The Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA), for example, was founded in 2013 to champion education reform. But its leaders have spent considerable time and energy opposing climate change education, arguing for the elimination of sex education in K12 schools, and publishing the misleading 2021 Objectionable Materials Report: Pornography and Age-Inappropriate Material in Florida Public Schools (provocatively named the Porn in Schools Report on their website). During that time, school districts banned 379 LGBTQ titles,. For their report, PEN America examined publicly noted book bans occurring from the start of July 2021 to the end of March 2022. Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, a nonprofit organization that defends free expression in literature, also condemned the move in a Twitter thread. removed books from their shelves preemptively, particularly graphic novels, which appear to be uniquely susceptible to challenge under the laws provisions. Other groups, including. This book-banning effort is continuing as the 202223 school year begins too, with at least 139 additional bans taking effect since July 2022. At PEN America, both the beauty and perils of free expression In Texas, for example, Republican state representative Matt Krause sent a letter and list with 850 books to school districts, asking them to investigate and report on which of the titles they held in libraries or classrooms. Maia Kobabe's book, "Gender Queer," was the most banned book in the U.S. in 2021, a year in which bans and challenges soared. Altogether, this report paints a deeply concerning picture for access to literature, and diverse literature in particular, in schools in the coming school year. PEN America - Wikipedia The complaints said materials were too focused on the countrys segregationist past and might make children feel uncomfortable about race. PEN America pushes back against the use of 'sensitivity readers' to Most of these groups (including chapters) appear to have formed since 2021 (73 percent, or 262). Use the opportunity to conduct outreach and learn more about what these communities want or need from the university. PEN America has identified at least 50 groups operating at the national, state, or local levels to campaign and mobilize around what they view as the dangers of books in K-12 schools, and advocating for book restrictions and bans. In so doing, the district ran afoul of NCAC guidelines to ensure practices that advance fundamental pedagogical goals and not subjective interests.. Book banning and. Administrators sorted the books into tiers based on how much the books focus on LGBTQ+ characters or story lines; tier 3, for instance, reflected that the main character of the book is part of the LGBTQ community, and their sexual identity forms a key component of the plot. Broadly, this movement is intertwined with political movements that grew throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including fights against mask mandates and virtual school, as well as disputes over critical race theory that in some states fueled the introduction of, prohibiting discussion of divisive concepts in classrooms. Florida Gov. The most banned authors include winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature, the Booker Prize, the Newbery Award, the Caldecott Medal, the Eisner Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the NAACP Image Award, the GLAAD Award for Media Representation, the Stonewall Award, and more. Although the center does not continuously maintain similar statistics on books about LGBTQ+ characters or plots, such books have not historically been published in great. PEN America Responds to 'American Dirt' Controversy In response to such threats, the Sarasota County, Florida, school board placed limits on public comments at board meetings. The Texas standards follow state representative Matt Krauses October 2021 public letter initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content, as well as a public letter to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) from Gov. Beginning in the summer of 2022, book bans in some Florida school districts were reportedly tied to the passage of the , law signed by Governor DeSantis in March 2022. An august institution had Michael Moore's back when YouTube pulled his controversial documentary "Planet of the Humans" earlier this year. In April, May, and June 2022, PEN America tracked several cases where school administrators have banned books in the absence of any challenge in their own district, seemingly in a, The most significant ban of this type occurred in, , where a school district removed 327 books from shelves in anticipation of a state law that ultimately did not pass. In some cases, parents have screamed to disrupt meetings, or, . While these cases are not included in the Index because they do not meet PEN Americas definition of school book bans, these types of actions could have a chilling effectapplying a stigma to the books in question and the topics they coverand they merit further study. The role of organized local, regional, and national groups in book-banning campaigns has several implications that are distinct from prior patterns where book challenges tended to originate locally and spontaneously by individual parents. The magazine's critics also were . Bans occurred in 138 school districts in 32 states. For example, the school board in Hamilton County, Tennessee, accepted board policy recommendations from a special book review committee in March 2022, which removed a statement on the principles of intellectual freedom from the ALAs