Since Annabelle laid The Handmaid's Tale at the feet of the superintendent of her school district, stories of states that are preparing to ban the ban on graphic novels have been flying off the bookshelves across the US.
Believe it or not, but the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom has stated that the "number of titles targeted for censorship reached 'the highest levels ever documented' by the organization last year." (Duster, Chandelis. "States Begin To Push Back On Book Bans--By Banning Them." June 4, 2024. cnn.com) Let's break that down a bit.
"There were more than 4300 book bans across 23 states and 52 public school districts from July 2023 to December 2023," declared an organization that strives to protect our freedom of speech and expression. "Parental rights movement" advocates and conservative groups are responsible for this Draconian disruption of our Constitutional rights.
Do you know that in states like Missouri, librarians can be fined and spend time in jail for letting teens check out books with "explicit sexual material"? They're afraid the books are being used to "indoctrinate" children. Or perhaps turn them into perverts and whores. Excuse me, but those people don't read...
Anyway, the take-away is that other states like Minnesota, Maryland, and Illinois are jumping on the bandwagon to dismantle book bans in their schools, leaving it up to parents and guardians to determine whether or not a book is appropriate for their child to read. Moreover, it allows those parents and guardians the opportunity to demonstrate how the book might adversely affect children in general, thereby promoting mature and intelligent discussion on the matter. Instead of a witch hunt.
This reversal will continue to spread, making it easier for educators to focus on providing students with a quality education instead of on worrying about being put in cuffs for not monitoring the stuff those curious kids are reading. Isn't that the parents' job?
I'll end by saying this: kids are harmed and influenced more so by violent video games than by graphic novels. Who's monitoring those?
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