David Mitchell 
My kids spent the afternoon today making signs to carry to the Legislature tomorrow in the school walkout protests planned.
Super impressed and happy about this … the kids are all right.
All the <gasp> shocking <gasp> examples they have published three times now, were all gender queer coming of age stories, and the #UCP is super frustrated that #EPSB doesn’t seem to get the hint, but will need to be told explicitly to yank all the queer books.
ps thank you EPSB for playing dumb until they either give up or have to say it out loud.
Today Premier Smith doubles down on what the UCP does best: pointing fingers.
Today, the finger is pointing at EPSB for doing *exactly* what the Minister asked them to do.
Of course the three fingers pointing back at them are the more revealing ones:
1. Clearly the Minister of Education isn’t capable of writing clear instructions. Perhaps the problem is his incompetence.
2. They keep lying about graphic images of sex available to elementary age students, which is patently not true.
3. The true purpose of the order was not to limit sexually explicit material, but to specifically target LGBTQ+ content in libraries.
Thank you to EPSB for making them say *exactly* what they really mean.
So now is when the rubber hits the road for Alberta’s discriminatory anti-trans laws. Edmonton families are receiving notices to complete forms that confirm assigned at birth sex to be eligible to participate in women’s only athletics. This screenshot from Strathcona High School.
A junior high teacher I know says he has 38 students assigned to his grade 8 math class in Edmonton. The room can fit 32 desks. This is in a school officially designated as not full because they haven’t (yet) exceeded the fire code… it’s really not about wages.
A reminder that money does not have any value of its own, only the values we imbue it with. What we spend our money on speaks of our values. Clearly the Gov of Alberta doesn’t value education or our children.
WanderingHuman 🇨🇦Sooooo... Here's another thing I've heard about the #AlbertaBookBan - it applies to classrooms as well as libraries; school starts Tuesday, teachers have been busy prepping, and now they have to not only go through the lists and pull books, they also have to scan the cover of every single book. IN THE SCHOOL. I'm hearing kids will not be able to borrow library books, or bring books from home to read at school, until October 1.
Anyone else have any further insider scoop on this? It almost feels like a game of chicken heading into a union strike.
#EPSB #abpoli
Apropos of book bans, I came across this while looking up some of the books on the #EPSB list. #abpoli
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/fully-booked-literary-podcast/id1618692851?i=1000713831553
I'm reviewing the list of #EPSB #abpoli banned books, and looking up some of the books.
I read the summary of Forever... by Judy Blume, which I knew I'd read but didn't remember - and the mention of "Ralph" brought it all back. It was a running joke in my circle of friends in high school; we used "Ralph" as a euphemism for ages. 🤣
So yeah, I definitely read it in high school.
UrbanEdmThe banned book list dropped today. Make sure to include some of these in your school supplies buy so that your kid can trade illicit goods on the playground!
There's some good ones on the list.
Oh great: David Parker, Take Back Alberta, et al want to make your schools the front line battle ground for the culture wars, even more than they already are. Alberta, make sure you find out who the smart, capable, and progressive candidates are in your district, we can’t let these people get in… can you imagine TBA types on the school board and the #UCP in the Leg at the same time? They will tear apart everything you value about your children and your grandchildren’s schooling: the only reason things aren’t already much worse is because the big school boards have been doing a hero’s job of pushing back against the GovofAB.