Alpine School District’s Move is a Step in the Right Direction But Temporary Restrictions Still Harm Students’ Freedom to ReadFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE(NEW YORK)–The board of Utah’s Alpine School District, the state’s largest district, has backed away from its decision to remove 52 books from school libraries, a move that PEN America calls an important step in recognizing students’ free speech rights. At the same time, the district’s decision to impose temporary restrictions on the books still represents a harmful obstacle to students’ freedom to read. The Alpine district’s ban, which first made news in July, affected noteworthy titles such as Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Forever… by Judy Blume, and the 2015 Caldecott Honor Book, This One Summer, by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. PEN America sounded the alarm about the district’s ban on these 52 books, calling the move a worrying escalation of educational censorship. But this week, the Alpine district’s board said that they will not be removing the 52 books from school libraries after all.

Source: The Guardian August 11, 2022 18:12 UTC