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Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Race, sex and the Holocaust: As book bans grow across the state, some genres see more bans
As Tennessee faces a record number of book bans and removals since December 2023, there are certain genres and themes consistently among the most-banned items. With nearly 1,400 books being either fully removed from school libraries or heavily age-restricted between December 2023 and January 2025, pursuant to the controversial 2022 Age-Appropriate Materials Act, the list of titles removed across the state may be long, but the breakdown of individual titles and themes is remarkably shorter. The top five banned titles across the state are: In total, there were 1,155 unique titles banned across the state last year. 'We see that nearly 60% of banned titles nationwide are young adult books or younger,' said Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America. 'And there's certainly books that depict all sorts of themes. They depict LGBTQ+ identities, they talk about race and racism. More and more we see books that talk about or confront real world issues like grief, death and mental health concerns and sexual violence.' Numerous titles banned in Tennessee schools deal with youth mental health and social issues, such as 'Far From the Tree: How Children and their Parents Learn to Accept One Another' by Andrew Solomon, banned in a school in Wilson County, 'Coping with Weapons and Violence in Schools and On Your Streets' by Maryann Miller and 'Drug Use and the Family' by Susan Stefano, both removed in schools in Monroe County. Meehan said a strong theme over the 2023-2024 school year was the increased removal of books that contained a reference to sex in any way. This theme was strengthened in Tennessee by the 2024 expansion of the Age Appropriate Materials Act to prohibit public school libraries from having books with 'nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse,' or any book that is 'patently offensive … or appeals to the prurient interest.' While this ban ensnares books such as 'Bioethics: Sex, Genetics and Human Reproduction' by Warren Reich and 'Date Violence' by Elaine Landau, both removed in schools in Monroe County, it especially targets books that discuss gender identity of LGBTQ+ issues, for their discussion of sex-related identity concerns, as well as books that deal with issues of race or racism. 'When we look at those two themes in particular, what's important to recognize is that these issues have been historically underrepresented in our public schools,' Meehan said. 'So if we say that 44% of banned titles feature characters of color, it's not the case that 44% of books in a public school library feature characters of color. It's that these books are being disproportionately banned.' Even a surprising number of books about the Holocaust were removed in Monroe County. In addition, some books related to book bans were also banned: the classic 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury was banned in Monroe County, and 'The Year They Burned All The Books' by Nancy Garden in Macon County. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director at the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said these repeated titles and themes are not an accident, but rather the calculated work of small groups of people to ban the same books across the country. 'We see multiple titles challenged in schools and library districts across the country, and often that is an individual or group who will challenge 10 to 30 books all at once,' she said. 'And we're still seeing efforts to place individuals who would like to censor books on library boards and school boards across the country, in order to put in place policies that require censorship of existing library materials or prevent library staff from buying disfavored categories of library materials.' Efforts made to ban the same book multiple times across the state are not without an end goal: Tennessee is one of only a few states that has the potential to pass statewide bans on books. According to the Age Appropriate Materials Act, any book that is appealed to the Tennessee Textbook Commission, if found to be in violation of the law, would be banned in all public and charter school districts in the state. Hayden Shadden, general counsel for the commission, confirmed that they have not had any appeals as of publication. Three were filed in December, but subsequently withdrawn by the complainant. Caldwell-Stone said the push to remove books from schools is antithetical to the Constitution. 'The argument (that school library books should be banned) functions from the premise that students have no First Amendment rights and that government agencies, including school boards, can engage in the kind of censorship that they're not allowed to engage in under the First Amendment,' she said. 'The courts have been very clear on that.' Meehan said the common argument in support of bans — that children can get the book elsewhere if they want it badly enough — leaves behind a significant number of children. 'We can't say that all students have access to a public library — not all students have access to a Barnes and Noble, or a bookstore, or can purchase their own books,' she said. 'Public school libraries play a really essential role in providing free access to information. This is the purpose of our library systems: to provide access to information. And the more we restrict access to information, the more we weaken our library systems, but also more broadly, the fabric of our democracy.' The USA TODAY Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@ by phone at 931-623-9485, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: As book bans grow across Tennessee, some genres see more bans
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Yahoo
Tennessee sees surge in books banned in public schools. Here's which ones and why
