Banned and Challenged Books

Famed American writer Edmund Wilson once said, “No two persons ever read the same book.”

Wilson’s quote maintains relevancy to modern society, as The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is set to release the Top Ten Most Challenged Books List of 2012 in April.

According to the ALA, a challenge “is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.”

The annual list— which includes both classic novels like Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and modern bestsellers like Suzanne Collin’s “Hunger Games” trilogy — is compiled by the OIF from submitted challenges across the United States for the past year. Sexual content, offensive language, violence, and religious offense are the primary reasons for book opposition.

Dr. Veronica Covington, adjunct assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Information and  professor of children’s literature, explained the steps of filing a challenge in schools.

“Each district has a policy that they follow for challenged books. All provide the challenger with forms to fill out,” Covington said. “One of the main things is that they must read the book in its entirety and give reasons for the objection. Once this form is turned in, then a committee is formed according to the district’s policy.”

Carolyn Foote, Westlake High School librarian and district librarian for Eanes Independent School District, confirmed this process.

“The committee consists of a parent, librarian, teacher, student, and administrator,” Foote said. “The committee then makes a recommendation to the superintendent.”

Serving as Westlake’s librarian for the past 20 years, Foote notes minimal experience in censorship within Eanes ISD.

“We haven’t had very many actual challenges filed in the 20 years I have been here, and have only had to convene four committees to review titles for kindergarten through 12 grade,” she said.

While bans are nonexistent at Eanes ISD, Foote acknowledged the possibility of transferring books between schools.

“Occasionally parents do raise concerns about a book being available at the wrong grade level, and with libraries having so many titles, sometimes they are borderline ‘middle school’ or ‘high school’ appropriate and might be reassigned, but that is rare,” Foote said.

Covington, whose knowledge on censorship stems from her career as an English teacher for 20 years and a librarian for eight years, shared a similar situation.

“While being a librarian at the high school level, none of the books presented to the committee were taken out of the library,” Covington said. “At the junior high level there were several titles that were removed from the junior high library and sent to the high school.”

Even with the books shuffling around, not all are satisfied. Parents Against Bad Books in Schools is a pro-censorship organization based in Virginia set on  identifying “bad” books.

PABBIS refused to comment on the story because they do not participate in college news stories.

Both Foote and Covington said they understand parents’ discretion on books for their children, but oppose censorship overall.

“Every parent has the right to comment upon or have preferences regarding their own child’s reading,” Foote said. “However, they don’t have the right to impose their views upon other people’s children—that’s when the actions venture into the realm of censorship.”

Covington said librarians are “not the reading police.”

Kerry Malter, library media specialist at Dalton Elementary School in Baton Rouge, La., noted the inevitability of censorship despite her stance against it.

“Society will not allow us to continue without censorship,” Mather said. “Policies and procedures will not allow educators to allow students the freedom to access information and reading preferences.”

Malter also stressed the importance of prior preparations to students of parents who express disapproval, deeming it “necessary in this profession.”

Round Rock Independent School District provides parents with information about books selected in the English Language Arts Curriculum beforehand, based on an approved reading list.

“The list is very extensive and includes all of the commonly taught titles in high school as well as some non-traditional titles, too,” Megan Kinney, an English teacher at Cedar Ridge High School, said. “I just finished teaching ‘Of Mice and Men’ and will be teaching ‘Fahrenheit 451’ and ‘Lord of the Flies’ later on this semester.”

Kinney said parents are supposed to sign a permission slip allowing their child to read the books from the list.

“If they don’t approve, then they are supposed to list the titles they object to, and we must come up with an alternative assignment for that student when we read that book,” she said.

Even without facing parent opposition during her first year of teaching, Kinney adopted the idea of implementing “literature circles” just in case.

“Literature circles are where a small group of students read the same novel while other groups of students read other novels,” Kinney said. “The students complete the same assignments and projects but for the title that they are reading.”

Lila Welchel, an English teacher at Bowie High School, stated that disclaimers are included within the school’s summer reading lists.

“We encourage parents to read the books along with their children,” Welchel said.

Never having dealt with bans during her time working for Austin Independent School District, Welchel said teachers “let a kid read a completely different book” if parents or students consider the original book offensive to their beliefs.

Welchel supports the freedom of choice, regardless of all the precautions.

“As a teacher of English, I want to be able to read books that my students are going to be able to connect to and enjoy and also have a high level of literary knowledge,” she said.

Covington predicted more challenges linked to religion for future ALA “Top Ten” lists.

“As the United States becomes more 'right-winged,' we as teachers, librarians, and professors have seen an increase in challenged books,” Covington said.

These trends fail at stifling her desire to read the listed books, however. 

“I actually want to read titles that are challenged to see if they merit the reasons given by those who object,” Covington said. “Unlike the parents who tell their kids not to read that book, I want to know why.”