A little more than two months ago, a Missouri school board voted to remove Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler from the school library and curriculum after one man voiced a complaint. After a public outcry of censorship, the board has recently voted to allow the books to return to the library, only in a secure fashion to be checked out by parents for independent student reading. Some, including students, wonder if this is the right choice."Jaymes Haney, 17, said he didn't understand why the board acted on a complaint filed by a man who has no children in the district.
"One religious man's complaint and opinion has caused a review and affected 1,500 people," he said of the high school students. "Now they're putting it in the library and putting it in a secure location? Only parents can come in and check it out; it's not accessible."" Houston Chronicle
I am all for this mode of action. "Wha?!" you say, "the books are there but harder to get to." Yeah, I know. They are also placed in a mysterious prison in a library filled with students. That makes them special. I read Harry Potter, I know kids will break all the rules to get at something they seem as 'forbidden'. Plus, if the parents have to give permission to check out books, they know what the kid is reading. I say the librarian go nuts and put the whole damn library in that section. Who knows what dangerous ideas can be found in Junie B. Jones? And we all know Green Eggs and Ham is just capitalist propaganda. Protect the children!
Let's take the words of John Ciardi and make them real again: "The [public] library is the most dangerous place in town."