Since I’ve been discussing school shootings, here is a real experience I had in 2007 when 19 Minutes was published. A handful of schools were given class sets of 100 copies of the book. Guilford HS in NH was one. The entire student body read the book as curriculum.
I was asked to come speak. I did, talking about the research I’d done with school shooters in prison and survivors of shootings. Then the principal opened the floor to questions. One boy stood up and said, “I don’t really have a question…”
“…but this October I was gonna bring a gun to school. Then my teacher assigned 19 Minutes, and I started reading, and I realized I wasn’t the only person who felt like I do.” The principal on stage beside me turned white. He called on another girl in the audience.
She was in a wheelchair. She said, “Every day in this school I’m invisible. No one looks at me or talks to me. I came home a few weeks ago and told my mom I wanted to kill myself. She started crying and left my room. My homework was 19 Minutes. I read it in one night…
…and it’s the reason I am still here.” These are only a sample of the responses I’ve had from kids who’ve read the book. 19 Minutes is now banned in multiple school districts in the US - the same novel that was taught as curriculum just 16 years ago.
I’ve had thousands of emails from teen readers and the book has fostered compassion and allowed kids who felt left out to feel seen. I find it difficult to believe teens have gotten more fragile in the past 16 years. What’s changed?
Parents who believe they have the right to tell other parents what their children should read, how they should think. Legislatures that have passed parental rights bills that have been twisted into power plays taking place in school libraries.
Anyway…go to and fight school book bans. High school kids deserve better than to be told 19 Minutes is too mature for them, when they are also told they have to have active shooter drills.pen.org/action
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