Constitutional concerns mount amid libraries facing a barrage of book bans
By Misa Narrates
It should come as no surprise that Wendy Crutcher, of the L.A. County Library, received complaints about Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel “Drama” and Black Lives Matter materials.
“Drama” is one of the many books targeted for censorship, and the Black Lives Matter movement has drawn criticisms since its inception.
After going through the library’s re-evaluation process, Crutcher, head of collection development and technical services, determined all of the materials were in line with their collection policy. To conclude the matter, Crutcher sent a letter to the complainants apprising them of the library’s findings and no materials were censored.
Crutcher and the L.A County Library system survived yet another book challenge unscathed, but the same can’t be said for librarians around the country.
In other states, librarians and teachers are facing criminal investigation where attempts to ban books are successful.
The United States is experiencing an unprecedented uptick in attempts to impede First Amendment rights. For individuals, parents, and special-interest groups, public libraries and schools are the battleground for this fight.
Officially, “book challenging” is not the same as “book banning,” however both are two sides of the same coin – censorship. Book challenging is the act of submitting formal requests to remove certain titles from library shelves. Books are considered banned once they’ve been removed from libraries.
According to incidents reported to the American Library Association (ALA), some “4,240 unique book titles [were] targeted for censorship in 2023—a 65% surge over 2022 numbers—as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources”. The states facing the most censorship include Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, which tallied 134 attempts to ban books, affecting 3,360 titles, in 2023.
The states facing the most censorship include Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, which tallied 134 attempts to ban books, affecting 3,360 titles, in 2023.
“We're all seeking different things through literature,” said Skye Patrick, L.A. County Library’s chief executive officer. “And when we start allowing mass bans of mass literature, we're getting into a dangerous area of one small group or facet of a community making decisions for a whole community.”
One such group is Moms for Liberty. Established in 2021, the group has a documented history of petitioning schools to exercise their “parental rights” around how their children are educated.
While censorship attempts across the country increase, library system leaders, activists, book club facilitators, and librarians, are reimagining the purpose of the library, the role it plays in the lives of its community, and how Americans can counteract conservative efforts to censor library offerings.
Developed in “response to the growing number of book bans and challenges cropping up across the nation,” the Books Unbanned Initiative is a partnership between LA County Public Library, Seattle Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.
Through the program, teenagers ebeach for 13 to 18 enjoy “unrestricted access” to LA County’s eBook and audiobook collection. “All Boys Aren’t Blue”, “The Hate U Give”, “Lord of the Flies” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are just a few of the banned title offerings in the digital library.
The purpose of the initiative is to allow teenagers the chance to “develop their own informed opinions on various issues and topics.”
Making the library accessible and maintaining access to information are Patrick’s top goals as she manages the L.A. County library system in the face of censorship attempts. At the same time, she sees more value in libraries than just the books they offer.
“I don't believe that libraries are about books. I believe that libraries are about people,” she said. “The books are just avenues.”
Libraries under assault
Wendy Crutcher
To Wendy Crutcher, the suggestions that librarians and educators are akin to groomers preying on young minds has been difficult. “They just give a blanket statement that libraries are offering sexually explicit content to children,” she said. “But in many cases, the books they're citing are not books that we would house in the children's collection.”
In California, there were 52 reported attempts to censor a total of 92 titles. Crutcher said even though the LA County library system fields fewer censorship requests, she acknowledges the times we’re living in as unprecedented.
The submission of a book challenge, “triggers a whole reevaluation process,” she explains. The material is evaluated against the library’s Reconsideration Policy. A formal response is sent to the complainant (a.k.a book challenger). Each formal response is signed off by Skye Patrick.
9 Most Banned Books
According to the ALA, the following books were the most banned across the United States in 2023.
“[People are] going to have diverse opinions, and they're going to have diverse views on the type of subjects that the library provides,” Crutcher said. “But our job is to provide that information and allow people the free will to make up their own minds about a variety of subjects.”
