The topic of banning certain books from school library shelves and from classroom curriculum is nothing new, but the motivations behind that push are becoming more and more political.
Over the past year, parents, activists, school boards, and lawmakers around the country have challenged books at a pace not seen in decades, according to officials at the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other advocates for free expression. Censorship efforts have ranged from local communities to statewide initiatives
The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received what they called an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges last fall, each of which can include multiple books. Since 2001, the association has averaged 395 cases per year, but suggests over 80% of cases cannot be reported.
Locally, there have been several recent book challenges including in Novi Community Schools.
In January, a parent in the Novi Community School District challenged a book, titled “Lawn-Boy” by Jonathan Evison, during a school board meeting. It’s a book that has been sitting on shelves at the Novi High School Library for five years, having been checked out just twice.
The book has been criticized because children engage in adult behavior. It tells the story of Mike Muñoz, a young adult Mexican American who has faced hardship ever since his childhood and is now going through a phase of self-discovery. The book has also drawn criticism from parents in some Texas, Ohio, and Virginia school districts saying the book is ‘full of obscenity” and “sexual content.”
The book has faced controversy because of its involvement of children in adult behavior, which revolves around the story of a boy who is full of wisdom and comedy at the same time but fond of child girls. The book has also drawn criticism from parents in some Texas, Ohio, and Virgina school districts.
Steve Matthews, superintendent of Novi Community Schools, said district officials met to consider the parent’s request to remove the book from the library, had direct conversations with the parent, and ultimately decided to remove the book from general circulation, but not from the school library entirely.
“It will stay in our library and the media specialist can share it with the more advanced 11th and 12th grades classes with the belief that the book really does have a mature audience in mind,’ he said. “It’s not for every student at the high school, but it certainly is a book that high school students can access.”
It’s the first time in Matthews’ 11 years as superintendent that the district has received a request to ban a book.
“My sense is students need access to books,” he said. “They need access to ideas that are beyond the ideas that they may normally hear or see within their family or friendship circles. And certainly, that’s one of the reasons why libraries exist, which is to give people access to information and to ideas and to let them see the world through another person’s eyes.”
Matthews said books can be controversial, but that banning those books is not the appropriate response. He added, “We trust our teachers to make good decisions about the books that they have in their class for students to read.”
“In my view, the reason schools exist is to help students navigate through these discussions and to navigate through these books with the help of adults who care deeply for those kids. Helping students think through and develop their own ideas about the topics that these books cover is a much more appropriate way to do that. We do that best by having teachers who are deeply connected to these students that can lead students through those conversations.”
The National Coalition Against Censorship maintains a Youth Censorship Database that includes book challenge data drawn from reports to NCAC and its partner organizations, as well as from media coverage. Last year, the organization collected data on 55 book challenges. In 2020, that number was 19.
In October, “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel, was challenged by a parent at Troy Athens High School. The parent, who went to the school board, the city council, and the Troy Police Department with their concerns, said he considered an image inside the graphic novel to be pornographic.
The graphic memoir discusses Bechdel’s stressful relationship with her late father, Bruce Bechdel, who was an English teacher and director of the local funeral home. Bechdel came out as a lesbian in college and then discovered her father was also gay. A few weeks after the discovery, her father died.
According to WDIV, the novel was not part of any mandatory curriculum and does have a graphic content warning label. It was in the library because it was part of an advanced placement seminar at the school in 2015. It has been checked out three times in the last six years.
Calls to the Troy Public School District for comment were not returned.
Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn’t just their frequency that has changed, according to educators, librarians and free-speech advocates — it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out.
Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races.
“The politicalization of the topic is what’s different from what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
Among the most frequent targets are books about race, gender and sexuality, like “Lawn-Boy,” George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”
Deborah Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, said the organization supports open access for all and intellectual freedom. The Lansing-based non-profit is the state’s oldest and largest library association, which aims to lead the advancement of all Michigan libraries through advocacy, education and engagement.
She added that the increased efforts to ban books, especially those focused on the LGBTQ+ community, have been “very politicized” and “performative”, especially among well-funded conservative family groups in today’s politically-charged climate.
“We believe in intellectual freedom, we believe in first amendment rights and we believe in the privacy of patrons whether they’re in the school, are in public libraries, or even academic libraries,” she said. “We understand that these book challenges are very political, so it’s different from a real legitimate challenge.”
She added that some parents and groups are seeking to ban books they haven’t read because of increased attention the books have received on social media.
“We’re encouraging our libraries to make sure that their book challenge policies are in place and they’re strong and they’re robust,” she said. “The Michigan Library Association has an intellectual freedom task force with a statement of principle that they are against all manner of censorship. We are champions of making sure that efforts made to challenge books are made in good faith by people with legitimate interests.”
Those who are demanding certain books be removed insist this is an issue of parental rights and choice, that all parents should be free to direct the upbringing of their own children.
Others say prohibiting these titles violates the rights of other parents and the rights of children who believe access to these books is important. Many school libraries already have mechanisms in place to stop individual students from checking out books of which their parents disapprove.
“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.
According to PEN America, which has been tracking legislation around the country, dozens of state 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 effort which centers around slavery in American history and was released last fall as a book.
A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Board of Education v. Pico, declares that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”
Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said the tricky part is that school officials are allowed to ban books for reasons other than not approving of the viewpoints the books express. Officials might determine, for instance, that the book is too profane or vulgar.
“The problem is just that often our definitions, for example, of vulgarity or age appropriateness, are for lack of a better word, mushy, and they can also hide or be used as pretext for viewpoint-based decisions by the government,” she said.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report
