#Speakloudly: Two Books Have Been Banned.

I'm sorry, I know I said I was going on a blogging hiatus but I had to blog about this.  If you see a flaming ball of fire somewhere in southwest Missouri, that would be me.

Remember the #Speakloudly campaign? (you can find my original post here.)  Mr. Scroggins tried to get three books banned from the Republic MO school district: Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, and Slaughterhouse Five.  He succeeded in getting two of the three banned.  Republic schools will no longer keep Twenty Boy Summer or Slaughterhouse Five on their shelves.  And get this: only 1 out of the 4 board members who voted read the books.

He managed to get two books banned from a school district in which he has no children attending at the moment.  I'm at a loss for words so I will let Sarah Ockler take over:

Banned, but never ashamed (she references the article and has a link for it on her blog you can get to from there.)

The superintendent is basically calling his students immature.  He believes they aren't old enough to handle the very things they witness in their own lives.

Please never give up the fight to keep books on the shelves.  Our world isn't some sparkly wonderful fairytale full of rainbows and unicorns.  These problems do exist and if these brave authors that write about them are silenced, our teens who need help the most will be silenced.

Speak UPdate!

So, remember the #Speakloudly campaign?  The one where a man from a small town in Missouri wanted three books removed from the public high school's library?  And one of those books was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson?  And it was totally my town?  You can read about it here.

Well, do you also remember Laurie Halse Anderson said she would send 20 copies of each of the contested books to our area libraries in her op-ed piece here?

Guess what??

We got those books at our library the other day!



(The box of books courtesy of our awesome Collection Services department)

 

Thank you Ms Anderson!!  Our library greatly appreciates all these books, and man do we need them!  Our hold lists are out the whazoo!

And, I have an update courtesy of some inside sources (because you know, they never tell us parents anything) that all three books are back on the shelves in the school.  Slaughterhouse Five has even been put back on the reading list, as far as I know, and there will be a letter sent home with parents informing them of the book.  (of course this is just what I heard, but my sources are pretty reliable)

And a huge THANK YOU to all of you who spoke up about this issue!  It looks like (for now) the books are safe.

#Speakloudly-Book Banning in Republic MO: Update

I thought I'd update today on the book banning controversy in my town.  I can't believe my little town is famous for something so...sad.  I really hope the school board won't make their decisions based on one man's opinion.  But they won't make any final decisions until later in the year.  Hopefully I can stay updated on my school district's decision throughout the year.  None of them have been officially banned, like Stockton's Book Ban, and I truly hope it doesn't come down to that.

But, so far:

Slaughterhouse 5 is still off the shelves as far as I know.
Twenty Boy Summer is still "on review"- which I am not sure if it's actually been pulled or not
Speak is safe, for now.


I found a helpful blog from the Office for Intellectual Freedom over at the American Library Association containing information on the recent events.  It contains a response from the Superintendent of the Republic School system on the issues brought up by Mr. Scroggins about Sex Ed classes and textbooks, but nothing about the books he requested to be removed.

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote a piece for Wednesday's editorial section of the News-Leader- you can find it HERE
She also thanked everyone who got involved in the #speakloudly campaign, here in her blog
(she gives a link to the Reclusive Bibliophile's blog that has a list of many blogs that participated in this campaign- mine's on there!  Along with many other's that I read).

Sarah Ockler also wrote a piece, HERE
And posted a video to her blog

Also, there are various opinion pieces from concerned citizens of the Springfield and Republic area, and you can find them all HERE  Make sure to look back at Tuesday 9/21 and Wednesday 9/22 because I think it updates daily with the newest opinions.  I am sure we'll have many more to come in the next few days.

I wrote to Superintendent Vern Minor as a concerned parent of the school district.  All I got in response was a "thank you for your letter".  I also got a survey from the school district (how fitting it was sent out at this point in time) and made clear my concerns over the removal of Slaughterhouse 5 and Twenty Boy Summer, as well as the consideration of removing Speak.

If one voice can get books pulled from the shelves of a school library, then I hope thousands can get them put back on.


P.S.Please feel free to add anything you might find about it in the comments section!

#Speakloudly: in my own backyard

Imagine my horror when I opened up my blogger account last night and started to read through the blogs I subscribe to.  It started at first with someone mentioning a Missouri man who wanted to ban Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler from his local public school.  I immediately thought, "Oh great, another Missouri book banning." and "What the heck- why Speak?"  Then, there was a link to the opinion piece he wrote into our newspaper- here is the link. 

My stomach flipped up to my throat as I saw my own town as the subject.  He's trying to get books banned from MY town's schools.  They've already removed Slaughterhouse Five apparently.

Speak is about a girl who is being raped and dealing with the horrors that come with it.  Mr. Scroggins called it pornographic.  Ms. Anderson stated on her blog that she gets many many emails and letters from students saying her book finally helped them to speak out.  To get help form the horrors I hope my own daughter never has to face.  We can't shield our children from this reality- they need to know about it.  How to deal with it when it happens to them, and not to stay silent. 

I know I just had a post on the incident in Stockton, and this makes #2 in a week.  But I can't sit by while this happens in my town.  The school my daughter goes to.

The author of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson got wind about this and blogged about it yesterday here.

That caused an explosion of blogs, tweets and posts on the Internet about this case. 

Lisa and Laura Hilton, authors of Liar Society, are doing a contest where they will donate a copy of Speak to a school/library for every 25 comments to their post here

Here is a blog post by an ACTUAL TEENAGER.  OMG, shield your eyes for the evil corruption spewing out of her blog. 

Another contest- Sarah Ockler, the author of Twenty Boy Summer (one of the books mentioned by Scroggins) is giving away a Wesley Scroggins Filthy Book Prize Pack here

Please, if you want to take a stand and Speak out, write to the Superintendent Vern Minor or to the high school principal. 

NO ONE has the right to censor what your child reads besides you.  If you don't want them to read it, then fine.  But don't tell my child what she can or can't read.  I will decide that for myself.