To ensure that the library stays up to date with the needs of its communities and in the face of mounting book challenge attempts, Crutcher recommends that libraries regularly interrogate their reconsideration and library development collection policies.
As CEO, Skye Patrick oversees one of the largest library systems in the United States. For her, libraries and literature constitute a “very personal experience.” She’s held her position for eight years. Before arriving in Los Angeles, Patrick served as director of libraries for Broward County, Florida and as assistant director of the Queens and San Francisco public libraries.
According to Mom's For Liberty, “Parents should have a say in what is available to our children within the school library and classrooms.” In the forward to the group’s 111-page book-ban guide, they write, “We work hard to provide our children with specific morals and values, and feel strongly that they should come home from school with those morals and values intact.” Moms for Liberty did not respond to repeated requests to answer questions for this story.
From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 unique book titles.
"Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D., is the Sy Syms managing director of U.S. free expression and education programs at PEN America. He oversees research, advocacy, and education related to academic freedom, educational gag orders, book bans, and general free expression in schools, colleges, and universities."
“Many schools have a parental opt out option,” according to Joyce McIntosh, of the ALA. “That’s where we are giving parents the ability to say, ‘This doesn't feel right for my family. Therefore,I'm going to ask that my child gets to choose another book’.”
Yet instead of advocating that parents should be involved with their specific child’s education, special-interest groups apply pressure on schools to remove titles from libraries, affecting all children.
In a study by First Book, 65% of educators said “the banning of books is having a negative impact on their ability to teach.” More than three-quarters of educators felt the same way in communities facing active book bans. All of which suggests that the education of all children suffers for the preferences of those challenging books in schools and libraries.
A case study
Faith Casale
York, Pennsylvania was at the center of a public and hotly contested book ban in 2021. After protests and public outcry, the ban was lifted. However, on September 6, 2022 “Push” by Sapphire, “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah Maas, and “Sold” by Patricia McCormick were the subjects of a quieter book challenge.
All three books feature some kind of “sexual content”, consensual or violent, inappropriate for child audiences, according to a book challenge by Faith Casale. About “A Court of Mist and Fury”, she submitted, “Students are under 18 + considered CHILDREN. This is detailed sexual content.”
Libraries are organized in a way that makes a distinction in the ages of children, particularly offerings for teenagers. Faith Casale’s reconsideration requests were submitted in relation to the high school library offering, but do not make a distinction between age groups of minors.
Initially, Rhonda Garman, the York Chapter Chair of Moms for Liberty, claimed responsibility for the “Push” challenge.
However, the only “Citizen’s Request For Reconsideration of Material” form on file with the District of York was submitted by Faith Casale. In each submission, she favored that the materials should be removed from the school library instead of restricting access for only her child. By January 23, 2023, after the materials were reviewed by the “Selection Review Committee established under Board Policy 105.1,” it was recommended that only “Push” be removed from school libraries.
This sparked protest by students, parents, and special interest groups, after the initial 2021 protests. On top of the previous year’s fallout, Faith Casale’s book challenge prompted the board to consider a library resources policy.
The York community was invited to comment on the proposed policy at a live-streamed school board meeting on June 12, 2023.
Public comments on Library Resources Policy 109.1 proposal
One woman identifying herself as a taxpayer said, “Social development teaches children to achieve their identity instead of accepting the identity God gave them.” She leaned more conservatively, advocating for books to be removed from school libraries, calling out educators for peddling immoral and explicit content to children.
Former Central York High School student, Zachary Smith supported the new policy. “I do think parents should have a say in what books their child can and cannot read,” he said. “I think it’s very interesting that some people are confusing this with indoctrination when they still do have a choice to stop their child from reading it.”
In the summer of 2023, the York School District approved Library Resources Policy 109.1, which features a rating system that allows only a child’s parent to decide what they can access. The policy ensures no books are banned by the school district, but makes the parent of a child responsible for determining what content they can access.
