The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2022

E ducation

Banned Books: Censorship and Protecting Students From [CENSORED]

By Anthony T. Childers

F OR THOSE FAMILIAR WITH ANY AMOUNT OF HISTORY, book banning is nothing new. Religious texts, scientific theories and other written works challenging the pre vailing social mores have been subject to censorship, removal from shelves or in the most extreme examples, burning. The motivations for censoring ideas have been varied, but the justification for censorship has traditionally relied on some authority’s “duty” to forge the minds and mold the conscience of society.

too much even for the eyes (or thoughts) of a mature adult. Once again, the objections were based on personal morals, religious beliefs or simply a disagreement with the ideas being expressed. For the objectors, what was bad for them was bad for all. BANNING BOOKS AND LIMITING STUDENT SPEECH In the United States, the govern ment is prohibited from suppress ing speech or ideas simply because the powers that be, or society itself, disagree. 1 However, within the public school setting, wherein the state undertakes the responsibility of educating children and instill ing in them community values, the state has significant discretion over the content of its curriculum. Further, though students maintain their First Amendment rights, the right to free speech is “not auto matically coextensive with the

rights of adults in other settings.” 2 The effect is that school libraries can be particularly vulnerable to censorship based on calls from even a small minority who might disagree with ideas expressed in a book and if not handled appropriately can lead to litiga tion and liability. Traditionally, when it comes to school curriculum, states and public school systems have been given almost total discretion in determining what materials should be taught in the class room. The 10th Amendment reserves those “powers not del egated to the United States by the Constitution” to the states or people, and public education is one such area held by the states. 3 Yet, the state’s authority over curriculum is still constrained within the limits of an individual’s rights protected within the con stitutional amendments. 4 Under

You need not go far into the historical record to find exam ples. In 2019, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter caused outrage among some groups who were demanding that the series be removed from library shelves. According to some, the books were objectionable. They complained the books, written for a 7 to 12-year-old audience, depicted magic and witchcraft and gave children access to “real spells” in violation of their own beliefs or because they considered such depictions to be immoral and inappropriate for young adults. For adults, within that same timeframe, it was Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale that came under the looking glass. The book depicted a future total itarian society set in the southern United States, where women were treated as property. The book used coarse language and typed text to describe graphic scenes apparently

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL