Pen America estimates that across the U.S. at least 1,648 books have been banned from July 2021 to June 2022. These books, under the pressure of legislators, parents, and advocacy groups, were removed from school and classroom libraries. 

From contemporaries to classics, picture books to young adults, the majority of banned books share one similarity: they discuss the experiences of minorities. A whopping 81% of banned books across the nation in 2021 and 2022 contained main characters that were people of color and/or LGBTQ+ themes or characters. When we allow school environments to change with such speed and decisiveness we need to consciously ask one question: how will this affect our students? 

Award-winning author A.S. King is an outspoken advocate for free reading. In her newly-published young adult novel Attack of the Black Rectangles, she builds on the experiences of her child who, when assigned to read The Devil’s Arithmetic, found that passages and words had been blacked out by a teacher who deemed them ‘inappropriate.’ In an interview she spoke of the effect book banning has on students: “The banning of the truth of a lived experience is dangerous. It sends a clear message to the students in your school who relate to that lived experience that they are not welcome there.”  

Limiting the amount of information accessible to students is the first step in producing less educated and less prepared citizens. No book should be banned. This is a sentiment that’s shared by the majority of America. 8 in 10 people don’t believe books, even ones opposing their personal political views, should be banned under any circumstances. 

If the majority of people aren’t in favor of banning books, then who is? Pen America found that roughly 50 advocacy groups welcomed parents’ concerns about books in the school environment they considered ‘inappropriate.’ Among them were Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, and, the Pennsylvania specific, Woke PA. Active in 21 counties, Woke PA doesn’t just focus on book banning. It also heavily criticized critical race theory and vaccine requirements upheld by schools. 

Advocacy groups aren’t the only ones fighting for the banning of books. Politicians like Glen Youngkin, Greg Abbott, and Ted Cruz have discovered that declaring these books obscene, inappropriate, or other overstated synonyms, frightens parents to the point of action. Feeding off that fear, book banning has become a central topic in press conferences, especially as midterms approach. 

Book banning is not always readily accepted by student populations. When the Central York School District banned this list of books and other diversity resources, students and teachers were outraged. Students protested outside the school every day for a week, waving signs denouncing the decision made by their school board. This,  with a book drive that raised 7,000 of the banned books, caused the Central York school board to promptly retract its decision, reinstating all the banned materials immediately. 

Book banning is not likely to go away anytime soon. That doesn’t mean it can’t be prevented or, as the students in York proved, retracted. Books have been ingrained in our society since their creation. For hundreds of years they were the primary platform of knowledge and information. Even as digital media becomes more popular, they persist. A.S King phrased it well: “Intellectual freedom is access to information. Our freedom to read is not up for grabs.”

We have a duty to our children to be honest about their bodies, their experiences, and the experiences of their peers. We have a duty to indulge their curiosity, to allow them to pursue all avenues of knowledge.  The Greek philosopher Diogenes claimed: “The foundation of every state is the education of their youth.” If that is true, how can we, in good conscience, put limits on what our children learn about the world and each other?