#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.

#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!