Understanding the United States book bans

School book bans are at an all-time high. News of the Florida book bans have spread rapidly; however, book bans are a national issue. 

Specifically, California and Citrus College both have their policies on book banning, but what exactly are they?

Is this written into the law?

Taking it into a standpoint from Florida, yes. According to the Florida Senate website, Florida House Bill 1467 outlines requirements for books in schools.

Books in schools must be free of pornography, not harmful to minors, age appropriate, directed toward students’ needs and must follow the state curriculum. Schools must regularly remove books based on these factors in this bill along with any outside objections.

However, many of these outlines are subjective to individuals’ beliefs, meaning that each school district has different definitions of what this bill really means. Therefore, each Florida school district has its own list of books that are banned, under review or approved. 

Yet, while book bans are mostly talked about with Florida, book banning is a national issue.

What is book banning from a national standpoint?

Federally, no book bans exist, however that does not stop or slow book bans per school district across the country. From July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, PEN America found that 2,492 books were banned across the nation. The top three leading states consisted of Texas (801 bans), Florida (566 bans) and Pennsylvania (457 bans). 

Is book banning legal?

Book bans from a federal and state standpoint are illegal and unconstitutional. These laws would prevent authors from publishing their books, therefore, limiting their freedom of speech. However, when school districts ban books, they are not preventing the books from being published, only being placed in schools among their districts. In the case of Florida, a specific book ban itself is not written into the law. As seen above, it only outlines the curriculum regarding books that public schools must follow, which is completely legal.

How does California compare? 

Among the 2,492 books banned in the recent school year, California had zero. However, in 2020 Burbank Unified School District challenged and successfully banned five books. 

What does California’s governor think of this?

Florida Gov. Ronald DeSantis is immensely supportive of his state’s book bans. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom does not have the same beliefs. 

On March 30, 2022, Newsom took to Twitter, sharing a photo of himself reading “Beloved,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and two other books that cannot be seen. The caption said “Reading some banned books to figure out what these states are so afraid of.” 

What does this mean for Citrus College? 

Upon collecting information from PEN America, Citrus College had physical copies of each of the 11 most banned books of the 2021-2022 school year:

“Gender Queer” (41 bans), “All Boys aren’t Blue” (29 bans), “Out of Darkness” (24 bans), “The Bluest Eye” (24 bans), “The Hate you Give” (22 bans), “Lawn Boy” (17 bans), “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (17 bans), “Me Earl and the Dying Girl” (14 bans), “Thirteen Reasons Why” (12 bans), “The Kite Runner” (12 bans) and “Crank” (12 bans).

Furthermore, out of the five banned books in Burbank County School District, “Roll of Thunder,” “Hear My Cry” and “Of Mice and Men” were all found in the Citrus College Hayden Memorial Library. 

Regarding the laws of book banning, Citrus College also has its own “Collection Development Policy.”

“The purpose of the library collection policy is to guide and support library acquisitions that fulfill the academic and educational role of the library,” the policy states. 

Furthermore, Citrus supports the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights. 

This bill outlines:

• Materials must be provided for interest
• Materials should not be excluded due to origin, background or other views,
• Libraries should challenge censorship,
• Libraries should provide all points of view,
• An individual’s right to using a library should not be denied due to origin, race, background or views 
• Libraries should cooperate with everyone concerned with resisting abridgment of freedom of expression and speech.

Citrus College also openly opposes the banning of books. 

In 2022, they created a book banning display along with creating a banned book bracket online to see what banned book was the best. 

Furthermore, Citrus College librarians also oppose these book bans and are concerned about the increasing efforts to challenge books. 

“As a profession, librarians seek to provide access to information from a diversity of perspectives, connecting people to resources that meet their information needs, and we oppose efforts to restrict access,” Citrus librarian Darren Hall wrote in an email. 

Why should people care?

According to PEN America, 41% of banned books involved LGBTQ+ themes and 40% of them had a first or secondary character of color. 

Furthermore, in Iowa if a librarian were to give one of these books to a minor, it would be an aggravated misdemeanor, according to a potential bill.

This article was updated at 10:51 a.m. May 17 to clarify the holdings at the Hayden Memorial Library.