November 9 – A militant but peaceful protest movement is underway at Carlos Gilbert Elementary School.
It started with a student petition and has escalated to government hearings, picket lines and sit-in demonstrations.
The goal of the movement? More library time.
Leading the protests is Rainier Long, 12, an avid book reader who was outraged when he learned that Carlos Gilbert Elementary would cut library time in half this year — to 30 minutes a week — to free up more time for technology education . .
“Spending more time on screens won’t help kids,” Rainier argued. “Reading will really stimulate your senses and make you a lot – I don’t want to say smarter – but it will make you smarter,” he said.
Students were told that the reason for the switch was that after implementing technology lessons, the school no longer had time to provide all students with an hour of library time this year.
The shift toward less time for books at Carlos Gilbert Elementary comes as the state has launched new initiatives to increase literacy — such as a summer program that has served about 10,000 students across New Mexico — and aims to boost stagnant reading skills.
Only 38% of public school students showed evidence of reading proficiency on statewide standardized tests by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
Santa Fe Public Schools fared slightly better – with an average reading proficiency of 40%. At Carlos Gilbert, many more children showed reading skills: about 70%, a decrease from more than 73% last year.
The connection between reading skills and sufficient time to read books is not lost on Rainier.
He also sees other benefits of reading.
In a letter to the editor about the change from book time to tech time, published last month in The New Mexican, he argued that “children often already spend much of their time on screens. Not only that, but they also deprive children of reading pleasure.” time they need to broaden their horizons.”
He added, “Many students don’t agree with this idea that technology is more important than reading, and neither do their parents. And if they don’t agree, they probably need a library even more.”
The new policy is “unjust,” he wrote.
Since the start of the school year, Rainier has been implementing increasingly militant pro-book protest tactics to win back more library time for him and his fellow students.
The first step was a petition, which garnered the signatures of 158 students and teachers – a significant number for a school with just over 300 students.
He mobilized his sister – a fourth-grader – and “good friend” – a second-grader – to collect signatures from children in other classes. Together, the pair added 65 names to the list, he said.
He presented the petition during a session of the school’s PTK meetings, or parent-teacher-child meetings. ‘I showed them the petition and asked them to reserve an hour for the library. … That didn’t work either,” Rainier said.
His next move? Organizing protests during recess – the only free time students have during the day.
Rainier used sticks, tape and graph paper to make signs that read, “Stop Shortening!” and “We want to read!”
When the recess protests had little effect on administrators’ attitudes, he escalated the strategy further: he convinced a quarter of his class to stage a sit-in protest in the library, staying where his movement was for the full hour asks for.
“It was like the black students were in the white line during the protests against … I believe this is called segregation,” Rainier said, suggesting he modeled his protest after the Greensboro, N.C., A&T State sit-ins University in 1960 – a A milestone in the struggle for racial equality in which black students participated in nonviolent protests by sitting at lunch counters.
The sit-ins in Greensboro attracted counter-protesters — and so did Rainier’s. Several students tore up his signs, earning both them and Rainier penalty tickets, the school’s form of punishment, with three tickets earning a lunch detention.
“I was told by a teacher that I shouldn’t have gotten that ticket because it was a peaceful protest and no one got hurt,” Rainier said. “I’ve had several conversations with the teachers. A large majority of them agree with me that yes, the library should be an hour,” he said.
“I think [the protests] are positive because it means our kids love the librarian and their library,” said Carlos Gilbert Principal Kim Petrucci. “They’re just expressing their opinions, but I don’t think they’re upset – except maybe Rainier,” she added with a laugh.
“I even signed his petition just because I was like, ‘Yes, this is great,’ but it’s still about how many instructional minutes each child should have — and we just couldn’t fit that in,” she said.
Additional library time is available for students, she said, through a new program that allows teachers to register their classes for library reading groups and research projects. She even offered the use of this time to Rainier’s sixth grade class, she said.
Rainier accepted the offer, but indicated that it was not a satisfactory solution.
“The principal told me that the sixth grade library could be an hour long, but not for the other grades,” he said, “and I refused because I felt it would be unfair to all the kids that… I had to sign the petition and [was] told me I could make an hour of the library again.”
He added, “And how does it help kids to go to the library and do schoolwork during class?”
The school’s master schedule was created before the start of the school year in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement between Santa Fe Public Schools and the National Education Association of Santa Fe, a union that represents local teachers. Hilario “Larry” Chavez, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, wrote in a statement.
The collective bargaining agreement, drawn up in 2022 and scheduled to last until 2026, states: “Teachers in the arts, music, PE and technology sectors will have a regularly scheduled minimum lesson duration of 60 minutes. Certified librarians may be required to provide 30-minute library sessions for students in kindergarten through third grade.”
The document suggests that sixth-graders like Rainier are not entitled to library time at all, according to district rules. The library facility only extends to the third year. And even then, the document evades a specific library mandate – framing library time as a suggestion for schools rather than a requirement.
In addition, Chavez wrote, “SFPS is offering an additional elective in our elementary schools. Funding for this elective came from Education and Training Network funds to provide technology classes this year.”
Rainier is fearless.
“I’m just going to keep going to all the PTK meetings and telling them the issues,” he said, adding that he plans to run for student council — and become a senator or professional baseball player later in life.
