools,” said Schilling.Â
He called the revised order is an improvement, but added the revision was an attempt to clean up the mess the government made.Â
Alberta’s New Democrat Shadow Minister for Education Amanda Chapman, agreed with that assessment.
“The UCP government refuses to admit when they’ve made a mistake,” Chapman Sid in a statement to media. “Instead, they are doubling down on their book ban.”
She said the changes increase confusion for parents, schools and teachers when the issue of age-appropriate books was already being dealt with.Â
“Nothing today addresses the additional burden placed on teachers and school staff to catalogue books that contravene the UCP government’s gaslighting ministerial order. Instead of ensuring everybody understands only age-appropriate books are in schools, now the government is pitting parents against schools just because someone doesn’t like a book.”Â
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I wonder how many books with sexually explicit visual depictions are in our schools? Hopefully there are no graphic editions of the Bible on those shelves.