[0:00] [Music]

[0:02] books are often a place where you can

[0:04] find yourself represented and you don't

[0:06] feel like you are alone or you're an

[0:08] outcast or there's something wrong with

[0:10] you Bloomington freedom to read was a

[0:11] group that we started because we were

[0:13] experiencing adults in the community

[0:15] wanting to ban books from our high

[0:17] school middle school and Elementary

[0:18] School libraries and as students we

[0:21] wanted to share our voices cuz these

[0:22] were our schools and let the school

[0:24] board know that we wanted to keep these

[0:26] books around we were a group of like six

[0:29] or seven core members and 25 or so other

[0:33] students from both Kennedy and Jefferson

[0:36] High Schools who came together to

[0:39] challenge this petition to remove books

[0:43] from our school libraries and so we came

[0:46] together and we wrote speeches to

[0:48] present to the school board during their

[0:50] monthly listening sessions to speak

[0:53] towards our opposition to this petition

[0:56] as soon as you have someone whose

[0:58] identity is stripped from the media then

[1:01] they're stripped from the community as a

[1:02] whole as well so we we felt like the

[1:05] efforts targeted you know queer people

[1:08] trans people all all these different

[1:10] groups of students who at our school are

[1:12] represented by this media and by taking

[1:14] that away they would be um you know not

[1:16] represented and then not feel like a

[1:18] part of the community which is

[1:20] unacceptable so the school board decided

[1:22] to make it more difficult for books to

[1:25] be removed from our librar so I think

[1:27] that's a huge win for us they definitely

[1:29] listened we felt represented I think it

[1:31] was a great effort all around and I'm

[1:33] really happy with how it went not only

[1:34] did we speak to you know the school

[1:36] board but we spoke to the governor as

[1:39] well and people who deal with like

[1:41] education Statewide we saw Tim Walls

[1:44] pass a policy that would make it harder

[1:46] to ban books in Minnesota so that was

[1:48] really nice to see that he was willing

[1:50] to meet with us and hear out our voices

[1:52] and hear what the students want and then

[1:53] put that into action it felt really nice

[1:56] when we were getting this award from the

[1:57] city I felt like I felt very appreciated

[2:00] it felt nice to have our efforts

[2:01] affirmed it was an acknowledgement that

[2:04] the city and the schools are listening

[2:06] to the students it's a great thing to

[2:08] have but it's also it wasn't what we

[2:10] were going for the whole time it's

[2:11] deeper than just getting recognition so

[2:14] I'm excited and I'm honored and I

[2:16] appreciate it but also like this is

[2:18] something that has to continue to be

[2:19] fought thank you to the school board and

[2:22] thank you to all the adults that guided

[2:24] us and sort of started the work that we

[2:27] ended up doing and thank you to Johnny

[2:30] kerwin's moms who hosted all of our

[2:32] meetings outside of school and thank you

[2:34] to the city at Large