After a Norman High School teacher is placed on administrative leave for sharing a QR code from the Brooklyn library, the community finds a way to collect the code at schools.
Heather Hall is the owner of Green Feather Book Company and has children in Normandy state schools.
A conversation with other parents turned into a popular project to raise funds for t-shirts and pins with the QR code.
“I felt like the idea of a teacher being reprimanded or unsupported over what seemed like a really good solution to having to cover their classroom materials, providing the QR code in the classroom. class, seemed like a great smart solution. It really offended any sense of right and wrong for a lot of us,” Hall said.
The teacher was furloughed before resigning after she covered her class books that were no longer allowed in Oklahoma public schools and shared the QR code of banned books with students.
“It wasn’t the Norman we grew up in, I was like ‘we need the QR code on the students’ if the students want the QR code we have to give it to them.”
Frustration led Hall and other parents to raise enough money to get 150 t-shirts with the Brooklyn Library QR code.
“When the message went out for the t-shirts, they disappeared almost immediately. We’re going to need more t-shirts! she says.
Free pins and stickers in his bookstore are keeping Oklahomans waiting for more shirts.
Normandy State Schools said children are allowed to wear the t-shirts and are ‘free to express themselves in their clothes as long as they follow our district’s dress code and do not distract from the learning environment “.
“Having access to stimulating literature is very important because stimulating literature gives us the opportunity to have important and difficult conversations,” Hall said.
The bookstore owner added that several people are donating to the cause.
“If we ban all books about trans kids, trans kids end up feeling lonely and not encouraged to read. If we ban all books about gay children, gay children are not encouraged to read and feel very lonely. If we ban all books about black children, then black children are left very alone and with their untold, untold stories,” she said.
Hall said they would receive another batch of t-shirts by Monday. They are free, but accept donations to further the project.
