Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin sends his own children to an elite private school that never bans books and teaches critical race theory, But the governor ran on a platform of “parental rights,” which has unleashed censorship and book banning in the state’s public schools.
The schools of Spotsylvania have posted a list of 14 books that will be withdrawn to protect children from ideas their parents don’t like. Among the 14 are two by Nobel-prize winning author Toni Morrison.
The books were challenged for having “sexually explicit material” in them, according to a message to families from superintendent Mark Taylor.
The superintendent of Spotsylvania public schools has no prior experience in education. His appointment was made after hard-right conservatives won control of the school board. Aside from his lack of experience, Mark Taylor was controversial because of incendiary comments he made on social media. “They allegedly include memes mocking trans people and school shootings, racist innuendos and calls for parents to pull their children out of public schools.”
By the end of the week, the school district will remove:
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
“Like a Love Story” by Abdi Nazemian
“Dime” and “America” by E.R. Frank
“Sold” by Patricia McCormick
“Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez
“Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
“Looking for Alaska” by John Green
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
“Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
“Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe” by Preston Norton
“More Happy Than Not” by Adam Silvera
“Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi PicoultSpotsylvania superintendent floats elimination of all school libraries
In a statement, Taylor pointed to a Virginia lawthat requires school districts to establish parental notification policies for instructional materials with sexually explicit materials, saying the 14 books fall under that category.
Taylor added that the division doesn’t have the resources to review whether the roughly 390,000 books in all school libraries have similar materials, so purging the 14 books from the shelves would be the only way to ensure they aren’t accessible….
Taylor noted in his message to families that the decision won’t stop teachers from including the pulled books in classroom assignments, which would have to be shared with parents under the law. According to the district, the books will be stored until they are donated.
What teacher will be brave enough or foolish enough to assign a banned book?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When I taught at a continuation high school right before I retired, I had one female student who had never read an entire book. Ever. She was 17. She read Sold in three days, and wanted to discuss it with me. That’s powerful.
Excellent teaching, LC!!!
Ali Velshi On MSNBC. Books Don’t Kill Children.
But AR-15’s Do!
The GOPee bans books/race/healthcare for trans kids/video games/drag shows/sex ed/Michelangelo’s David.
All in the name of protecting children.
Military-style lethal weapons in the USA are legally purchased by Mass Murderers.
yes, yes, yes
Techers: Please list these on your chalkboard under a note reading
Student advisory. The following titles have been banned from school libraries in Viriginia.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone is director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. Here are quoted excerpts from a Miami Herald op-ed.
” Young people have First Amendment rights — not only the right to speak but the right to access and use the resources of the school or public library, free from any censorship that arises from disapproval of a book’s content or views. Our courts of law — including the Supreme Court — have said that a decision by a school or library board to remove a book from its library because the board disapproves of the words, ideas or opinions contained in the book is a violation of a minor’s First Amendment rights.”
How can anyone Nat zee what the problem is with this?
lol
Two of the board members appear to be devout Christians.
We can pretend that right wing religion isn’t driving the book bans.
Btw – at the end of February, a board member was arrested, the charge, falsifying school documents.
No one in the world—to my knowledge—pretends that right wing religion is not driving the book ban. Or to get away from double negatives—of course right wing religious people are demanding book bans, censorship, and attacking librarians. They don’t give a fig about the First Amendment.
Pat Buchanan popularized the term culture war to distance right wing religion from its plot to take away personal liberties. There is abundant evidence that the Catholic church is a leader in school privatization, the outcome of which will be the filling of the coffers of the Church and an increase in its power. Catholic organizations are already the nation’s 3rd largest employer. One in 6 hospitals are Catholic.
Based on Greg’s comment, in a prior thread, that he had been unaware of the political activities/success of the Catholic church. I’d assume the deficit in that knowledge is huge, nation-wide Greg is the most plugged in person I am familiar with.
The SCOTUS majority deliberatively distances its decisions from their true source- the belief that God’s law is over man’s.
Let’s just called it Stainsilvania from now on.
https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/1933-book-burnings
Out damned spot” — Spotsylvania
Almost fitting that it should be Spotsylvania–a bastion of intransigence during the Civil War and again, it seems, regardless of parents’ wishes.
Sheesh. And here I was thinking, well at least VA’s stupid-ass new law on this is a whole lot better than, say, FL’s. “Better” because it is extremely specific in describing exactly what it doesn’t want used as teaching materials. They conveniently already had a law barring govt employees from accessing certain internet material while on the job, which lists every forbidden item in graphic detail 😄. Their law on teaching materials incorporates those descriptions by reference, & adds a bit more “for juveniles.”
Never stopped to think: reactionary school boards don’t need no stinkin’ law. They can ban whatever they want. Apparently.