By Linda Hardman,
DWGC, Legislative Chair
In a recent Ted Talk, Jonathan Friedman, Director of Free Expression and Education Programs for PEN America, said that book bans are toxic for education and that state censorship of Critical Race theory (CRT) and LGBTQ+ issues promote resentment of classes of people, prohibitions on speech, Orwellian-type snitching on teachers, tiptoeing around politically charged rhetoric, and gag orders for teachers in addition to the obvious: an uneducated student populace!
PEN America works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. They advocate for access to diverse literature in schools by tracking book bans in libraries and classrooms across America. They are a national leader in fighting educational censorship in both higher ed and k12, campaigning against educational gag orders-educational restrictions on the freedom to learn and teach that have swept the country since January 2021. In the last two years, South Carolina has experienced over 2000 book bans, but as Friedman notes, our Constitution does not permit the official suppression of ideas! Students have a right to see themselves in the books they read.
The freedom to read and learn is under attack in more than a dozen school districts across South Carolina. Recently, the State Board of Education voted forward a new regulation with the potential to encourage local book challenges to escalate quickly to book bans impacting students statewide. Last year, Beaufort County saw the most challenges of any district. Two people challenged 97 books, which were then removed from school libraries, pending review. Included were many prize-winning titles that focus on diverse identities and experiences, as well as books that tell of surviving abuse and rape.
In reaction, the Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, known as DAYLO, was founded as a student-led book club and pro-literacy community service group. It has chapters at Beaufort High School, Beaufort Academy, and Battery Creek High School and a growing number of chapters across the state. DAYLO believes strongly in intellectual freedom, in the transformative power of stories and in the rights of families to make decisions about access to books for themselves-but not to make those decisions for all other families too. As an ongoing service project, DAYLO hosts free read-aloud events called Teddy Bear Picnics for young children and their families at the Port Royal Farmers Market and at the Naval Heritage Park. These picnics feature snacks, stuffed animals, and very enthusiastic volunteer readers. DAYLO students have been publicly advocating for the freedom to read-locally, statewide, and nationally-for over a year.
These young people say, “We learn best from stories. Our world expands as we read stories of imagination and history, of people like and unlike us. Stories provide us with pathways forward, lessons learned and questions to ask, as we navigate our lives.” Personal experiences show just how valuable these books can be in opening eyes and minds. According to one of DAYLO’s members, “When we read Toni Morrisons’s “The Bluest Eye,” one of our family members thought that it was ‘awful…dark and unrealistic.’ Then she learned that one of her daughter’s students was being abused by family members. She realized that the book wasn’t too dark; she’d just never experienced such darkness herself.” Instead of being an awful story, she recognized it was happening on a street she passes each week and to a student she has met. Sara Barber is the executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and says, “We have to ask why students can experience the very violence that people want to pretend doesn’t happen but not be allowed to read about it in ways that help and heal.”
Elana K. Arnold’s “Damsel” is another of the 97 challenged books and an empowering feminist novel that discusses rape and abuse. These scenes are consistently presented as cautionary, not as endorsement. Books that realistically illustrate the experiences of survivors of violence are lifelines; they help readers recognize that what happened was abuse, wasn’t their fault, and that support is available. This is critical in a state where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 8.2 percent of female high school students have experienced physical violence from a partner and a nation where 13.3 percent have experienced forced sex. Denying literature about these topics doesn’t protect students, it could actually harm them.
A federal judge in another state recently granted an injunction against an “overbroad” law that he believed will not satisfy the First Amendment rights of students. It is hoped that South Carolina avoids enacting laws and regulations that will cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in court costs by focusing instead on the rights of individual families to make decisions for children in their care with existing opt-out policies rather than imposing their will on all families.
Librarians tell us books serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, allowing us to see ourselves reflected, to glimpse into lives different from our own, and to gain the empathy and understanding that comes from being immersed in a well-told story. Restrictions on books and education censorship policies close the shutters and leave us all in the dark; that is a disservice to our schools, to our students and to their future.
Sources: Jonathan Friedman, Director, Free Expression and Education Programs for PEN America; The Post and Courier; Sara Barber, Executive Director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault; Patrick Good, junior at Beaufort Academy and DAYLO president; Mary Ruff, junior at Beaufort High School, student body vice president and DAYLO vice president; The Island News.