{"id":30553,"date":"2022-03-26T10:31:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=30553"},"modified":"2022-03-26T10:33:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T17:33:16","slug":"you-cant-read-that-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=30553","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"

You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post about book banning, featuring news and opinion roundups, personal observations, and reviews.<\/p>\n

\"22C5D5CB-B5D3-4C6C-BC18-00ADE5399A80_1_201_a\"<\/a>
You may find the above graphic far-fetched for a post about book banning, but I think it captures the mentality of book banners.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
YCRT! News & Opinion Roundup<\/strong><\/h5>\n

This YCRT! post leads off with three “premium” links. You may or may not be able to read these paywalled articles, but they’re worth a try.<\/em><\/p>\n

Schools Nationwide Are Quietly Removing Books From Their Libraries<\/a><\/strong> (Washington Post)<\/p>\n

Samantha Hull was on vacation when she got the call about the missing books.<\/p>\n

Eight titles had melted away seemingly overnight, a panicked school aide told Hull, from the shelves of an elementary school in one of the 22 districts Hull oversees as co-chair of a group representing school librarians in Pennsylvania\u2019s Lancaster and Lebanon counties. The books included titles such as \u201cIn My Mosque<\/a>,\u201d which instructs children about Islam; \u201cA Place Inside of Me<\/a>,\u201d which explores a Black student\u2019s reckoning with a police shooting; and \u201cWhen Aidan Became a Brother,<\/a>\u201d whose main character is a transgender boy.<\/p>\n

The Fight Over \u2018Maus\u2019 Is Part of a Bigger Cultural Battle in Tennessee<\/a><\/strong> (New York Times)<\/p>\n

The fight over \u201cMaus\u201d is the latest flash point in a national wave of conservative challenges to reading material for young people in school libraries and classrooms. Dozens of bills<\/a> aimed at banning the teaching of topics derided as \u201ccritical race theory\u201d have been introduced in state legislatures across the country in recent years. Conservative groups have targeted books<\/a> about race, gender and sexuality, with more than 300 book challenges reported last fall, according to the American Library Association, which called the number \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the School Wars Still Rage<\/a><\/strong> (The New Yorker)<\/p>\n

While all this has been happening, I\u2019ve been working on a U.S.-history textbook, so it\u2019s been weird to watch lawmakers try their hands at writing American history, and horrible to see what the ferment is doing to public-school teachers. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin set up an e-mail tip line \u201cfor parents to send us any instances where they feel that their fundamental rights are being violated\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. or where there are inherently divisive practices in their schools.\u201d There and elsewhere, parents are harassing school boards and reporting on teachers, at a time when teachers, who earn too little and are asked to do too much, are already exhausted by battles over remote instruction and mask and vaccine mandates and, not least, by witnessing, without being able to repair, the damage the pandemic has inflicted on their students. Kids carry the burdens of loss, uncertainty, and shaken faith on their narrow shoulders, tucked inside their backpacks. Now, with schools open and masks coming off, teachers are left trying to figure out not only how to care for them but also what to teach, and how to teach it, without losing their jobs owing to complaints filed by parents.<\/p>\n

Real links (the kind you can read, as the creators of the internet intended):<\/em><\/p>\n

Americans MASSIVELY AGAINST Banning School Library Books? But We Heard … Aw F*ck It<\/a><\/strong> (Wonkette)<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s recent book banning push doesn\u2019t align with public sentiment. According to a CBS News poll, more than eight out of 10 voters \u2014 almost enough for Democrats to narrowly win the Electoral College \u2014 don\u2019t support book bans. They don\u2019t mind that school libraries contain books that discuss race, criticize US history, or mention that slavery existed.<\/p>\n

Students Sued When a School District Restricted Several Books. The School Board Reinstated One Novel.<\/a><\/strong> (CNN)<\/p>\n

YCRT! comment:<\/em> despite encouraging news that “The Bluest Eye” has been unbanned by a Missouri school board after students, with help from the ACLU, threatened to sue, seven books are still banned: “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Paperback,” by Alison Bechdel; “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson; “Heavy: An American Memoir,” by Kiese Laymon; “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison; “Gabi, A Girl in Pieces,” by Isabel Quintero; “Modern Romance,” by Aziz Ansari; and “Invisible Girl,” by Lisa Jewell.<\/p>\n

Lafayette Library Board Grants Itself Power to Ban Books<\/a><\/strong> (Book Riot)<\/p>\n