'A personal story'—Patrick's love of libraries
Skye Patrick
Giving young people access to literature positions them to figure out their own interests. For Patrick, “When you start to limit access to literature, you limit access to ideals.
Skye Patrick fondly remembers the library as a place for family. Some of her fondest childhood memories are visiting the library in Lansing, Michigan. “I used to take my younger sister to the library, and at the time, the children's room was upstairs,” she said. “I could drop her off and go down in the teen/tween area and pretty much read what I wanted.”
Patrick recalls her youth as one where discussions around racism, people with disabilities, and sexuality were not considered the way society does today. “We weren't talking about some of these really hard conversations that I think are open and apparent at this point in time,” Patrick said. “ So because of that, the only place I would have access to those questions, or areas of interest, was through literature.”
Like many mothers, Skye Patrick spoke about her 9-year-old daughter with parental pride. To her, a benefit of being a parent and a librarian, who’s equally invested as a lover of reading, she taught her daughter to read by 3. As her child has grown, however, Patrick said she doesn't try to control what she reads.
“She reads chapter books, all different kinds of chapter books with characters who are similar to her [and] characters who are not,” Patrick explained. “She loves graphic novels, much to my chagrin, in some ways I'd rather her reading; I'd rather her reading chapter books.” Laughingly, she said, “But you have to let young people create their own reading experience.”
Granted, Sky Patrick believes that parents have the right and bear the responsibility to limit what their children can access. However, this is specific to their own children.
“What I don't think is that parents or a particular parent has the right to decide what all children read or what all children have access to,” she said. “I take issue with sort of broad, sweeping censorship or banning for the masses.”
Book clubs and publishers
The literary world promotes mobilizing to fight censorship. One example is the ALA’s initiative, United Against Book Bans developing a Book Resumé database supported by the publishing community.
Book Résumés “detail each title’s significance and educational value and are easy to share with administrators, book review committees, elected officials, and board members.”
Involving the commercial arm of the literary community is only one side of public engagement.
No Name Book Club HQ
In 2019, Chicago-rapper Noname sought to educate herself and expand her sociopolitical consciousness. To do this, she founded the Noname Book Club which eventually led to the establishment of the Radical Hood Library in South Central Los Angeles. UCLA doctoral candidate, Michael Anderson served as an educational coordinator at the library.
For Anderson, we shouldn’t allow the right wing to dictate how we interact with materials they deem to be inappropriate. “We need to again, not let our enemies assess our movements,” he said. “Who cares what the right wing doesn't want you to read. Read it anyway, until they snatch the book out of your hand.”
Michael Anderson's protest poetry performance at Da Poetry Lounge
Incarcerated people participate in the Noname Book Club and Anderson spearheaded the program. He was responsible for developing questions, related to the book club readings, to aid in analyzing a text as it related to capitalism, imperialism, and white supremacy. “There's a wealth of knowledge that is being wasted, wasted, wasted and caged in these United States; federal and private prisons and jails,” he explained.
For Anderson, it isn’t enough to merely read banned materials, “that's not reading, that's consuming.” Rather, people should interrogate and analyze them to understand their implications beyond the fact that the right wing is against them. Through that analysis, readers are positioned to be able to understand the world around them better.
Censorship then and today
Alas, censorship isn't new. It's a cornerstone of American history.
From 1740 to 1874, anti-literacy laws prohibited the education of enslaved people and certain free Black people. Hollywood, from 1934 to 1954, was guided by the Hays Code. Essentially, this was a list of regulations dictating what couldn’t be depicted on film and television. The Hays code was designed to preserve Catholic sensibilities and family values while anti-literacy laws intended to maintain white rule during the antebellum era.
The ALA’s “Freedom to Read” statement of May 1953, declared that “free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture.”
Where a community isn’t diverse enough to glean a sense of the world, the contents of a library bring the world to the reader. As censorship efforts persist, Americans face threats to their First Amendment rights with every turn of a banned book’s page.
