PUBLIC EDUCATION
PORNOGRAPHIC BOOKS IN SCHOOLS
BY JACKSON ELLIOTT
Activists fight to keep sexually explicit books in schools, parents say
44 E P O C H I N S I G H T Week 44, 2022
“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, which has drawings of people having sex; “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, which gives a vivid description of two male children having sex; and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez, which includes at least one passage describing a sexual assault against a minor. Content that parents might find disturbing in those books and others often found in school libraries is detailed in reports on an independent review site called BookLooks. That organization endeavors to help parents “find out what objectionable content may be in your child’s book before they do.”
Opposing Porn Is Racist? Attempts to remove books from school libraries is “about white supremacy,” the BookRiot guide says. “It’s about power.
Calling it anything less than that diminishes the responsibility there is on gatekeepers to uphold intellectual freedom and the First Amendment.” Teachers, librarians, and other educators are the “gatekeepers,” says the BookRiot website. The BookRiot guide blames news media for spotlighting parents’ concerns about books they deem too graphic to be made available to children. The tool kit suggests using local news media as “a tool of support” to help prevent parents from being successful in attempts to remove books from school libraries. It advises citizens, teachers, educators, librarians, and administrators to take specific actions to prevent parents from having books removed. BookRiot’s advice includes instructing citizens to “contact local media and lo-
CLOCKWISE FROM L: CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES, TERRI WU/ THE EPOCH TIMES, AMBER BERTRAND FOR THE EPOCH TIMES
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ooks th at conta in explicit sexual material should prevail over parents’ efforts to remove them from school libraries, according to a website that fights against what it calls “censorship” of books. BookRiot, which describes itself as “the largest independent editorial book site in North America,” offers a “How to Fight Book Bans and Challenges: An Anti-Censorship Tool Kit.” The guide advises how libraries can fight parents’ attempts to remove certain books from their shelves. BookRiot recommends books as part of its “commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the action steps we’re taking to walk the walk.” Some of the books the organization advocates for keeping in libraries include
