TikTok
A viral TikTok video shows a teacher in Tennessee explaining the extensive amount of work she has to do on her day off just to make sure all the books in her classroom’s library are properly approved. Kneeling in front of a bookshelf on Aug. 13, Sydney Rawls goes over the state’s intense new guidelines for books in classrooms. “If a teacher wants to read his or her students any of the books in the school or the teacher’s classroom, the teacher has to catalog every single book,” she explains. Rawls then details how once the books have been cataloged, they’re sent to the school’s librarian, who checks to see if the books fall within the state’s guidelines. Books that are not already on the approved list are then sent to another team. “I’m assuming that it’s probably someone that’s never been in a classroom, that’s never taught children,” Rawls says. That team goes through another process to review the books, before they’re sent back to the original teacher who has to list the books online for parents to review. After that drawn-out process, kids are finally able to read their approved classroom books. The TikTok has been viewed nearly 2 million times.