Episode 69: The Continuing Unsettling Saga of Book Banning in Education and the Inspiring Student Resilience

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Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing why book banning continues to be a contentious issue and why the number and types of books continue to be banned. I first addressed this issue of book banning in season one of my show, and I wanted to discuss the current state fate of this issue. I summarized one book each month that was listed on the band book list for K12 public education in the school year 2021 through 2022. You can listen to these episodes by searching for the keywords book review in the title of those episodes. It seems that book banning has escalated to a higher level, with more stakeholders like librarians, publishers, and students getting involved in pushing back. What has happened with book banning since I last discussed it, and why does it continue to be so problematic? I delve into the latest updates on this issue and why it remains highly politicized on this episode, let's get started. What types of books are continuously on the banned book list? Those that contain the topics of gender, sexuality, and racism as expressed in books tends to be the reason behind why many books are banned. There were over 300 picture books that were banned from the library and classroom shelves during the 20212022 school year. This affected the youngest readers, those that are in grades K through 3. Most of the frequently banned picture books were nonfiction, including stories about people that pushed for civil rights. Other books were fiction and included imagery of animals or babies. Most of the books, however, featured an LGBTQ character or protagonist of color. Some of these picture book titles include and Tango Makes Three, a true story about two male penguins in New York City Central park who took in a baby penguin with the help of a zookeeper. The Baby Tree, a book about a curious little boy who wants to know where babies come from and who asks that question of everyone he meets until his parents give him the answer. And another example of these picture books is Separate Is Never Equal Sylvia Mendez and her Family's Fight for Desegregation. This book tells the story of the Mendez family, whose daughter Sylvia was turned away from her neighborhood school and told to join a Mexican school instead, and their fight to end segregation in California schools seven years before Brown versus Board of Education these three examples illustrate how over the top book banning has become Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a bill that prohibits sexually explicit material in public school libraries and said that more work is needed from lawmakers on education related legislation. Over the past couple of years, political debates have played out in Texas districts over whether certain books were appropriate for school libraries and the role of parents and how they should play a part in modern reading material. The new Texas law requires the Texas State Library and Archives Commission create mandatory standards for libraries and this involves labeling books as sexually relevant or sexually explicit. Books labeled sexually relevant could be available to students as long as they have parental approval. Books considered explicit could not be sold to districts and would need to be recalled if they were already in the K12 public school libraries. An April 2023 report from the free speech organization PEN America found that in the first half of 20222023 school year book bans increased 28% compared to six months before. 30% of the books were about race, racism or featured characters of color. Texas is among the states with the most instances of book bans. Other states leading the charge on book bans are Florida, which serves as the epicenter these days, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina. Time and again, the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship. Interestingly, over 70% of parents oppose book banning, yet the bans continue. Book censorship impacts a wide array of books, including books that portray violence and abuse at 44%, books that discuss the topic of health and well being at 38%, and books that COVID death and grief at 30%. In February of this year, the Duval County School District in Florida removed a book about Afro Puerto Rican baseball legend Roberto Clemente from library shelves for review. The removal of the book made national news, and it was among more than a million titles the district said it was reviewing to adhere to Florida's laws restricting lessons on race and racism, gender and sexual identity, and requiring school librarians to review books and remove all inappropriate content. The book was allegedly under review because it contained references to the racism Clemente experienced. Then, in March of this year, Governor Ron DeSantis and Manny Diaz, the state education commissioner, blamed the district for overreacting and removing the books. They also denied reports of mass book bans in Florida and didn't address mass removals and reviews of books due to state laws and Department of education guidelines. Mr. Diaz then wrote a letter to the school district asking why the book was removed and expressed concern about the district review process, which mandates that any library or instructional book be reviewed by a district employee with a valid educational Meaning specialist certificate to make sure that they don't contain pornography or banned lessons on racism. The next morning, the district approved the book to be returned to the shelves how confusing is this? It makes you wonder why politicians get involved at this level of the education process. It's disingenuous for states to say that they aren't responsible for book bans when they're the ones that created the laws and regulations that have led to an environment of fear of civil liability, loss of jobs, and loss of teaching licenses if the line is crossed. The best way of assuring that no bans take place is to take politicians and political organizations out of the mix and to rescind laws and regulations pertaining to book bans and allow the education professionals and library professionals to do the job they know how to do best, as well as serving their communities of students and parents.

