Advocacy: Stop the Book Bans
Sadly, this is happening in our own FHPS libraries and classrooms. Policies exist at FHPS that allow individual caregivers to determine what their student reads. Unfortunately, we have seen these policies ignored and books removed without proper review both in our school libraries and in our classrooms. Our teachers, librarians, and staff are receiving threats to their livelihood and safety when they push back against this censorship.
Support FHPS Action fully supports our students’ RIGHT TO READ and believe that our school officials, as Public, Government employees, have a First Amendment responsibility to ensure that no particular view or belief is allowed to dictate what students can learn and read. We are a proud, founding affiliate of Kids’ Right to Read Network!
Dear Superintendents and School Board Presidents
The situation is so dire that the ACLU of Michigan had to send a letter to all Superintendents and School Board Presidents in Michigan last November to remind them of their duty to students as Public Educators. The letter begins:
November 1, 2022
Re: Dangerous Efforts to Ban Books from Our Public Schools
Dear Superintendents and School Board Presidents:
We write to express our alarm regarding current efforts to ban books in our public schools. In response to complaints from some parents and political groups, several school districts in our state have recently removed highly acclaimed books from school library collections such that they are no longer available for students to check out or read. We urge you to affirm your commitment to public education, the First Amendment, and the welfare of all students in your community by resisting and speaking out against these harmful and misguided efforts—and, if books have been banned in your district, restoring students’ access to all materials in your collection as soon as possible.
Learn More and Get Involved
Check out the “Kids’ Right to Read Action Kit” developed by the National Coalition Against Censorship for tips and ways to fight for our students’ rights.
If you’ve been following our Board of Educations meetings in the past years, you’ll know that book-banning is a hot topic in Forest Hills. Unfortunately, school districts are running scared and removing books without any book review except its presence on a “Moms For Liberty” list. If anyone disagrees, including our amazing educators, they’re labeled as “groomers” or people attempting to “sexualize” children.
Unfortunately, disputes against books, credentialed library staff, and school districts have grown far beyond complaints into full blown harassment and extreme theatrical displays during school board business meetings.
Anti-public education groups like “Let Them Play” and Moms for Liberty have gone as far as reading aloud Penthouse magazines during district board meetings in a shameful attempt to equate actual pornography to the award-winning content in school libraries.
This disgusting behavior prevents our educators and board members from doing their jobs and distracts from time that should be spent on issues truly affecting our students. Even worse, vilifying books about race and other topics puts certain students at risk for bullying because book burners are pegging them as enemies because of their heritage or family composition.
Across Michigan, and right here in Forest Hills, parents have the same rights and control they’ve always had and remain the final say over what comes home in their kids’ backpacks. In most cases, those attacking our schools and books do so while:
Wearing attire backing a specific anti-public education political candidate
Actively promoting the latest iteration of a [failed] Michigan school voucher scheme
Cross-promoting an anti-public education political committee or group
Asking to remove any references to diversity and encouraging all districts follow the unethical path of new Ottawa County board members
It’s critical for citizens to understand the manufactured crisis circulating social media about libraries and help put a stop to the inappropriate and line-crossing harassment by politicians and their advocates on our educators and marginalized students.
The 90% of Michigan families who trust and rely on public schools are not the people inspiring this “war.”
Additional reading:
Support FHPS follows the guidance of Families For Safe Schools and we align with their perspective on this topic:
It is the position of Families For Safe Schools that none of the books questioned by these groups is pornographic because neither the book as a whole nor the sexual scenes by themselves are written to be lewd or solely to arouse sexual interest; rather, the descriptions are meant to be considered in the context of the entire book, and are an integral part of the character development in each book.
However, it turns out that we DO have a pornography problem in this country, but it’s not on our school library shelves. According to the study by Common Sense, 73% of teens report having consumed pornography EACH WEEK online. Fifteen percent of respondents state that they were first exposed to online pornography when they were 10 years old or younger; 54% were exposed by age 13. We are not talking about literary depictions of intimacy that contribute to a larger narrative. We are talking about the hardcore stuff that you used to have to sneak into disreputable theaters with sticky floors to view.
Where is this exposure occurring? While kids are surfing the internet. How are these children gaining access to the internet? Via devices, or access to devices, supplied to them by their parents or the parents of the children’s friends.
We at Families For Safe Schools agree that the exposure of children to pornography is likely to be detrimental to their ability to develop healthy sexual relationships during their youth and afterwards, and we are committed to providing a safe and healthy learning environment for all of our students in our public schools. But we need to be clear-eyed about where the threats to our children are coming from, and the threat to their healthy sexual development is not coming from the books on the media center shelves.
It’s time for every parent to have a full and frank discussion with their child about their inevitable exposure to online pornography, and to provide the necessary context to them so that they can weather their confusion with their inevitable confrontation, and be able to deal with it in a healthy manner.
Fred Kilgallin is a retired BPS teacher. Deborah Haar Clark is a BPS parent and volunteer. Both are board members for Families for Safe Schools.