At least 13 Tennessee counties saw books removed from public school library shelves over the past year, marking the highest number of book removals the state has seen since the passage of the Age Appropriate Materials Act in 2022. Nearly 1,400 books, consisting of 1,155 unique titles, were either fully removed from school libraries or heavily age-restricted between December 2023 and January. Classic titles like 'The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card, 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut and other titles joined the growing list of books banned in schools across the state as school administrators try to comply with the new law. Between 2021 and July 2023, only about 300 books faced similar challenges across the state. Now, in less than half that time, at least 1,389 books were found to be removed or heavily age-restricted statewide over the past year. This count does not include books pulled from shelves that are currently under review, of which there are hundreds across the state. The removals are part of sweeping and often chaotic attempts by districts to comply with the Age Appropriate Materials Act, which requires each public school library in the state to publish a list of materials in their collections and periodically review them to make sure they are 'appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials,' and to remove materials that do not meet the numerous parameters listed in the law. The law is one of a slew of similar laws that have been passed in the state over the past three years, which have expanded the definitions of book violations under the law and added civil penalties against schools and criminal penalties for book publishers and distributors if they are found to provide books in schools that violate the law. Twenty-one counties either did not respond to multiple records requests in time for publication, or do not having sufficient means to provide such data. The top three counties with the highest number of removed books are: Monroe County: 574 Wilson County: 425 Roane County: 138 Not all of these removals are due to public complaints, either, as schools are now required to periodically review and remove books internally due to potential content violations. For example, Monroe County Schools, which reported the highest number of book removals with 574 titles, removed all of these books in an effort to comply with the law before any complaints were filed against them. The total number of books removed is likely far higher, as well, as some counties do not keep explicit records of books removed from libraries due to content issues, as long as the books are pulled internally by staff members prior to any public complaints. For example, in Blount and Moore counties, books that are removed from libraries due to potential content violations, prior to complaints, are not separated from books removed due to normal wear and tear, making it nearly impossible to track the number of books preemptively removed from libraries due to content reasons. The stark jump in book removals mimic national trends tracked by PEN America, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on free expression and literary access. Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, said the organization tracked over 10,000 book removals over 29 states and 200 public school districts during the 2023-2024 school year — a record high in the four years the organization has tracked such activity. Still, Meehan said, this number is likely an 'under-count' of the true number of removals, due to the complex laws placed on school administrators across the country resulting in each school district handling the removal process differently and making the removals nearly impossible to track. 'We call it like 'soft censorship,'' she said. 'The idea is that materials are being removed or limited or never purchased at all, without there being a formal challenge, despite a book potentially being a good book that would serve a community.' This soft censorship is even labeled as an emerging trend in PEN America's 2024 Banned in the USA report, including instances in Texas and California where entire libraries were closed in order to have collections audited rather than face complaints. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director at the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the rise in 'soft censorship' is often a result of librarians and school administrators seeking to protect themselves from increasingly harsh punishments and public controversy. 'This culture of fear that they're creating around this issue certainly is contributing to some librarians' decisions to either not order particular books or remove books that are on the shelf to so that they don't risk their jobs or risk a controversy that could cost them their jobs,' she said. Meehan said removing books for potentially being inappropriate only results in limiting access to literature that is already vetted under states' obscenity laws. 'We can very directly debunk the idea that there is porn in schools, or that there is obscene materials in schools,' she said. 'I think that people are taking issue with certain types of representation and certain types of content. There have always been sensible systems in place for parents to be engaging with educators and administrators and librarians in their district about what their student is reading. But what we see happening, you know, at a large scale, is the viewpoint of one or some impacting what's accessible for all.' The full list of counties that removed or restricted books are: Cannon County: 3 Franklin County: 58 Hardin County: 1 Knox County: 48 Lincoln County: 5 Macon: 73 Monroe: 574 Putnam: 2 Roane: 138 Rutherford: 49 Trousdale: 7 Williamson: 5 Wilson: 445 The USA TODAY Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@ by phone at 931-623-9485, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee banned books: See list from Tennessee public schools in 2024
