Should parents or other adults be able to ban books from libraries and schools?

Popular pieces of literature are being taken off the shelves across the
country under the impression that they are having a negative effect on
adolescents. ​Our freedom of speech is being imposed upon and it is
happening before our eyes.​ Shortly after Thirteen Reasons Why, a TV
series based on the novel debuted on Netflix, ​a “series of suicides”
occurred, the curriculum director of the Mesa Country School District
claims, This book was taken from the library without due process and was
later returned after further inspection. An elementary school in Florida
banned the book from campus, even for personal reading, arguing that
students weren’t mature enough to handle the depiction of suicide,
profanity, sexual content, and drug use. These are only two examples of
the hundreds of cases against our books.

Controlling what our kids read and learn about is not an optimal
solution to prevent suicide, sexual ignorance or drug use. Every parent has
the right to conceal what their child sees, but lack the right to restrict the
public from these books as well. This is where you are stepping on toes
and violating one’s freedom. If someone yearns to gain information it is
their right to do so. Children are being deprived of information that will get
them familiar with the real world.

A big problem with challenging these books is the deprivation of cultural

and historical knowledge that we have been previously taught. The Great
Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and To Kill a Mockingbird are all famous
pieces that are commonly challenged at schools ​.​"Robie H. Harris, author of
frequently challenged children's books states "I think these books look at the topics, the
concerns, the worry, the fascination that kids have today... It's the world in which they're living”.
Banning these books only delays certain ideologies that children will have to learn about
eventually. We should instead spend more resources on said topics.
 While knowing our history and culture is essential information for
young kids growing up, they are not the only topics at risk. Certain culturally
sensitive topics such as religion are also being challenged. One study
found Harry potter is frequently challenged for “​religious concerns about
witchcraft, and “improved attitude towards” immigrants, homosexuals, and
refugees.” This turned out to be as crazy as it sounds, as a study from ​Basic and
Applied Social Psychology​ found that people who read a story about a Muslim
woman were less likely to make broad judgments based on race. The solution is
rather easy in that all we have to do is get to our kids before these books. We
can prevent the novels from teaching our children if we just inform our kids of the
social normalities beforehand.

Some arguments can be made against certain books in the classroom, but
the root of this dilemma is overprotective parents. The situation is truly escalating
to absurdity when title’s like ​“Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” is being
challenged for “sexually explicit passages” and later called for rejection in 1983 in
Alabama because it was a “real downer” Says Jake Grosvenor, opinions editor. A
separate instance is more recent, in 2015 “Of Mice and Men” was challenged by a
parent for “the use of ‘Jesus Christ’ as a curse word. We are in need of an
alternative solution, just because the past was not pretty does not mean we can
change that.

Although any parent or teacher has the right to challenge the books our kids
read, stepping on our freedom of speech, the main argument is that children should
not be exposed to sex, violence, drug use, or other inappropriate topics in school or
libraries. Many of the books in the young adult genre are being challenged for
potentially containing adult themes that adolescents aren’t ready for. Jenni White, a
former public school science teacher says “​Numerous studies on the use of
graphic material by students indicate negative psychological effects," including
having "more casual sex partners and [beginning] having sex at younger ages."
Regardless of what books are in schools parents will protect their children no
matter what.
 Even in the occurrence that banning or challenging a book is prohibited,
this content is still out there, and nothing stops people reading said books outside
of school or prevent authors from writing them. Peter Sprigg, member of the
Family Research Council claims that removing certain novels from libraries is
more about respect instead of imposing on our freedom as Americans. “It's an
exaggeration to refer to this as book banning. There is nothing preventing books
from being written or sold, nothing to prevent parents from buying it or children
from reading it.” He also compares this issue to the fact that you’re unable to go
to your local taxpayer-funded branch and check out a copy of 'Protocols of the
Elders of Zion' which talks about a Jewish plan for world domination.

Books will continue to be challenged and banned in our schools until we

actually take the matter into our own hands and handle it. Exposing valuable
information to our kids before they go out and make their own perception of the
world is a much more reasonable solution in comparison to banning these books
all together. Our first amendment right is being imposed upon and sitting idly by
will only promote more bans and challenges of culturally essential novels.