The recent tsunami of book challenges<\/a>, particularly to LGBTQ and POC books, has revealed the inner workings of library and school board meetings that usually go unnoticed. In Lafayette, Louisiana, years of the library board being \u201cstacked<\/a>\u201d with conservative voices appointed by the Parish Council has resulted in a board that doesn\u2019t serve its community on a range of issues, and its approach to book challenges is only one example.<\/p>\n

Activism Grows Nationwide in Response to School Book Bans<\/a><\/strong> (AP)<\/p>\n

Until a year ago, Stephana Ferrell\u2019s political activism was limited to the occasional letter to elected officials.<\/p>\n

Then came her local school board meeting in Orange County, Florida and an objection raised to Maia Kobabe\u2019s graphic novel \u201cGender Queer: A Memoir.\u201d And the county\u2019s decision last fall to remove it from high school shelves.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy winter break, we realized this was happening all over the state and needed to start a project to rally parents to protect access to information and ideas in school,\u201d says Ferrell, a mother of two. Along with fellow Orange County parent Jen Cousins, she founded the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which works with existing parent groups statewide on a range of educational issues, including efforts to \u201ckeep or get back books that have gone under challenge or have been banned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hey Idaho Librarians, YOU’RE IN JAIL!<\/a><\/strong> (Wonkette)<\/p>\n

… Idaho may lack the population and political power of a Florida or a Texas, but by golly, when it comes to batshit crazy, we punch above our weight. Consider the latest insanity making its way through the Idaho Legislature, a bill that would amend the state’s criminal code so that librarians could potentially be sent to jail if they let minors check out “sexually explicit” materials.<\/p>\n

Ann Arbor\u2019s Booksweet To Host Monthly Book Club for Banned Books<\/a><\/strong> (All About Ann Arbor)<\/p>\n

Teens and adults can join Banned Book Club<\/a> host and Booksweet co-owner Shaun Manning for the first meeting on Friday, March 18, to talk about Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cMaus\u201d by Art Spiegelman.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Other book club meetings will include \u201cThe Bluest Eye\u201d by Toni Morrison, \u201cThe Hate U Give\u201d by Angie Thomas and \u201cThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian\u201d by Sheman Alexie.<\/p>\n

Llano County Librarian Loses Job After Not Removing Books<\/strong><\/a> (KXAN.com)<\/p>\n

Baker said she was given the warning to remove books by her boss, but she did not comply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe books in my library in Kingsland were not taken off the shelves, we did not move them, I told my boss that was censorship,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Savannah Arts Academy English Teacher Creates Little Library Filled With Banned Books<\/a><\/strong> (SavannahNow)<\/p>\n

Disturbed by the growing call to ban books\u00a0in public school libraries nationwide and in Chatham County,\u00a0Savannah Arts Academy English teacher Rich Clifton created a GoFundMe<\/a>\u00a0page to stock his own little free blue library with them.<\/p>\n

“It’s completely a personal decision that I made,”\u00a0he said. “This is my library in my yard.\u00a0I built it with my money, and I initially stocked it with my books.”<\/p>\n

My Book Was Banned. Here\u2019s How We Fought Back.<\/a><\/strong> (CNN)<\/p>\n

I got the news on Twitter: Someone told me our kids books, “I am Rosa Parks” and “I am Martin Luther King, Jr.” had been banned. Can’t be<\/em>, I thought. But it was true.<\/p>\n

In Pennsylvania, after the Central York School District’s diversity education committee recommended 200-plus books as anti-racist resources, the school board vetoed the entire list<\/a> in November 2020.<\/p>\n

Loudoun Co. Teachers Were \u2018Inappropriately Touched\u2019, Speaker at School Board Meeting Says<\/a><\/strong> (WJLA.com)<\/p>\n

‘At an elementary school in Loudoun County, you have teachers that are being inappropriately touched, multiple times a day, for the better part of two months. The school administration has not solved that problem, despite a March 11th e-mail to your Title 9 office. This administration has not solved that problem. So that problem now becomes a Title 7 problem,’ Ian Prior said.<\/p>\n

YCRT! comment:<\/em> This is a weird one, but the school board in Loudoun County, Virginia, has been a hot spot for book bannings, anti-CRT protests, and proposals to literally burn books. It is where parents claimed school transgender-inclusive policies led to their daughter being raped in a girl’s restroom by a cross-dressing boy. It is, arguably, where then-candidate-for-governor Glenn Younkin got the votes that put him over the top. Somehow I can’t help feeling this bizarre “inappropriate touching” story will turn out to be related to all that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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