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So what do students have to say about book bands in their schools? They don't seem to notice when a book is challenged in their district, according to half of the school library staff. But when they do find out that a book is under challenge, naturally students interest in those titles go up. In fact, it seems as though a student's interest in reading overall goes up. Some students seem to care about access to diverse books, particularly titles that represent their experiences. It's also worth noting that many parents and community members aren't informed about book challenges and book bans. When parents or students are notified about a challenge to a particular book and the parent or student has concerns about that book, having conversations with library personnel usually resolves these concerns. Parents and students who were willing to discuss books with librarians rarely challenge those books. Sometimes students lead the fight to reverse book bans. One such protest in Central York School District led to a reversal of book ban that disallowed books about diverse characters. The protest in Central York was among at least a dozen examples nationwide of students organizing to resist book bans in recent years. Since the restrictions on the books housed in school libraries and classrooms have spread across the country. The student resistance may be small, but it is a growing trend as districts continue to limit students access to books and other materials that have drawn parent and community objections. In districts where students have put up an organized resistance, they injected momentum into the efforts to oppose book bans. Sometimes they were successful and sometimes they weren't. In any case, the public and the community seem to really listen when students speak out well. The authors of one of the most banned picture books in the country, and tango makes three for grades K3, filed a lawsuit in federal court in June of this year. The lawsuit argues that the Lake County School District banned the book because it contains LGBTQ characters. Citing Florida's parental rights and education law, the authors and students argue that restricting younger students access to the book violates the first and 14th Amendments. According to the lawsuit. The authors and students are also suing the State Board of Education and the state's Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz, for enforcing the state law. The lawsuit adds for a preliminary injunction requiring the Lake County District to restore students access to the book across grade levels before the first day of school. The lawsuit also seeks permanent injunction prohibiting the State Board of Education and commissioner from enforcing state law to require the removal or restriction of library books. Further, one of the nation's largest publishers, five authors of banned books, two parents, and a free speech advocacy group indicated that a Florida school district violated their constitutional rights by restricting students access to more than 100 books. In the midst of a nationwide movement to ban books, this is the first coalition to bring together authors, a publisher, and that publisher is Penguin, Random House and parents against the district. All parties who sued the Escambia County Public Schools and School Board in federal court. The publisher is suing because the book bands restrict their ability to freely publish and sell books. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are asking for all removed and restricted books to be made accessible to all students. Escambia County's book bands started with the teacher Vicki Baguette, challenging more than 100 titles, including out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and discussed on an episode in season one. The teacher also objected to, and tango makes three, the picture book for K3 grades. To date, Escambia County Board has rejected none of Baghead's challenges, the lawsuit asserts. Here's an interesting Use of AI technology in schools pertaining to book banning An Iowa school district used artificial intelligence to determine which books to remove from school libraries in an attempt to comply with the state law that bans library materials that includes depictions of sex using ChatGPT. An assistant superintendent entered a list of about 50 commonly banned books across Mason City schools in Iowa and asked the tool to determine which books contained depictions of sex acts. Mason City School Superintendent Pat Hamilton stated that the district had never banned books before or even received challenges from parents. He indicated that the Iowa law puts districts in a difficult position of having to comply with the new requirements even if they don't believe they need to remove any books from school libraries. The Iowa law bans lessons about sexual orientation and gender identity for grades K through 6, mandates administrators to inform parents if students ask to use pronouns or names that do not align with their gender assignment at birth, and requires that all library materials are quote age appropriate, end quote. It might have been more prudent for the district to have followed their book banning policy and consulted with librarians and educators instead of relying on AI or websites such as such as booklooks.org which is a website run by parents who review books to confirm if the book includes depictions of sex acts. Using ChatGPT for this purpose simply amounts to censorship. Just using a different medium. Some people are taking extreme