By Amy Ta,
Staff Writer
As a book lover, hearing about banned books often breaks my heart, and with the recent passing of Banned Books Week from Sept. 18-24, that feeling has escalated. As of 2021, the number of book challenges, or a formal complaint, has nearly doubled in the past year. Schools are supposed to be places where we broaden our horizons, making the rise of bans worrying. Since we live in a country where we value our freedom, banning books shouldn’t exist. The only way to solve this is to voice our displeasure towards the book ban.
All over America, school districts removed books challenged by parents because of their disapproving beliefs. This includes popular classics that our school covers, like Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” This provides a worrying future for students, as many of these books offer ways for them to learn about sensitive topics, like how society treats neurodivergent people.
Banning books limits crucial perspectives students need to become more open-minded adults. According to the American Library Association, around 23% of banned books are LGBTQIA+, with 2021’s top three most challenged and banned books falling under this category. By limiting one’s access to these different experiences, an LGBTQIA+ student would feel repressed due to the lack of representation. This action doesn’t just affect one community, but multiple. By banning books, communities are being ignored, causing students’ mental health to deteriorate and not learn about their identity.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to Temple City parents, librarians and students must work together to combat banned book actions. To start, you can begin by informing yourself of challenged books in your community to speak out against it. If a book is banned, it is best to create a petition and submit it to the school administration voicing your displeasure.
However, many oppose the removal of book bans. Some parents believe that banning books protects their children from topics that interfere with these personal beliefs. While every family holds different values and they have a right to practice those beliefs, that doesn’t mean the underrepresented communities need to suffer the consequences for one personal belief. Families can decide what to keep in their house but that shouldn’t be imposed on the rest of the community.
Others also say that certain books can create racist views and ideas. For instance, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is banned in many school districts because of racial slurs. However, parents fail to see that reading such books in school allows for conversation discussing why it’s wrong to use these slurs. By ignoring our controversial history, students won’t understand why it’s wrong in the first place. These books provide a way to see the possible harm slurs can do.
Books are meant to paint pictures of different experiences from all types of people. By erasing sections, the full story isn’t there anymore. For students, that erased part is crucial for them to learn about both sides of the story. In order to create a more open-minded generation, we need to ban the banned book system.