All excellent questions!
Perhaps we could borrow from Harry Potter and have a restricted section in the library and parents can opt in or out for their students to access it as @jeneric mentioned upthread.
I would also hope that the process in place to determine whether to ban or keep a book is open to all parents so any interested can present their opinions for or against banning it since the article doesn’t discuss the actual process.
If parents have the right to determine- then that means all parents-good luck with that. Honestly, after hanging out in schools daily for years I would not have to bend to every little whim of a parent. Even I had my crazy moments!
I feel bad for school boards and teachers. Some of these parent groups are vicious. There was an attempt to ban some books in our district- they initially got pulled, but got put on back on the shelf pending a review. Some have passed review. Parents still aren’t happy, now they want to file criminal complaints. I don’t think the parent group is that large, just loud.
Funny you mention Harry Potter- many parents wanted those books banned! If parents want to control their children’s book choice they should do it themselves. That’s a part of parenting.
In middle school there were a couple of books that we needed to sign permission slips to “allow” our children to read. There was always one or two parents that refused to sign and their kids were given another assignment and then sent to the library when the rest of the class was discussing the primary book. I remember reading the books prior to signing and couldn’t figure out why we they were flagged as needing parental permission.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve overheard, “don’t tell my parents…” not necessarily told to me, but overheard nonetheless.
Nothing wrong with vintage classics either. My kids read a ton of things, including whatever they wanted.
At our school parents can opt a student out of any required reading they want to. It’s always been that way where I work.
I think parents are legitimately concerned about the proliferation of material that is blatant or obviously not age appropriate. Graphic sex education books with nudie pictures, for instance. Violent, sexually explicit, or politically divisive material are probably fine for adults or older teenagers, but not appropriate for most school aged children.
I think one of the problems is adults over sexualizing things- nudie pictures? Really?
The age of consent in my state is 16. I think kids in high school can handle some sexual content. Heck my D’s teacher was having sex with kids in the school- so she was well aware of what rape was before high school. As far as violence and politically divisive all kids have to do is pay attention to the world and watch some of their leaders speak poorly about others. They don’t need books- they have real life.
Instead of banning books, or assuming parents will monitor what their child is reading, is there a practical way to quarantine books where a student would need permission to access? Similar to parental controls on devices, cable tv channels, etc.
There was that in our library- in elementary schools the younger kids were kept to a section. We also had an alert in our check out system for books for older kids. In middle school there was content that wasn’t allowed because 6th graders had access- John Green books are an example. I think the problem is there would be so many books parents have a problem with, where does it stop? Parents wouldn’t be satisfied- their child could still get it from a friend, they could sneak in…
I think most people are overestimating the time kids spend in the library- it was once a week in elementary, middle school every two weeks, in high school not at all. In the mornings middle school kids might come in, but they spent time thumbing through graphic novels- the poor choice label for comic books. They really were there because there were comfy pillows! The point was to encourage kids to read, because being a good reader is essential to school success.
I’m against censoring books. But some books just aren’t appropriate for kids because of graphic sex. I think most agree that porn doesn’t belong in school libraries. Generally, though I think banning them does more harm than good. I want to make sure that people indignant about Christians censoring books are also indignant about the two New Jersey legislators who, together, banned ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Huck Finn’, and the legislators in Burbank who also banned ‘Huck Finn’. It isn’t simply conservative or Christian folk who try to ban books.
FWIW, I took the time to read one of the books on the list, Gender Queer, which was recently brought up in a heated debate at a local school board meeting (a district in a purple county in purple PA). I recognize that many of these books are being targeted for their pro-LGBTQ themes, generally, and not specific content, but it would be hard to argue that this particular book doesn’t contain pornographic images (granted, I’d say only 3-4 pages out of 280 in this particular book).
If I were on the board, I would have voted to keep it in the school library because I feel the message is important and parents should have enough control over their kids to tell them not to read specific books if they feel that strongly about them. I would also recommend it to my own high schooler to read. That said, I can also appreciate why some parents wouldn’t want their 14-year old exposed to some of the imagery and would be concerned that they’d read it without their permission. I’m very much pro-free speech but also don’t think these parents are universally close-minded bigots pulling complaints about books out of thin air, as they are often times portrayed.
If it hadn’t been for the brouhaha by a northern neighbor and a number of high visibility domestic squabbles, I never would have read Irreversible Damage.
Same for Facing Reality: Two truths about race in America.
Yup…make a stink about a book and you KNOW people will go searching for it.
Was everyone here aware of the banning of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Huck Finn’ also? Not because of pornography, but because it is deemed not from the African American perspective and for use of the n-word in dialogue said by characters in the books.
I’ve heard rumblings over the years- but they aren’t banned where I live. To Kill a Mockingbird is required reading in our HS.
Ours too, and Of Mice and Men, in 8th grade
A local school district just pulled To Kill a Mockingbird from the required reading list for those exact reasons listed in the post above.
It was not completely banned though.
They just took it off the required list- I’m glad teachers can chose to teach it. My youngest was given some choices within genres in 11th and 12th grade. I always tell my kids that we can’t always apply today lens to things of the past. What we can do is recognize that those things aren’t right today. I don’t think we should just ban those books, I think they make great teaching moments. With the way things are going, Mockingbird will be on more lists because it casts white people in a bad light. Groups can twist this into anything they want.
I do think that some book lists can be updated. I love that Percy Jackson is required reading for our kids now. Those books made my kids love reading. Taught them a bunch about Greek mythology. It’s probably on a list for banning for teaching polytheism!
Required reading lists evolve through the years. I think there’s a big difference between deciding if a particular book should be required reading and banning that book.
Like the daughter of the Baptist pastor my daughter was in school with - she watched all of the tv shows her parents banned from their house at other kids’ homes. 
You may think your kid isn’t reading what you call porn or explicit or graphic, but odds are they are. Why? Because they’re curious. They want to understand their friends, the world, life.
There was a huge twitter thing last weekend about the amount of MM fiction being written by cis het women (and published by mainstream publishers), to the detriment of the gay/queer authors. The biggest readers of MM romance and fiction are heterosexual women. Go figure.
I personally want books representative of society at large, books that talk about the hard stuff out there. Race, sex, gender, reproduction.
There are plenty of books recommended on the “best book” thread that I ignore because they don’t interest me, but I don’t demand that they not be included or lauded.
You don’t want MY kids to read something? Hahaha. Worry about your family. Restrict them from the library if you want, but restrict my kids from reading something at your peril.