Because a student who can only find one perspective on the shelf cannot learn widely.
 

The media center is the one room in school where a kid meets minds no adult in their life chose for them. Nobody knows in advance which book a particular student needs. The librarian's job is to have it there when they reach. The district's job is to keep that shelf governed by process and not by any one person's preferences. 
 

Every parent has the fundamental right to guide their own child's reading. No parent, no administrator, no board member (including me) has the right to decide for every family in the district. That's what the review process is for: educators, librarians, and community members, weighing challenges in the open. 
 

On the board, I'll:

• Address Policy 606.5 so that when the community's own review committee completes its work, its findings carry the weight families were promised. No decision about the whole district's shelves should come down to a single signature.

• Keep every challenge public: the complaint, the process, the reasoning, the result. Sunlight keeps the shelf from becoming anyone's ideology project, from any direction. 

• Comply fully with Minnesota's library protections, which prohibit removing materials based on viewpoint.
   

I've spent my career in libraries. I've watched the right book find the right kid. The shelf belongs to everyone.