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Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
@jonfreadom
Apr 26 • 8 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Yikes. A year after Central York school district in PA was at the center of a book ban crusade, here it is again, making questionable choices.

As they did last year, students are protesting ongoing book bans in the district-- now they feel intimidated /1 yorkdispatch.com/story/news/edu…
On Friday, during school hours, five students were called into a mtg with the superintendent & district leaders where they were "harangued" and spoken to "sternly"... for what?

Apparently for speaking publicly about the district and the bans. /2
What did the students do? Apparently they were reprimanded for talking to the press earlier last week -- for expressing frustration with the district's book bans, and making plans to protest.

Last I checked, those are all, um... students' rights /3 yorkdispatch.com/story/news/edu…
The meeting with district leaders was unplanned, without their parents notified. Students were left feeling intimidated. /4

Here, in their own words: "We're not stupid." Image
Let's remember: the students are exercising their free speech. They are protesting book bans. Speaking for their right to read. This, for some reason, is frightening to district leaders? There's no reason they should be reprimanded in the way alleged for speaking out. /5
Also worth noting that the district was essentially caught banning books surreptitiously -- Push by @MsSapph and A Court of Mist & Fury by @SJMaas. So the students, who are having these books banned from them, have reason to protest. /6 yorkdispatch.com/story/opinion/…
The whole situation has echoes of the bans last school year in the district where students led the charge against prohibiting a long list of titles. Courage to the current crop who have taken up the fight! #FreeTheBooks /7
cnn.com/2021/09/15/us/…
It is one of the unfortunate realities of the "parents rights" and book bans movement, that we see a lot of deference to those who want to ban books by district leaders, but little support for the students the bans impact, esp when they raise their voices in protest.

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More from @jonfreadom

Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Apr 26
Still watching what's going on @ NEW COLLEGE of Florida? Next board meeting is today at 2pm. What will DeSantis allies installed atop the college do next? Faculty & students unsure what will come for tenure, academic courses.
There's numerous threads to watch 👀 🧵
2. Among other issues... trustees today will vote on tenure for 5 faculty who have already been approved by every academic body. Interim president Corcoran has directed them to deny or defer-- an unusual directive that hints at political motives tampabay.com/news/education…
3. These faculty were previously directed to drop out of applying for tenure, with the threat that they'd be denied if they didn't. This is all clearly undermining the integrity of academic freedom, perhaps as is intended. Our full statement @PENamerica
pen.org/press-release/…
Read 8 tweets
Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Apr 20
NEW. An updated book ban report for the current school year from @PENamerica shows how new state laws are supercharging book suppression in schools, esp in Florida. 🧵 #FReadom #EdScare #BookBans
nyti.ms/41DFeJC
As I told @nytimes: "This is much bigger than you can really count... People need to understand that it’s not a single book being removed in a single school district, it’s a set of ideas that are under threat just about everywhere.” /2
Read and share:
pen.org/report/banned-…
Critically, although the book ban movement began with individuals and groups acting locally, they're efforts have been enhanced by the passage of state laws, which have together created an unprecedented chilling effect on schools, which we @PENamerica call the #EdScare. /3
Read 9 tweets
Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Apr 20
IcYMi. In the flurry of other outrageous news... On top of being first to unconstitutionally censor drag shows, now TN is moving to pass a law introducing felony charges and $100K fines for publishers if they sell obscene materials to public schools 🧵
tennessean.com/story/news/pol…
2. Ofc, TN already has laws against distribution of obscene materials to minors. So why this law? Clearly it's got an ulterior motive: to ban books by threatening or censoring publishers.
3. The law will give local DA's and the state AG discretion to determine when a book is 'obscene.' And that's where the sleight of hand is. The bill's sponsor Rep Lynn has a tenuous grasp on what that means, believing any "sexually explicit" content = obscenity. That's not true.
Read 10 tweets
Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Mar 20
Some are so bent on cracking down on drag, LGBTQ books, or teaching about racism, that they are both passing new laws and enforcing existing ones-- even when there's no evidence of violations.

Exhibit A: DeSantis crackdown on A Drag Queen Christmas. /1 miamiherald.com/news/politics-…
Undercover cops in the audience determined there were no lewd acts in the drag show, that children were not "exposed" to anything breaking the law. No matter... the Dept of Business and Professional Regulation filed a complaint to strip the venue of its liquor license anyway. /2 Image
Reminds me of Oklahoma! Last July the state board of Ed downgraded Tulsa School District's accreditation status over an allegation that a teacher training about implicit bias violated HB 1775 - the state's "divisive concepts" ed gag order. But... /3 cnn.com/2022/08/27/us/…
Read 8 tweets
Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Mar 3
A new bill in Texas, SB 1443, looks to take the censorship crusade in schools to another level.
It would ban LGBTQ topics and sex from books in schools, prohibit referrals to websites, ban drag or other forms of performance in school plays, & penalize publishers 🧵/1
The first part of the bill details topics to be barred from all books in schools, incl:
- "any any type of romantic or sexual attraction
between individuals of the same sex"
- "transgenderism"
- "sexual intercourse"
/2
capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/bi…
Don't miss the part where it would also BAN referring to websites that contain these topics. Breathtaking when you think about it: could students be referred to a news site? wikipedia? Pretty sure there's a lot of the web that acknowledges LGBTQ people exist and sex is a thing /3
Read 6 tweets
Jonathan Friedman 📚 Profile picture
Feb 16
POP Quiz: How many people does it take to ban a book in Florida?

A: Increasingly... only one.

For @MiamiHerald I discuss why and how this is happening & why it's a threat to democracy. @PENamerica @FLFreedomRead #FreeTheBooks /1
miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/…
Dig into almost any school book ban in FL, and you find 1 person--or a small group-- filing objections to books en masse, demanding removals. The restrictions on books this vocal minority have gotten are astonishing, precisely b/c they're often enacted without any process /2
Ofc, parents should be able to engage with schools about books & curricula. But schools also have to balance the demands of a few people with the objectives of public education, and the interests of ALL parents. Too often, that isn't happening. /3
Read 17 tweets

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