“If you want your kids to read that stuff, you can go to the local library and check those books out.” “It doesn’t matter if there’s a cure for cancer in there, it’s inappropriate for children,” he said. He maintained those books should be removed outright. “This should have been a five-minute conversation to be like, ‘Yeah, you know what? That’s inappropriate and we’re putting in steps to make sure that we get rid of all of this inappropriate stuff today,’” he said.Īge restrictions were another piece of the review process Sparti said should be rethought. Steve Sparti, a parent in the district who has worked with members of the conservative Utah Parents United to encourage the removal of books, said he wants any book that has a “graphic depiction of sex” to be removed from schools. “I think right now because they are composed mostly of non-professionals who are very impassioned and who have not received this training, people are going to make decisions based on emotions and their ideas about their children and what they want them to read,” Rekdal said.įor some proponents of removing certain books from schools, only pulling 22 books is not enough. But Rekdal said review committees should primarily be made up of professional educators who received training in First Amendment rights. There also must be more parents on the committee than school employees. “And whenever we start limiting access to literature and ideas and information, we're limiting our children's ability to think complexly, to think for themselves.”Īlpine School District policies state that an “instructional material review committee” has to have at least one school administrator and two teachers appointed by the school’s principal. “A democracy depends on an educated and literate population, a population that's curious and able to think for itself and to read widely,” she said. Instead, Rekdal thinks books are meant to provoke nuanced discussion. “Literature has sexual content as part of a story that tells you something greater about human nature and about the human condition and experience. “That is not to say that you will not pick up a book that has sexual content in it,” she said. Rekdal doesn’t think any of the books the district removed can be considered “pornography,” and the same goes for materials in any school library Utah law defines sensitive material as something that is “pornographic or indecent” and is not an instructional material used for medical courses, family and consumer science course, or another class that the state school board exempts. Rekdal was, however, surprised by how many of the reviewed books were eventually banned. In August, PEN America said 42% of the 52 books the district pulled for review featured LGBTQ characters and/or themes. Several of the books that the Alpine School District removed are among the most challenged books of 2021, according to the American Library Association. “The type of books that they pulled tend to fit the national profile of other books that have been banned, which is that they are primarily written by LGBTQ authors or deal with issues of sexuality, gender, LGBTQ issues, as well as race and racial identity,” she said. The list also shows 17 books are now restricted, meaning they require parental approval or are limited by age, and 10 were put back on shelves.Īuthor Paisley Rekdal leads PEN America’s Utah Chapter and said she was not surprised by the specific books that were removed.
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