DWill wrote:It's encouraging in a certain way that in this age of the internet, a book still has power. There is some significance that print between covers still seems to have, vs. information available in the huge welter of the internet. But bringing up the comparison also makes books seem quaint and their banning naive. Without looking, I feel certain that any of the recipes in The Anarchist's Handbook are available online. Radicalization of religious groups and right-wingers didn't happen through passing around books, but through connected computers. A book is an object that can be banned, and that's why we talk about banning them, whereas banning internet speech is a much different and more difficult thing to do.

Harry Marks wrote:This is a good argument for classification of any plans or details for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Bad enough that someone could put LSD in the drinking water.

Strictly Legal: Book removal not a ban and not unconstitutional

The court also questioned C.K.-W.’s argument that the district had actually “banned” anything. The court noted, “[t]he District’s policy does not ban the District’s students from reading the books at issue here. Nor does it ban students from acquiring the books or lending the books to others. Students may borrow the books from the public library or from a friend or neighbor. They likewise are free to purchase the books. The policy does not even ban students from bringing the books at issue to the District’s schools. Nor does it ban students from discussing the books at school during their free time or encouraging others to read them. It simply does not ban the books, or anything for that matter. So, the ‘overwrought rhetoric about book banning has no place’ in this case.” Because the district followed its procedure, and there was no obvious viewpoint discrimination, the court denied the injunction. If this case is any indication, the battle against banned books in schools may be an uphill fight.

8/21/22
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/ ... 406554007/

LanDroid wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 12:33 pm

The court noted, “[t]he District’s policy does not ban the District’s students from reading the books at issue here. Nor does it ban students from acquiring the books or lending the books to others. Students may borrow the books from the public library or from a friend or neighbor. They likewise are free to purchase the books.

This ruling will probably increase the energy of inspector-activists attempting to remove books they don't like from school libraries. I don't have a problem with some of that; do 2nd graders need a book describing pansexualism and BDSM? But as Litwitlou said above years ago, when this expands to the likes of To Kill A Mockingbird, it goes way too far...

Mr. Marks wrote:The case on which this was based was Richard Wagner, who is often boycotted even today for his role in the Nazi glorification of the "Aryan race."

I would say the point would be more like whether the book is banned, or soft-banned, to protect the reader (in which case, don't) or to protect other people from knowledge in the wrong hands (in which case, mostly do ban, but not to extremes of protection).

DB Roy wrote:With these angry rightwingers running around now, it seems only a matter of time before something terrible happens. I think something IS going to happen--a dirty bomb, suicide bombers or mass poisoning of the food supply or some such thing.

The HB 1467 law, which was championed by DeSantis, the state's GOP governor, and passed last March, requires teachers to remove books that do not appear on the state-approved reading list, at least until they are reviewed by an employee with a media specialist certificate.
...Under the "curriculum transparency" law, if non-sanctioned books are found on a classroom's shelves, teachers could face felony charges.

1/31/23
https://www.newsweek.com/video-florida- ... an-1777793

Thousands of books in Duval County schools in Florida are subject to review due to three state laws impacting certain subjects in education, including race, gender and sexual orientation, according to county officials.
...A report by the anti-censorship group PEN America claims specific titles under review include books about historical Black and Hispanic figures like Robert Clemente, a Puerto Rican baseball player who became a Major League Baseball icon despite facing racism and segregation in his career.
...A story about Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court, was also reported to be under review by PEN America.

2/13/23
https://abcnews.go.com/US/thousands-boo ... d=97082518

The Florida Department of Education announced last week that it was rejecting the use of dozens of mathematics textbooks in K-12 public schools throughout the state, ostensibly because they contained content that discussed critical race theory.

4/19/22
https://truthout.org/articles/desantiss ... t-content/

Ron DeSantis’ academic restrictions show he hopes to change history by censoring it
...On 1 February, these pernicious restrictions on academic freedom spread beyond Florida, when the College Board announced its decision to severely restrict what can and cannot be taught in the newly created advanced placement class in African American studies. Cut from the curriculum (or in some cases made optional) was any discussion of Black Lives Matter, mass incarceration, police brutality, queer Black life and the Black Power movements of the 1960s and 70s. Writers who have been removed from the reading list include bell hooks, Angela Davis and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
...Without being taught to distinguish truth from fiction, without being asked to think, without learning how this country evolved – a history not just of heroism and noble principles but of theft, brutality and crime – our students will be easy prey to every conspiracy theory that comes along. They will find it far more difficult to imagine and implement the important ways in which we hope to become a more equitable, less racist – and better educated – society.

Francine Prose 2/9/23
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... censorship

Brian Covey, Fired Florida School Teacher, Vows to Expose Ron DeSantis
...Covey told Newsweek that the 6,000 books approved in the district in the past three weeks is just 0.375 percent of the 1.6 million titles that need to be reviewed by a July 1 deadline.

That "means that 99.625 percent of all books in the district are inaccessible to students right now," Covey said. "At the rate that they're currently going, we're looking at over a decade" before the review is over, he added.

Covey is also angry that the media specialists conducting the review were removed from classrooms, taking away another valuable resource from students.

...Covey added: "I'm willing to take the bullet and go through the heat right now because I know my story is the truth. At this point, until my kids have a new normal, I'm just going to keep sharing the story and making sure that people know that this can happen to them."

2/23/2023
https://www.newsweek.com/fired-florida- ... is-1783328

There were 1,269 documented demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, according to new data released by the American Library Association on Thursday morning. This is the highest number of attempted book bans since the organization began compiling data about censorship in libraries nearly two decades ago, the organization said, and "nearly doubles" the 729 challenges reported in 2021. A record 2,571 "unique titles" were challenged, the association said, a 38% increase from 2021.

"A book challenge is a demand to remove a book from a library's collection so that no one else can read it. Overwhelmingly, we're seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, in the association's news release.

3/23/2023
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/challenges ... port-says/

Almost every dystopian-themed novel, from “1984″ to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” features a government that controls the spread of information, including the books that are allowed and the wiping of history it doesn’t want told. Today, Florida is looking more and more like a place where these fictional societies are becoming reality.

...What is really on the chopping block, however, are the critical thinking skills of every young Floridian who attends a public school in the Sunshine State.

...As Japanese author Haruki Murakami once stated, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” I think that’s DeSantis’ whole point.

3/15/2023
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2023/0 ... nk-column/

A federal judge in Texas ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content, must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours, according to an order filed Thursday.

...Books ordered to return to shelves include “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson, “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.

4/1/23
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/01/us/texas ... index.html