measures in the fight for book censorship. In 2022, there were almost 6,000 school threats across the country reported to the FBI, a 60% increase over 2021. As both book bans and school threats have proliferated, a small amount of districts like Hilton Central in upstate New York have experienced threats tied to book ban controversies. Some parents and priorities threatening emails to districts indicating a bomb scare if certain books aren't removed from the classroom or school library. These email threats are simply a hoax meant to cause panic and disruption in the school community. The common trait among these emails is the use of overseas email addresses and routing the messages through overseas service, all to consist of conceal identity. Fortunately, no credible threats have been identified. These kinds of threats are called squatting, which means a false threat of violence such as school shooter or bomb threat intended to cause disruptions. The FBI takes squatting very seriously because these threats put innocent people at risk and cause significant fear in the community. While book bans have escalated steadily nationwide, most of the bans and challengers are not accompanied by threats. The American Library association, however, is seeing social media webinars regularly against librarians, teachers, and citizens who speak up against censorship. It's ironic that threatening a bomb scare at a school for elementary students and middle school students is acceptable, but to protect them from the supposed harms of reading diverse materials is unacceptable. These threats seem to be consistent with only a small minority of extremists. The impact of these attempts to censor books and sections of American society has been seen for decades and will probably do irreparable harm. No one is intentionally putting pornography in libraries, and politicians are seeking a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist at the expense of taxpayers. On the bright side, the book banning trend may be slowing down. In June of this year, Illinois became the first state to pass legislation effectively ending book bans in the state. The politicizing of book bans has reached all the way to the White House. Also in June of this year, President Biden announced the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights would appoint a new coordinator to address the growing threat that book bands pose for the civil rights of students. Here are some action steps you can take regarding this topic. The main action you can take is to stay informed about the books that are on your children's reading list. Be aware of what books are on the banned book list for the current school year. It's time to form form connections with librarians and other parents. The librarians will be able to assist you because they're aware of the books that are on the banned book list. Forming collaborations with other parents, even creating a parent advocacy group, will help give voice to your position about the necessity for diversity in reading materials for your children. You should speak up against the banning of books that pertain to diverse characters, race, and racism, as well as those written by authors of color. You should also plan to attend school board meetings, especially if the topic of book challenges is on the agenda. This is where the power of being one of parent advocates against book banning is most powerful. If you're unable to attend the school board meeting, recruit another parent advocate in your network to attend the meeting. Communication is key. Making your voice heard is the only way to reduce the number of book challenges and book bans each year. Here are this episode's takeaways and April 2023 will be report from the free speech organization. PEN America found that in the first half of the 20222023 school year, book bans increased 28% compared to the six months before. 30% of the books were about race, racism or featured characters of color. The topics of gender and sexuality as expressed in the book books tends to be other reasons behind why many books are banned. Texas is among the states with the most instances of book bans. Other states leading the charge on book bans are Florida, which seems to be the epicenter these days, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina. Time and again, the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship. Interestingly, over 70% of parents oppose book banning, yet the bans continue. Book censorship impacts the wide array of books, including books that portray violence and abuse, discuss topics of health and well being, and books that COVID death grief there were over 300 picture books that were banned from the library and classroom shelves during the 20212022 school year. This affected the youngest readers, those that are in grades K through 3. Most of the frequently banned picture books were nonfiction, including stories about people that pushed for civil rights. Other books were fiction and included imagery of animals and babies. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening. Listening to this Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on Apple or podchaser if you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find a valuable Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Additionally, connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. And be sure to stay tuned on the next episode. I'll be discussing microlearning and Nano learning. Until next time. Aim to learn something new every day.

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