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Notes -
This is one of those "on the one hand, on the other hand" posts for me. This is years back now, but the school I attended got a 'school library' after I left (they did new building on) but they didn't have a dedicated librarian. Which meant it ended up being used as a study room/extra classroom, not a library, even though the books were still in place. A teacher was supposed to be in charge of the library but in practice nobody bothered or wanted to do it.
Then I worked in a school where they got a project for having a libary and librarian and boy did it make a difference, to the point that our principal begged for them to extend it after the project time was up. This was a school that wasn't, let's say, for the very academically inclined and it was officially a Disadvantaged Area school. Having a proper librarian made a huge difference, it was a way of getting boys to read, it was a way of helping literacy, there were all kinds of events and projects and involving parents as well, and it became the carrot to the educational stick - it made kids want to go into the library, and so they had to improve with behaviour, attendance, etc.
So having a proper library and more importantly someone who is trained for working in schools really makes a difference.
Now, what I imagine is going on here is (1) they need space for what in the school I mentioned above was called a "Behaviour Support Classroom" but sounds basically like what is described for the 'discipline centre'; you put the kids who are having a meltdown into a room on their own or with only a couple others, which is supervised by a teacher. They do schoolwork or even if they just sit there until it's time to go home, at least they are contained, safe (very important because schools get sued into oblivion if Little Johnny tells the teacher to fuck off, storms out, and wanders around town on his own while he's supposed to be in school) and calm down, and sometimes it even works to get them one-on-one time to help them do some actual work (2) if it's like my school, space is at a premium - even when the new building was completed, it was already obsolete and needed extra room (3) they don't have, or can't get, or can't afford to pay, a proper school librarian.
So to solve all their problems they're turning the library into the support classroom and a teacher will be nominally in charge of running the library, which won't happen, but it will be used as a holding place for the meltdown kids. I don't like this, because as I said, a proper library really does make a huge difference in this kind of school, but I'm not going to reflexively assume "it's the Republicans cutting public schooling to the bone and refusing resources" because for failing schools/schools in deprived areas, there just isn't the money or the teachers who would make a difference available.
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