A “concerted effort” to ban books from school libraries so far has not gained traction locally, though Pennsylvania ranked third in the nation in the number of books removed from school libraries in 2021-22, according to a writers’ advocacy group.
Books, especially those with LGBTQ+ themes, racism themes and diverse characters, are being increasingly challenged by conservative groups nationwide, and some school districts have removed books from their shelves.
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“Parents have always had some issues with books, but what we’re seeing now is a concerted effort by a group of people who want to speak for everyone and decide not only what their child can read but what everyone’s children can read,” said Aimee Emerson, president of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association and a librarian in the Bradford Area School District.
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“A lot of times the challenges are being brought by political groups or even government officials,” said Kathy Lester, president of the American Association of School Librarians. Lester is a school librarian in Plymouth, Michigan. “We see some of it tied to the culture war and other divisions in the nation and to the political movements behind them.”
Polls, though, show that a large majority of Americans oppose school book bans.
“Americans recognize that this sort of agenda is not representative of their interests and is not what they’re after,” said Chris Jackson, senior vice president of Ipsos, a New York market research company that recently conducted a poll on school book challenges and bans. “Most agree that schools should be places of learning (and not) political battlegrounds.”
In Pennsylvania, in the 2021-22 school year, 11 school districts banned 457 books from libraries or classrooms, according to PEN America, an advocacy group for writers and literary freedom. Only Texas and Florida schools banned more books.
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In Pennsylvania, just one school district accounted for 440 of the 457 titles on the PEN America banned books list. The York Central School District in York County in November 2020 “froze” rather than banned the books, school directors said. The books were not available in classrooms but were not removed from school libraries pending review and reconsideration. But almost a year later, no such reviews had been done, school directors acknowledged.
York Central school directors in September 2021 voted unanimously to rescind the freeze following national news coverage, student protests and community pressure.
But there was pressure, too, to ban the books, including books that community members described as a “smokescreen” to indoctrinating students in critical race theory or making white students feel guilty for being white.
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The PEN America list of Pennsylvania school districts that have banned books includes districts that have restricted access to some titles. The Fairview School District, the only Erie-area school district on the PEN America list, removed “Gender Queer: A Memoir” from the Fairview High School library but makes it available to students through school counselors and the school nurse. The graphic memoir by Maia Kobabe is the book most banned from schools, according to the writers’ group, which found that the book has been banned or restricted in 41 school districts nationwide.
The book was removed from the Fairview High School library not because of its content but because of graphic images, Fairview schools Superintendent Erik Kincade said in a social media response to a community member obtained by Broad + Liberty, a website promoting “thought-provoking, shareable ideas for free thinkers in greater Philadelphia and beyond.”
“I believe that our community feels that access to a wide variety of literature is important,” Kincaid told the Erie Times-News. “As such, our libraries (stock) books with recommendations from The American Library Association and the Junior Library Guild. It is important that we provide our young readers with books on a variety of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, classics to modern pieces, and even books that some may view as controversial.”
In the Penncrest School District, A Gay Pride Month display of LGBTQ+ themed books in a school library split the Crawford County community in May 2021.
Residents packed school board meetings to support or condemn a social media post by School Director David Valesky that called the display “totally evil.”
Valesky’s post included a photo of the book display with the comment, “This is on display at Maplewood High School. Besides the point of being totally evil, this is not what we need to be teaching kids. They aren’t at school to be brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is okay. It’s actually being promoted to the point that it’s even ‘cool.'”
The display was removed, not because of its content, but because district libraries traditionally do not mount displays during June when classes are ending, schools Superintendent Timothy Glasspool said. The books remained in the library.
Other school districts are identifying library books and textbooks that could come under fire from conservative groups.
Millcreek School Board President Gary Winschel said the district is aware of lists of “inappropriate” books circulated by conservative parent groups, though he is not aware of any challenges to books in Millcreek school libraries.
“(Superintendent) Dr. (Ian) Roberts and the school board are being proactive and working with librarians and building administrators to go through our collections and identify books that may be subject to controversy,” Winschel said.
