Evening Fireflies: #BookBans in #Texas
Read the news? It paints an unpleasant picture of where we live.
Texas isn’t only famous for its false history of The Alamo anymore. It’s no longer famous only for its inhumane treatment of border jumpers intent on saving their families from privation. And, it’s no longer only famous for the Texas Abortion “Trigger” law effective August 25, 2022.
Texas has made itself infamous with those decisions. And, also for the rash of library closings (whew!), contentious school board meetings, and book banning sweeping across the Lone Star State, and the Nation. The evidence is clear.
Let’s take a closer look at that.
Source: Robot clad in Texas flag burns books, Bing Image Creator
Book Bans ARE a Local Threat
As a long-time resident of San Antonio with family in local school districts, I am appalled at the POSSIBILITY of a book bans barring students from reading books on activism, on liberty, on sex, on seeing people of color as the protagonists, or LGBTQ+. In the school district where I live, I make sure to cast my vote AGAINST those who SUPPORT book bans of any kind.
Books have been the targets of bans in America for more than a century. Maus is not the first, or the last, casualty of an ideology that, in the name of protecting children, leaves them ignorant of the world as it often is…books employ difficult, sometimes upsetting imagery to tell complicated stories. That approach has made them some of the most frequently challenged, or outright banned, books in America’s schools; it also makes them perfect examples of what literature is supposed to do (Source: The Atlantic).
This past weekend, I was shocked to read a social media post alleging a local school district campus principal (and District) of a book ban. He quoted the high school principal’s email with a screenshot of email. He also alleged, “Books were…removed from curriculum.” Whether they were or not, it should have some transparency and more scrutiny.
In schools today, tough issues are often covered up to avoid the necessary civil dialogue and verbal conflict (that may result) that is essential to American democracy. Librarians and teachers are hung out to dry, as their administrators are forced to walk a tightrope fraught with political peril.
I urge anyone with knowledge about book bans in K-16 schools to speak up and let the sunlight in. As the saying goes, it makes for the best disinfectant.
A Chill on Freedom and Inquiry
When one considers the book removals happening in Texas, and possibly in local San Antonio districts, Suzanne Nossel’s words come to mind:
“This censorious movement is turning our public schools into political battlegrounds, driving wedges within communities, forcing teachers and librarians from their jobs, and casting a chill over the spirit of open inquiry and intellectual freedom that underpin a flourishing democracy,” Suzanne Nossel, PEN America’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Again, as an educator, English/Language Arts teacher, I find book bans unAmerican, anti-Liberty, and to go against the division of Church and State.
I have nothing but sympathy for in the trenches educators who have to explain to students why books are suddenly off the menu. And little sympathy for those who may choose to cover up that struggle to stay out of the news or avoid the appearance of favoring one side or another.
Those who oppose book banning emphasize that the First Amendment protects students’ rights to receive and express ideas. The Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) ruled 5-4 that public schools can bar books that are “pervasively vulgar” or not right for the curriculum, but they cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”
The Court’s decision was, however, narrow, applying only to the removal of books from school library shelves (source)
If book banning IS taking place, then it needs to be shouted from the mountain tops, no matter the views of campus or district administrators trying to avoid the fight.
Book Bans in Texas and America
PEN America’s report highlights the following:
…the large majority of book bans underway today are not spontaneous, organic expressions of citizen concern. Rather, they reflect the work of a growing number of advocacy organizations that have made demanding censorship of certain books and ideas in schools part of their mission.
The report authors go on to say:
- 674 banned book titles (41 percent) explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+ (this includes a specific subset of titles for transgender characters or stories—145 titles, or 9 percent);
- 659 banned book titles (40 percent) contain protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color;
- 338 banned book titles (21 percent) directly address issues of race and racism;
- 357 banned book titles (22 percent) contain sexual content of varying kinds, including novels with some level of description of sexual experiences of teenagers, stories about teen pregnancy, sexual assault and abortion as well as informational books about puberty, sex, or relationships;
- 161 banned book titles (10 percent) have themes related to rights and activism;
- 141 banned book titles (9 percent) are either biography, autobiography, or memoir; and
- 64 banned book titles (4 percent) include characters and stories that reflect religious minorities, such as Jewish, Muslim and other faith traditions.
As a resident of San Antonio, Texas, an educator, I am shocked to read these facts.
As an American citizen exercising my First Amendment right to express my shock and opinions, I hope that more schools get scrutinized for the decisions they make.
My opinion is that educators, students, and parents must mobilize politically. They must send a message that says, “No, this we won’t become book censors to satisfy fanatics who use one perspective in a religious text to ban other texts.”
Did You Know?
Book bans by state in this diagram below. Note that Texas has 751-1000. Not a place where book bans can be taken lightly.
Image Source: Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Ban Books - PEN America
ACTIONS DEFINE US
Texas is moving towards more restricted speech and actions. There is a definite effort to constrain and censor what people can read and write. Consider this report from local news outlet, KSAT12, citingthis report from PEN America:
Image Source: Bing Image Creator
Texas banned more books from school libraries this past year than any other state in the nation, targeting titles centering on race, racism, abortion and LGBTQ representation and issues, according to a new analysis by PEN America, a nonprofit organization advocating for free speech.
The report released on Monday found that school administrators in Texas have banned 801 books across 22 school districts, and 174 titles were banned at least twice between July 2021 through June 2022.
PEN America defines a ban as any action taken against a book based on its content after challenges from parents or lawmakers.
That’s a big problem. While I am not a fan of the current Supreme Court, or its long history of oppression, I am of the OPINION that Justice Brandeis’ remark about sunlight is particularly
FIGHTING BOOK BANS
In other places, there are others finding ways around book bans. Consider Pennsylvania news:
Right-wingers who thought they’d scored a victory by canceling the middle school program only ensured that more young folks in Berks County would actually read Two Degrees — a tale of teens dramatically fighting catastrophes brought on by climate change.
They were helped by the progressive grassroots organization Red Wine & Blue, which raised money to buy 200 copies to give away to Kutztown youth. Gratz, who’d long planned to come to Kutztown University for its annual conference on children’s literature, arranged to hold both afternoon and evening book signings to meet as many young fans as possible. (source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The text of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is worth revisiting, as a reminder of what may come if we fail to safeguard schools from radical right-wing parents who seek to keep the next generation ignorant:
IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history.
With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black.
He strode in a swarm of fireflies.
“Protect our children’s freedom to learn & #LetAmericaRead. Banning books is not a way to educate; it is a way to oppress - and none of us want to go backwards, we want to go forward together.” @sashaalexander. Learn more at Let America Read.
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Update: This blog entry was updated to remove specific mention of the San Antonio area school district mentioned in a social media post. More information was brought to my attention as background information that clarified the story. Given new information, I decided to remove those portions. That aside, I refer any parties who disliked the previous version of this blog entry to my Disclaimer and my faithful readers to the canary in the coal mine section of the disclaimer.
Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure