In response to school book bans, activism grows nationwide.
Until a year ago, Stephana Ferrell’s political activism was limited to the occasional letter to elected officials.
Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books, including"The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison, that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. The wave of book bannings around the country has reached a level not seen for decades.
According to PEN America, which has been tracking legislation around the country, dozens of bills have been proposed that restrict classroom reading and discussion. Virtually all of the laws focus on sexuality, gender identity or race. In Missouri, a bill would ban teachers from using the “1619 Project,” the New York Times magazine issue which centers around slavery in American history and was released last fall as a book.
Legal action has been one strategy. In Missouri, the ACLU filed suit in federal court in mid-February to prevent the Wentzville school district from removing such books as “Gender Queer,” Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Keise Laymon’s memoir “Heavy.” The civil liberties union has also filed open records requests in Tennessee and Montana over book bans, and a warning letter in Mississippi against what it described as the “unconstitutionality of public library book bans.
Two anti-banning initiatives were launched in Pennsylvania. In Kutztown, eighth grader Joslyn Diffenbaugh formed a banned book club last fall that began with a reading of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” The Pennridge Improvement Project has started a drive to purchase books that have been removed from schools, including Leslea Newman’s “Heather has Two Mommies” and Kim Johnson’s “This is My America,” and place them in small free libraries around the district.
“We think education works best when it’s parents and teachers working together,” says Paris, the mother of 7- and 3-year old boys. “And if you don’t want your child to have access to a book, then opt them out. That’s fine. You just don’t want to just take that opportunity away from my kids.”
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Activism grows nationwide in response to school book bansOver the past year, book challenges and bans have reached levels not seen in decades, according to officials at the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other advocates for free expression.
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Activism grows nationwide in response to school book bansOver the past year, book challenges and bans have reached levels not seen in decades, according to officials at the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship and other advocates for free expression.
Weiterlesen »
Activism Grows Nationwide In Response To School Book BansThe wave of book bannings around the country has reached a level not seen for decades.
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In the battles over banned books, Utah librarians are on the front linesAccording to PEN America, the nonprofit free-speech advocacy group, 156 bills proposing what it calls “educational gag orders” have been introduced in 39 states since January 2021 — and 12 of them, in 10 states, have already become law.
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