YOU ARE READING: Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students First Amendment Rights – PEN America AT PhebinhvanhocEN
alarming trends
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- In total, over the represented nine-month period, the index lists 1,586 instances of individual banned books, affecting 1,145 unique book titles. this encompasses different types of bans, including the removal of books from school libraries, classroom bans, or both, as well as the prohibited circulation of books during investigations resulting from challenges by parents, educators, administrators, board members, or responses to laws passed by legislatures these numbers represent a count of cases reported directly to pen america and/or covered in the media; there may be other instances of bans that have not been reported and are therefore not included in this count.
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- The index lists bans on 1,145 titles by 874 different authors, 198 illustrators, and 9 translators, affecting the literary, scholarly, and creative work of 1,081 people in total.
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- The index lists book bans that have occurred in 86 school districts in 26 states. these districts represent 2,899 schools with a combined enrollment of more than 2 million students.
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- It is not just the number of books withdrawn that is of concern, but the processes, or lack thereof, by which such withdrawals are carried out. Objections and challenges to books available in school are nothing new, and parents and citizens have a right to express concerns about the appropriateness and appropriateness of particular books. however, in order to protect the first amendment rights of students in public schools, procedural safeguards have been designed to help ensure that districts follow transparent, impartial, and established procedures, particularly when it comes to review of library funds. Of the 1,586 bans listed in the index, Pen America found that the vast majority (98%) involved various deviations from best practice guidelines outlined by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Library Association (ALA). such guidelines have been designed to ensure rigorous standards and avoid highly irregular ad hoc acts that could conflict with the relevant legal doctrine. these guidelines include the filing of formal written challenges by parents or local residents; the formation of review committees, usually made up of librarians, teachers, administrators, and community members; and that the books must remain in circulation during the reconsideration process until a final decision is made. challenges to library books and classroom and curricular materials should occur first at the school level and then, if a decision is appealed, at the district level. while the supreme court has recognized the “broad discretion” given to local school boards in the “administration of school affairs,” that discretion does not negate the responsibility to engage in due and considered processes with respect to selections or removals. rather, per pico, school boards must exercise their discretion regarding education matters “in a manner consistent with the transcendent imperatives of the first amendment.” News reports from school districts across the country indicate that this directive is being avoided, as the responsibility of local school boards to employ appropriate safeguards and best practices in these decisions is being widely abrogated.
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- Of all bans listed in the index, 41% (644 individual bans) are tied to directives by state officials or elected legislators to investigate or remove books from schools. this is an unprecedented change in pen america’s long history of responding to book bans, from the more typical pattern in which book removal demands are initiated by members of the local community. As noted below, banning books, as a form of censorship, implicates First Amendment prohibitions on the ability of government entities to ban or punish speech, making these documented efforts by lawmakers be even more worrying.
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- Of 1,145 unique titles listed in the index, 819 are works of fiction (72%), 537 are classified as ya (young adult) (47%), and 209 (18%) are They are picture books for children. we also recorded bans on 31 graphic novels and 32 verse novels, both forms of literature often used to appeal to reluctant readers.
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- Among the titles in the index, there are common themes that reflect recent backlash and ongoing debates around the teaching and discussion of race and racism in American history, lgbtq+ identities and sex education in schools. of the titles in the index, 467 contain prominent leads or supporting characters of color (41%) and 247 directly address issues of race and racism (22%); 379 titles (33%) explicitly address lgbtq+ themes, or have leading or prominent supporting characters who are lgbtq+; 283 titles contain sexual content of various kinds (25%), including novels with sexual encounters, as well as informational books on puberty, sex or relationships. there are 184 titles (16%) that are history books or biographies. another 107 titles have themes related to rights and activism (9%).
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Beyond the scope of this report, there are many school districts where appropriate reconsideration policies have been followed and decisions have been made to keep books on library shelves and in classrooms. but the large number of bans identified in the index demonstrates that there are many places where a censorship result prevails. These findings overlap and align with those recently released by the American Library Association (ALA) for 2021, which document an unprecedented number of book bans in schools and public libraries. This report confirms that these bans are overwhelmingly occurring in districts where school authorities are not following best practice guidelines to protect students’ First Amendment rights, often making opaque or ad hoc decisions, in some cases in direct contravention of existing policies.