You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.
“What is the criteria for banning a book? Who gets to make that decision? Is it one person’s opinion? Everyone sees things differently; where will it stop?” Ignoring district procedures for making decisions about restricting student access to books, school superintendent unilaterally bans Graham Swift’s novel Waterland after one parent complains.
“As a former high school English and Latin teacher, I am certainly aware that much of modern literature contains sexual material.” Responding to public outcry, school superintendent still wants to ban Waterland but will now follow district book review procedure. Perhaps out of pique, he also wants to ban Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
“… [I]t will end education in New Hampshire as we know it, allowing children to be removed from any lessons their parents choose: algebra, English language arts, health education, American history, the civil or women’s rights movement, science, absolutely anything.” The implications of New Hampshire’s school curriculum law are staggering.
Missouri library bans internet access to occult websites. But that’s not all. If you request access to those sites, they report you to the police.
Commie libsymps ban books too!
Keep your subversive books out of our town! The Mormon Taliban trash public library under construction, burn books, dump others.
“[I]t’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” A 7th grader’s essay on book banning.
Here’s a breakdown, compiled by ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, of the reasons cited for the more than 11,000 attempts to ban or restrict access to books in America from 1990 through 2010:
