Molly Jefferson – Period 8
“XXXcuse me?!” – A Rant Regarding Banned Books in School Libraries
When I was in 8th grade, I wrote for my school newspaper. We’d make a new issue every three weeks or so. The last issue we were doing was due the second to last day of school. I had written a piece about Pride Month. It was June after all, and middle school is when students start to find themselves, so I found an ideal topic. Unfortunately for me, I was censored, reported to the principal by the teacher of the club and ultimately shunned for my choice of article. Censorship at the age of 14 did not sit right with me.
In fact, this article right here was supposed to be about my favorite dark romance novels and why I liked them. A simple book review, tied with psychology and a ton of taboo tangents. This was supposed to be a fun time. But through other conversations I’ve had with other intelligent peers of mine, as well as thinking about that hellish 8th grade memory, I realized that romance of any sort was the worst topic to write for a school newspaper—for “obvious” reasons.
I never understood why sexual content and sexuality was overly shunned in schools, more so than murder. In fact, as of 2022, all of the top 13 books that were challenged or banned in schools were deemed “sexually explicit.” 7 of those were also flagged with LGBTQIA+ content. Some of these books were flagged with other subjects, but the amount of books with other sensitive topics like murder, death, assault or drug use and addiction are plentiful, yet not on the list.
One would think that drug addiction is an extremely pressing matter, especially for our area, as blatant as that sounds. Books and historical literature are being banned because our schools don’t want us, as students, to venture into the deep, dark, SICK setting of a natural phenomenon called sex.
It is laughable, and honestly, utterly astounding that the place where teens are meant to find themselves and make up their mind in order to see into their future plans and college (which is pushed down our throats, by the way) is banning books that would allow us to be educated—both in regards to sex and sexuality—both things that have kept the human race as a whole going for the past 300 thousand years as we know it.
I call to all schools when I say that banned books are essential for increasing knowledge of literature and self discovery. There is no reason to ban literature and shun the minds of our teens for their curiosity and their interests, when books containing drug abuse are absolutely fine.
Books will not convert the teens of West Lawn into nymphomaniacs nor the opposite genders – I promise.
