===Book Banning===

States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them
As a record number of school districts face bans on certain books and lawmakers enact measures that limit what can be taught about race and sexual identity in the classroom, some states are moving to counter the measures with laws that prohibit banning books. Last month, Minnesota became the latest state to implement restrictions on banning books from public libraries, including those in K-12 public schools and colleges. Minnesota joins Illinois and Maryland, which passed a similar measure in April. The laws also follow other efforts to push back on book bans in school districts in states such as Florida ​(CNN 6/24/24) READ MORE>>>>>

Lawmakers advocate for bills protecting libraries from book bans
State legislators hope a new set of bills will let Rhode Island join the other 44 states with laws that protect public libraries from efforts to ban books. State Representatives David Morales and Jennifer Stewart and State Senator Mark McKenney, held an event at the State House last month to advocate for the bills. “These bills affirm a clear declaration of the policy of this state to encourage and protect the freedom of public libraries to curate their collections without limitations,” McKenney said. ​(WPRI 5/10/24) READ MORE>>>>>

The Story Behind Oppressive Books Bans in Prisons
Ezekiel Caligiuri is an author, editor, and co-founder of the Stillwater Writer’s Collective. And, having served 22 and a half years in a Minnesota Correctional facility, he’s also a seasoned expert on contemporary prison censorship, which has intensified to a level many fear is oppressive.  “[Prisons censor] the things that you would probably think about as most threatening — materials that might enhance violence or maybe encourage some other sorts of subversive behavior,” Caligiuri says. And sure, most of us could probably guess that prisons would censor, say, a book about an escaped inmate. But increasingly, says Caligiuri, prisons are banning a much wider variety of books for increasingly unclear reasons — these materials are censored for being donated, being provided by “unapproved” vendors, and a whole host of other reasons that don’t make practical sense or promote rehabilitation.  ​(Diana Valenzuela/Katie Couric Media 1/10/24)
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​“We’re witnessing a rise in culture of people characterizing literature and information as potentially threatening. [We can see] the origins of this in our prison system, because it has existed there for so long,” she says. “If we don’t want to have someone in government telling us what we’re allowed to read, then we should try and extend that to everybody in our culture, just to really emphasize for all public institutions that people have autonomy. You can’t foreclose our intellectual freedom.”

Book publishers, authors and Escambia parents get 'major win' in book ban lawsuit
A federal judge rejected a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the Escambia County school district violated free speech rights through its removal and restriction of school library books. The lawsuit, filed by PEN America, Penguin Random House, five authors and seven Escambia County parents, asks that all challenged and banned library books be returned to library shelves.  ​(Brittany Misencik/Pensacola News Journal 1/10/24)
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The dictionaries' definitions of words such as "sex" would potentially put them in violation of the law, which placed restrictions on children being taught about sexual conduct.

Book Ban in Florida District Now Includes Dictionaries
A Florida school district has pulled three dictionaries which define words like “sex” off of library shelves as part of its review of Florida’s controversial HB1069 bill. The bill requires stricter controls on sexual education materials by the Department of Education, and has led to widespread removal of books which describe sexual conduct from schools. The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary are just some of the 2,800 books that have been taken off the shelves in Escambia County. On Wednesday, advocacy group PEN America took the district to court over the decision. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously called accusations that he was banning books in Florida a “hoax.”
​(Daily Beast 1/10/24)
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