A 200% increase in bans on public school textbooks, affecting over 10,000. titles

Nov. 1 (UPI) — More than 10,000 books were banned from public schools across the country during the 2023-2024 school year, a “dramatic” 200% increase from the previous year, PEN America reported Friday.

About 43% of book bans, or 4,295, were cases in which books were completely banned from being accessed and were ineligible for review or release under newly imposed restrictions, the free speech group said in its new report. Banned in the US: Beyond the Shelves.

The report shows that the number of total bans as a percentage of all school textbook bans increased by 16 percentage points in 2023-2024 (43%) compared to previous years (27%).

According to PEN America, there have been nearly 16,000 cases of book bans in public schools since 2021.

“This crisis is tragic for young people who want to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books,” said Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program. statement.

“The time goes by very quickly when you’re in sixth or 11th grade – there’s a lot to learn,” he added. “What students read in schools forms the foundation for their lives, whether it is critical thinking or empathy across differences.” , personal well-being or long-term success.

“Defending the fundamental principles of public education and the freedom to read, learn and think is as necessary now as ever.”

Blaming so-called “individuals and groups holding extremely conservative viewpoints,” PEN America said its top picks were titles dealing with issues of race, sexuality and gender identity – similar to previous years.

A new emerging category of banned books are those that “depict issues that young people face in the real world,” such as substance abuse, suicide, depression, mental health issues and sexual violence, the group said.

Florida and Iowa lead the nation in the number of school book bans. Florida banned more than 4,500 titles, while Iowa banned more than 3,600. The report found that nationwide, 29 states and 220 public school districts issued documented bans for the 2023–2024 school year.

The most frequently banned books included: Nineteen minutes bestselling author Jodi Picoult, I’m looking for Alaska by John Green, Benefits of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Sold by Patricia McCormick and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

Nineteen minutes is a 2007 bestseller about a school shooting. Its author, Jodi Picoult, said the rapidly increasing number of book bans was a “wake up call”.

“Nineteen minutes “is banned not because it is about a school shooting, but because of a single page depicting date rape and using anatomically correct words to describe the human body,” she said. “It is not gratuitous or lewd and is not, as the book banners claim, porn.

“Actually, hundreds of children have told me about this reading Nineteen minutes stopped them from committing a school shooting or showed them that they were not alone in feeling isolated. My book and the ten thousand others that have been taken off the shelves of school libraries this year give children a tool to cope in an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners do not help children. They are doing them harm,” added Picoult.