Library Bill of Rights. This was a striking departure from the norm, as up until this year, it was a generally accepted standard that school board policies concerning acquisitions management and curricular development would reference or otherwise incorporate principles put forth by the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the ALA. Kalynn Bayron, author of Cinderella Is Dead, a young adult fantasy novel that presents a retelling of the classic fairy tale, featuring a queer Black girl (3 bans). In addition to the role played in book banning by local, state, and national groups, efforts to restrict access to books were also advanced in the past year by government officials and enabled by both state-level legislation and district-level policy changes. Another major factor driving this dramatic expansion of book banning has been the proliferation of organized efforts to advocate for book removals. Advocacy groups played a major role in the bans that took place during the 2021-22 school year, according to PEN America. In Keller ISD, this provision was changed to ten years. The Alpine School District in Utah responded to a new law, HB 374 (Sensitive Materials in Schools), by announcing the removal of 52 titles in July, but then opted to keep the books on shelves with some restrictions after national pushback. What does this mean for districts who receive a request to reconsider a library holding? Some contain nothing more obscene than the mere suggestion of a same-sex couple in an illustration, as in the board book Everywhere Babies, which was included on one list of books misleadingly labeled pornographic along with And Tango Makes Three, a story about two male penguins making a family together, based on the true story of two male penguins who formed a pair bond in New Yorks Central Park Zoo. LGBTQ books account for one third of all attempted bans. The report and PEN America Principles are available here. Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Ban Books - PEN America The most significant ban of this type occurred in Collierville, Tennessee, where a school district removed 327 books from shelves in anticipation of a state law that ultimately did not pass. PEN America has identified these chapters based on the national groups own listings, by chapter or regional websites, and by their official chapter and regional group pages on Facebook. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Prez, a novel about a romance between a Black teenage boy and a Mexican American girl, has been banned in 16 districts, and The Bluest Eye, the story of a young. PEN America (@PENamerica) / Twitter Lisa Tolin provided editorial support, and Dominique Baeta provided research assistance. PEN America: Facebook, Twitter Must Move Fast to Clarify Policies on The impact and role of these groups has been noted in dozens of cases of book challenges around the country. We should heed this warning. Insofar as we have been able to establish, there are at least another 38 state, regional, or community groups that do not appear to have formal affiliations with national organizations or with one another. Since PEN America published our initial Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students First Amendment Rights (April 2022)report, tracking 1,586 book bans during the nine-month period from July 2021 to March 2022, details about 671 additional banned books during that period have come to light. How a Debut Graphic Memoir Became the Most Banned Book in the Country In evaluating these trends, it is critical to remember that only a limited number of childrens and young adult books are published annually that are written by or about either LGBTQ+ people or people of color. The repercussions extend further, however, to the well-being of the students affected by these bans. Instead, in numerous cases, school districts either, their own policies when removing particular books. Donate Now. In August, the school board voted to place some of the books back in full circulation, but a list of 10 books remain restricted, including Toni Morrisons Beloved and The Bluest Eye, along with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. 4.1.2016. In another instance, Central Bucks County School District in Pennsylvania voted in July 2022 to reassign oversight of library collections from library and education professionals to a committee of the superintendents designeespoliticizing a task previously performed by library and education professionals well versed in sound acquisition principles and policies. In Madison County Schools, Mississippi, for example, a parent who identified herself as the point person for Mississippis chapter of MassResistance (a national group also classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), expressed concerns regarding critical race theory and worked with parents to review the schools online library catalogs, seeking books that had been challenged in other parts of the country. The newspaper reported finding more than 1,000 bans in Texas during that time frame, which overlaps only in part with the time period covered by this report. In other cases, districts followed policies that failed to afford full protection for freedom of expressionfor example, by restricting student access to books while they are under review, by failing to convene a committee to review the complaint, or by not having the complainant complete the paperwork or read the whole book to which they were objecting as required by the stated policies. It . Most of these tactics, it should be emphasized, are tactics that many advocacy and community organizing