By Sandra Smith

Lindsay Carpenter, the head of research education at the University of Maryland Libraries gave a lecture about banned books Tuesday hosted by The Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership.

Carpenter emphasized the impact of book bans on public education. She spoke about the rise in book bans in recent years and resources to learn about book banning in specific school districts.

From 2022 to 2023, there were 3,362 book bans across U.S. public schools. That is a 33% increase from the previous school year, according to data from PEN America Index of School Book Bans. 

Books with themes of violence or physical abuse, health and well-being, sexual experiences, racism, LGBTQ+ characters and instances of death were most commonly banned, according to the PEN America Index of School Book Bans.

“Something that I find striking about this is that these are themes that we confront in all of our lives and for many of us the first time we confronted them was in childhood,” Carpenter said. “Restricting content based on the subject matter seems like it’s depriving students of an opportunity to learn more about the things that are affecting their lives.” 

Increasing book challenges in public education are a result of educational intimidation and the parents’ rights movement, according to Carpenter. 

The idea of educational intimidation prevents librarians and teachers from choosing class materials because of fear of national conversations and new legislation that is enacted, Carpenter said. The parents’ rights movement is an attempt to allow parents to make educational decisions for their own children. 

Carpenter emphasized that concepts all lead to self-censorship and the new lack of intellectual freedom in public schools. 

“It tries to put parents and educators into conflict when in reality, many educators, parents or community members have an interest in supporting a robust, equitable public school system,” Carpenter said. 

U.S. history teacher at Prince George’s County Public School Amber Bennett said she was dismayed at the prevalence of book banning. 

She emphasized that she doesn’t want to take away a parent’s choice to determine what their child is learning, but the choice whether to ban books is ultimately up to public officials to decide.

“I hate this pit that it has between parents and teachers,” Bennett said. “The best way to combat that is to make school board members and politicians publicly renounce this, or we shame them,” 

Oluwadamilola Akintoye, a junior economics major at this university, has concerns about the books many school districts are banning.

She said that some approved books touch on ideas related to injustice, but are not properly approached in the classroom. 

“I feel like we need to be able to critically look at and address those bigotry or bigoted ideas,” Akintoye said. “It feels like the whole book banning is counterintuitive, and not really addressing the issue.” 

Judy Richardson, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee activist, attended the presentation and expressed frustration about the way school districts have handled recent book bannings.

Richardson said that fighting against book bans has to be a team effort, one person can not make a major change alone. 

“The question is going to be how you organize more than one [person], whoever will let them come and do an organized effort around all this,” Richardson said. “It doesn’t need to be hundreds, but it does need to be more than one.”

Featured image: Lindsay Carpenter hosts a lecture on banned books over Zoom on Oct. 17., 2023 Photo by Sandra Smith.