NBCT high school teacher Justin Parmenter has a great story to tell to launch Banned Books Week. The local leader of Moms for Liberty in Charlotte asked the local school board to ban five books from a high school. The board debated her request and rejected it. But they did say she could request that her own child be excused from reading the books she objected to. A brilliant resolution!
He writes:
Here’s some excellent news to kick off Banned Books Week.
An attempt by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Moms for Liberty chair to have five books banned from the Ardrey Kell High School media center has failed.
The school’s School Media Advisory Committee determinedthat all five books will be retained in the media center, and the objecting parent is free to restrict their own child’s access to those titles as permitted by district policy.
Students in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools were not allowed to check out books for the first two weeks of school while the district waited to hear objections. The library pause came in response to Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly passing a “Parents Bill of Rights” law which, among many other things, requires superintendents to create a process for objections and provide parents with access to student library records.
After two weeks with more than 140,000 students at 181 schools having no access to media centers, only five objections were lodged.
According to WSOC, all the objections were filed at one school (Ardrey Kell High School) by the same parent. Unsurprisingly, she also happens to be the chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, Brooke Weiss. (Moms for Liberty has embarked on a nation-wide crusade to ban books from school libraries.)
Committee meeting notes requested by Weiss and posted to the CMS public records request page show that, after thoughtful consideration and robust discussion, the committee decided to retain all five books in the Ardrey Kell media center. The committee noted that the objecting parent “may use policy to restrict access for their student by request.”
Open the link to read the board’s discussion notes.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
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Good to read. (And, it’s good to read).
This story indicates just how low these states have gone.
School Administrator or Board: “Don’t want a book in the library. Well, 1) read it, 2) fill out a form, and 3) file the complaint. Also, you can request your child not read it if it is an in-class text.”
That was common practice in the ’80s!
It’s common practice just about everywhere!
Yet, legislators claim “parents’ rights” need to be in law; rights they have ALWAYS had.
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“But they did say she could request that her own child be excused from reading the books she objected to.”
This was always an option for parents in California when I was teaching from 1975 – 2005. In thirty years teaching thousands of students, only one parent wanted her son excused from reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
She didn’t want her 9th grade son to read or hear the N word.
We talked. I explained the book was written long before the Civil Rights movement, that it was history that should not be forgotten, and that the black character Crooks, who was called the N word by another character or two, was probably the smartest and noblest character in the book.
She still didn’t want her son to read or hear it so I created independent lessons for him and as my classes read Of Mice and Men and did the work related to the novel, essays that focused on the issues, discussions, et al, he went to the library every day for a few weeks to work on his indie lessons.
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omg these moms are horrible!!!! ohhhh gosh!!!!
One of the books…Jack has a lot of sex–and he’s not ashamed of it. While he’s sometimes ostracized, and gossip constantly rages about his sex life, Jack always believes that “it could be worse.”
https://www.newsweek.com/kill-mockingbird-other-books-banned-california-schools-over-racism-concerns-1547241
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10676261/California-Gov-Gavin-Newsom-tries-mock-conservative-book-bans-posing-stack-titles.html
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Larry– Challenge was made in Spring 2020. Despite PEN America’s plea to Burbank CA School District, the school supt decided to ban the 5 challenged books from assigned readings/ classroom curriculum in Dec ’20. They remain in the schools’ libraries. Don’t know about CA’s 1,017 other school districts; but noted from 2nd link that as of ’22 they’re still referring to just 1 CA school district.
I find it hard to get exercised over what one school district does, in a state with over a thousand districts. I do understand that nationwide, this is not the only school district that has banned these books from classroom discussion [tho not school libraries]. I get it: it’s hard for a teacher to maintain class decorum & minimize bullying when the reading is peppered with racial slurs &/or derogatory terms for those with mental deficiency [developmental disability].
I read that as of 2018 in Minnesota, teachers who want to assign such books for class reading may, providing they take a brief tutorial in how to handle the discussions/ repercussions.
But then this from St Cloud MN, which in Jan 2023 instigated “Board Policy 413, which does not allow racist, derogatory, or homophobic language.” The policy was put in only after “the district held student forums and summits, giving them a chance to hear directly from kids. ‘Our students have told us when racial slurs or derogatory slurs are used in classrooms, it is a barrier to learning. It creates this disconnection between the teacher and other students. To force students to engage in repeatedly hearing the n-word or having to read aloud the n-word is just not appropriate in this day and age.’”
Still, bottom line: it seems like whataboutism on your part. 4 or 5 classics banned from classroom discussion (but not school libraries) due to proliferation of n-words et al racial slurs & derogatory terms for those with mental illness. Vs red states mandating reviews of hundreds of books, often ultimately pulling 300 or so from circulation from school libraries as well as classroom discussion—everything from novels with graphic sexual scenes intended by publisher for age 18 & over, to harmless picture books like the true story of two male penguins raising an abandoned egg. And in between, a lot of good literature with some difficult passages which when reviewed by sensible people [such as those on the committee in this NC school district] stay in curriculum.
All just to say, hey liberals ban books too. Flimsy argument.
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