groups employ to a wide range of ends. Photo courtesy Robert Kesten, Stonewall National Museum & Archives. Another group, the. PEN America, a free speech organization, and Penguin Random House were joined in the lawsuit by parents and authors trying to block the book bans. Ultimately they have played a role in bans in several counties in Florida, such as, , the superintendent responded to their email by directing the removal of all books on the list, despite, , I havent read one paragraph of the books at this time. Their advocacy was also connected to warning labels being applied to over 100 books in school libraries in, Even smaller, less formal groups have had an impact too. ), expressed concerns regarding critical race theory and worked with parents to review the schools online library catalogs, seeking books that had been challenged in other parts of the country. This movement to ban books is deeply undemocratic, in that it often seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of those calling for the bans and notwithstanding polls that consistently show that Americans of all political persuasions oppose book bans. The bill also contains, for works of art, works of anthropological significance, and materials for a science or sexual education class. That ban also impacted hundreds of books with protagonists of color, including the Caldecott Honorwinning A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Of those 50 groups, eight have local or regional chapters that, between them, number at least 300 in total; some of these operate predominantly through social media. While many of these groups use language in their mission statements about parents rights or religious or conservative views, some also make explicit calls for the exclusion of materials that touch on race (sometimes explicitly critical race theory) or LGBTQ+ themes. Beyond formal book bans, there have also been efforts to keep books out of the hands of children even if they remain in circulation. Some conservative politicians. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP). PEN America Won't Defend Artists Against Cancel Culture Surge The association has autonomous International PEN centers in more than 100 countries.. Other goals included: to emphasise the role of . In August, some school districts in, began to pull books from shelves in response to a. that made it a class A misdemeanor to provide visually explicit sexual material to students. The groups behind these bans often furnish materials, messaging templates, and other kinds of directions that easily facilitate book challenges and imbue their efforts with a degree of focus and determination that can take local school officials by surprise. Legal precedent and expert best practices demand that committee members, and principals, superintendents, and school boards act with the constitutional rights of students in mind, and using established processes, cognizant of the harm in eliminating access for all based on the concerns of any individual or faction. The complaints said materials were too focused on the countrys segregationist past and might make children feel uncomfortable about race. Leaders of state chapters of Parents Involved in Education have been quoted calling for book removals at school board meetings in, with the ACLU of Missouri they claimed the removal of, books in Wentzville, MO was part of a targeted campaign by the St. Charles County Parents Association and No Left Turn in Educations Missouri chapter to remove particular ideas and viewpoints about race and sexuality from school libraries., , for example, a parent who identified herself as the point person for Mississippis chapter of MassResistance (a national group also, classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. Other preemptive bans were responses to actions at the state level or in neighboring districts. Book bans occur when those choices are overridden by school boards, administrators, teachers, or even politicians, on the basis of a particular books content. The unrelenting wave of challenges to the inclusion of certain books in school librarieswhether promulgated at the urging of an individual community member, grassroots organization, or government officialhas spurred another phenomenon: preemptive book banning. The school district in Brevard County, Florida, canceled its math app, Prodigy, for similar reasons. Why Masha Gessen Resigned from the PEN America Board Most of these tactics, it should be emphasized, are tactics that many advocacy and community organizing groups employ to a wide range of ends. Greg Abbott in, , asking schools to investigate why their libraries contained allegedly obscene and pornographic content in schools. PEN Americas Jonathan Friedman on MSNBC for the Mehdi Hasan Show, Nov. 11, 2021. The groups behind these bans often furnish materials, messaging templates, and other kinds of directions that easily facilitate book challenges and imbue their efforts with a degree of focus and determination that can take local school officials by surprise. These varied groups do not all share identical aims, but they have found common cause in advancing an effort to control and limit what kinds of books are available in schools. In Walton County School District, the superintendent responded to their email by directing the removal of all books on the list, despite admitting, I havent read one paragraph of the books at this time. Their advocacy was also connected to warning labels being applied to over 100 books in school libraries in Collier County, Florida.

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