Moms for Liberty, a national organization with the mission to “stand up for parental rights at all levels of government,” according to the organization’s website, has fought school mask mandates and challenged books with LGBTQ+ themes and books that the organization said promote critical race theory or contain sexual content.
The organization, founded in Florida in 2021, challenged 41 books in Brevard, Florida, including Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which they said contains sexual content not meant for children.
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A Moms for Liberty chapter in Bradford last year challenged three books in the Bradford Area School District. All three books were reviewed and retained by the school district, Emerson said.
Other statewide and local groups are fighting pressures to ban books from Pennsylvania school libraries, including Education Voters of Pennsylvania and a Red Wine & Blue organization. Red Wine & Blue describes itself as a “sisterhood working to change the world together, one suburb at a time,” and as “book ban busters.”
In the Warwick School District in Lancaster County, parent Kayla Cook started a Facebook group opposing book bans in the district after “not hearing any voices that echo mine” as parents challenged books during school board meetings.
After starting the Facebook group, Cook said during an online briefing by Education Voters of Pennsylvania and Red Wine & Blue in October, “We … found that there just were a lot of parents who weren’t aware of the battles until we started sharing detailed meeting minutes from our school board meetings.”
A September Ipsos poll indicated that a large majority of Americans oppose school library book bans, said Ipsos senior Vice President Chris Jackson.
Poll results include:
“Very few Americans support the idea that they should be involved in curriculum and setting what’s happening in schools,” Jackson said. “Most agree that schools should be places of learning over political battlegrounds.”
In a CBS News poll in February, more than 8 of 10 Americans did not think books should be banned from schools for discussing race, for depicting slavery in the past or for political ideas contrary to their own.
State lawmakers have introduced or proposed legislation concerning book content, challenges and bans in schools.
A state Senate bill sponsored by Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster County, would require schools to identify and notify parents of “sexually explicit” content in curriculum, books and other materials and allow parents to refuse the use of those materials for their child and prevent their child from viewing particular library books.
“In examples right here in Pennsylvania, parents have identified books and assignments provided to their children that contain sexually explicit content that adults would be prohibited from viewing while at work,” Aument said in introducing the bill.
The legislation would require librarians and other school officials to spend considerable time and resources defining and identifying sexually explicit content in books and curriculum already vetted for use in schools by professional associations and staff, said Emerson, of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association
“The bill actually says that school librarians would have to track every single book in the school library and tag explicit content, whatever that means, and also not let students look at that material and tell parents if their kids are looking at it,” Emerson said.
State Rep. Christopher Rabb, D-Philadelphia, has proposed legislation that would require the Pennsylvania Department of Education and local school board to participate in at least two public hearings moderated by professionals knowledgeable about a challenged book before a school board votes to ban it.
“Book bans are an attempt to censor educators and restrict the information and educational materials that students can have access to in school,” Rabb said. “In addition, these effectively unilateral decisions made by school boards are extremely harmful to LGBTQ+ youth and students of color given that the subjects discussed in these so-called ‘inappropriate’ and ‘explicit’ books often discuss many serious and real issues impacting these communities.”
School libraries provide books for all students, and students can choose to read, or not to read, particular titles, Emerson said.
“We believe every reader has the right to read what they want to read. We also believe that families know what is best for their own students and pride ourselves on working with families to find the right reading materials for their child,” Emerson said. “What we oppose is someone wanting to make a decision for what other children are reading. Families can say what is right for their child but should not say what is right for that child over there.”
Books provide an avenue for children to see themselves in characters and relate to others, said Lester, of the American Association of School Librarians.
“Every book is not for every person, but for each book there is a person who might need that book,” Lester said. “We try to provide access to diverse resources to represent the whole community. Education is about windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors. We want mirrors for kids to find themselves and their families represented in books, windows for readers to look into other worlds, and sliding glass doors to help people understand and build empathy for people who are different from them.
“For all those reasons, it is important to have a diverse set of books.”
The following books faced the most challenges by parents and others during the 2021-22 school year and subsequently were removed from libraries in some school districts nationwide.
Source: PEN America writers’ advocacy organization
Contact Valerie Myers at [email protected].
School library book bans in PA and US spark culture wars – GoErie.com
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