Sept. 27--Thirteen.
That's the number of books banned in Texas public schools during the
2011-12 school year, says a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union
of Texas.
It's the lowest number in a decade.
"I think there's more awareness on the part of librarians and school
administrators about how to handle complaints from parents," says Terri Burke,
executive director of ACLU Texas. "You'll always have folks who want to ban
books (that are) contrary to their personal beliefs, but I think
administrators are learning how to engage parents in the process."
The ACLU report is pegged to Banned Books Week (Sept. 30-Oct. 6),
launched by the American Library Association in 1982 to celebrate the freedom
to read.
Most books land on the banned list because of sex, profanity, nudity,
violence, religion, race and/or politics. Asking parents to sit down and read
the titles that concern them before making official complaints in writing has
helped streamline complaints and bring the number of banned books down, Burke
says.
Some titles on this year's list were banned by elementary schools because
the content was deemed too mature for young students. In some cases,
administrators recommended the books be taught in upper grades in the same
district.
Five books were banned from middle and high schools:
--"Num8ers" by Rachel Ward was banned from Spring Branch Middle School
because of profanity. Ward's book is about a girl who is able to intuit the
exact date people are going to die.
--"Dash and Lily's Book of Dares" by Rachel Cohn was banned from the New
Caney ISD sixth-grade campus for profanity and sexual content or nudity.
Cohn's novel is a love story that begins as a list of dares in a notebook.
--"Love and Other Four Letter Words" by Carolyn Mackler was banned from
middle and high schools in San Antonio's Northside ISD for sexual content and
nudity. The story focuses on a teenage girl who must move to Manhattan after
her parents split.
--"Dark Rivers of the Heart" by Dean Koontz was banned by Mae Luster
Stephens Junior High in Linden for profanity. The novel follows a man on the
run with a mysterious woman.
--"When Is It Right to Die?" by Joni Eareckson was banned at Travis
Middle School in Port Lavaca for offending religious beliefs. Eareckson's book
discusses suicide and euthanasia.
Burke believes parents should have a say in which books their children
read.
"But in an ideal world," she says, "parents would monitor kids' reading
and it wouldn't have to come to banning."
Occasionally, adults are denied access to certain titles as well. Earlier
this year, a handful of area public libraries chose not to carry E.L. James'
sexually explicit "Fifty Shades of Grey." A Brazoria County librarian said the
quality of writing didn't meet the library's standards, and a library
spokeswoman in Fort Bend County said the book didn't seem to be popular enough
there to add it to the library's collection.
And when books are banned or restricted in other states, Texas might feel
the aftershock.
Last year, Tucson, Ariz., schools started dismantling a popular
Mexican-American studies program and removing Hispanic history books from
classrooms. Two of those restricted books were published by Houston-based Arte
Publico Press, the largest publisher of contemporary U.S. Latino literature in
the country.
Tony Diaz, founder of local nonprofit Nuestra Palabra and a Houston
Community College professor, led a caravan of writers and activists in April
to Tucson to bring copies of the prohibited books back to Arizona.
Since then, Diaz and his Librotraficante (book-trafficker) movement have
gained followers across the country.
"I'll be in Las Vegas during Banned Books Week, collecting donations of
banned books for underground libraries," Diaz says.
