Province establishes school library plan
By Lethbridge Herald on July 11, 2025.
Alexandra Noad
Local Journalism Initiative
The Alberta government has announced its plan to ensure all books students access in their school libraries are age appropriate, especially when it comes to sexual content.
Several weeks ago, Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education, announced there would be regulations put in place after concerns were raised over highly graphic sexual content was found in a school library.
After many weeks of consulting with school boards and making sure to not cross any legal bounds, a new ministerial order was created to make sure all schools are up to a provincial standard to ensure students only have access to age-appropriate content.
Nicolaides says this ministerial order was crucial as the province had no previous standards for schools in selecting age-appropriate content.
“This is an important step because, and I can’t stress this enough, Alberta schools had zero standards for selecting age-appropriate books for libraries.”
Under these new standards school libraries are not permitted to include material containing explicit sexual content. Non-explicit sexual content may be available to students in grades 10-12, provided it is age appropriate.
Explicit sexual content is defined in the ministerial order as “containing detailed clear depiction of a sexual act, whereas non-explicit sexual content is defined as a depiction of sexual acts that is not detailed or clear.”
Non-sexual content can include depictions related to medical process, depictions found in technical reference materials and hugging or handholding.
School boards have until Oct. 1 to remove any material with explicit sexual content from their library shelves and by Jan.1 they must have publicly available policies which align with the new standards for selecting and managing materials.
Nicolaides says he has full confidence in school boards to meet these timelines, however, if they need to be adjusted, the minister is willing to work with them.
When asked about repercussions he says he has no reason to believe that school boards would not follow the standards.
He adds that this policy was never about banning books or others but rather about keeping children safe.
“This is never and was never about banning books or specific authors, this was never about erasing particular narratives from school libraries,” he says.Â
“This is simply about ensuring young students are not exposed to content depicting oral sex, child molestation or other very inappropriate content.”
He added later on that teachers will continue to have discretion when choosing books and materials for novel studies.
“A teacher has the complete authority and autonomy to used material they deem appropriate and using their professional judgement for novel studies or other exercises.”
Blaine Badiuk, an education and 2SLGBTQ+ advocate, says this policy is not intended to erase LGBTQ stories and banning books with LGBTQ themes.
“LGBTQ youth deserve to see themselves reflected in stories that affirm thir identities and experiences,” says Badiuk.Â
“To suggest such representation must include sexual content is not only false; it’s a disservice to the LGBTQ community, it sends the wrong message.”
She adds that limiting LGBTQ representation to stories with explicit content reinforces the harmful stereotypes that queer relationships are inherently sexual.
Nicole Buchanan, chair of Red Deer Public Schools, says just because explicit materials exist in society, doesn’t mean they belong in classrooms or school libraries.
“If a passage or image isn’t appropriate for the front page of a newspaper or a billboard on the side of the highway, then it shouldn’t be available to students in K-12 learning environments.”
She adds that the new standards not only set clear expectations but also create a path for accountability and open communication with the families and communities the schools serve.
Buchanan believes that following the timelines should be doable as many of them have a well categorized and catalogued inventory.
In a news release Amada Chapman, shadow minister for education responded to the new standards saying schools should have the funding to have the correct number of resources to make these decisions.
“Of course, materials in schools should be age appropriate, but once again, the minister is inserting himself into decisions that should be made by educators and librarians—if this government actually funded schools enough to keep them in the building.”
The new standards only make mention of sexually explicit material and do not mention violence, profanity or any other content that may be inappropriate for and Nicolaides says he hopes to have as limited government intervention as possible.
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There’s no such thing as “limited government intervention” with the UCP.
I won’t be surprised if books that are critical of religion are next.
Once again the UCP has bowed to a minority from the religious community and unilaterally reacted to appease their base. We must be vigilant with who we elect to council and public boards as to the whether those running support the far right policies being forced on us by any political party.
crap, rather than be able to borrow my erotic literature for free, i will now have to go to the corner store and buy from behind the counter. alas, costs keep piling on.
Quick check out the UofL library before the morality police shut it down.
Another strawman victory in the UCP culture wars. It reminded me of this article on the champions of the moral majority:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/from-hastert-to-gaetz-lets-talk-about-republicans-and-sex-crimes.html
🙂
“Religious texts, such as the Bible, will be allowed on the shelves, something Nicolaides said is important to preserving freedom of religion.”
https://www.nsnews.com/books-news/alberta-to-ban-explicit-sex-books-in-school-libraries-starting-oct-1-10924280
Let me get this straight, Minister Nicolaides, in the name of “freedom of religion” has declared that access to this book shall remain unhindered:
“Main paraphilias, abnormal sexual behavior and sexual crimes to which explicit allusions were present in the Holy Bible were adultery, incest, sexual harassment, drug facilitated sexual assault, rape, gang rape, homosexuality, transvestism, voyeurism, bestiality, exhibitionism and necrophilia.”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24037558_References_to_the_paraphilias_and_sexual_crimes_in_the_Bible
“The Bible never ducks sexual issues. Within its pages you will find stories of adultery, murder as a result of a sexual triangle, rape and, … with Lot’s daughters, incest.”
https://evangelicalfocus.com/faithful-under-pressure/1538/lots-daughters-sexual-immorality
In reality, this MAGA inspired nonsense is a tempest in a teapot designed to placate the UCP base.
Shame.