Stop & consider what's happening in Escambia, FL.
116 books are being "restricted" in libraries just b/c one person threw them on a list, parlayed from online reviews.
ZERO due process. No one even READ the books first. 🧵 wkrg.com/northwest-flor…
116 books are being "restricted" in libraries just b/c one person threw them on a list, parlayed from online reviews.
ZERO due process. No one even READ the books first. 🧵 wkrg.com/northwest-flor…
Like everywhere, the "list" is heavily anti-LGBTQ and targets books that deal with contemporary politics, history related to racism. Swept off the stacks into a restricted section based on 1 person's objection using random reviews from the web. Here's all 116: 
116 books in one swoop! Lots of familiar targets incl @nhannahjones, @DrIbram @IamGMJohnson @ashleyhopeperez @KyleLukoff @JazzJennings__ @jodipicoult @SJMaas @lxgino @ShaunieDarko @JoKnowles @EllenHopkinsLit @angiecthomas @MargaretAtwood @halseanderson @DashkaSlater @JerryCraft
They're removing "Draw Me A Star" by @ericcarle for having this one image in it.
Also on the list: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (a book that hasn't been much targeted in the current wave yet). @VonnegutLibrary
Is this a book "ban"? Is it unconstitutional?
Well effective now students cannot read these books based on an ad hoc decision to restrict them. This means there's diminished access to this literature for all students, immediately.
Well effective now students cannot read these books based on an ad hoc decision to restrict them. This means there's diminished access to this literature for all students, immediately.
Some *can* read them, but they must go through an added bureaucratic barrier.
For students who do not get this permission, the books ARE effectively off-limits.
& there is a tangible impact on how ALL students access the books now, as they can only be found on the no-no shelf.
For students who do not get this permission, the books ARE effectively off-limits.
& there is a tangible impact on how ALL students access the books now, as they can only be found on the no-no shelf.
These sorts of parental permissions in school libraries were taken up in a U.S. federal district court case in Arkansas in 2003, Counts v. Cedarville School District. law.justia.com/cases/federal/…
There, the judge decided that mandating parental permission on specific book titles could have a “stigmatizing effect” on a student, and that even though it was a minimal infringement, “The loss of First Amendment rights, even minimally, is injurious.”
But can't the books be accessed elsewhere? Well, that's actually irrelevant to the determination if students' First Amendment rights are being violated, which the judge also addressed in the case...
"The Supreme Court has held that ‘one is not to have the exercise of his liberty of expression in appropriate places abridged on the plea that it may be exercised in some other place.’”
Book restrictions like this are a gateway to further prohibitions, and they often drag on indefinitely, with the books stuck in limbo. And food for thought from Susan L. Webb in the First Amendment Encyclopedia 👇👇👇 mtsu.edu/first-amendmen…
This is what we mean when we say that a vocal minority are taking control of public education. Pressuring districts to make knee-jerk decisions to cater to their likes and dislikes, with little consideration of anyone else.
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