By Gabriella Coffin – Staff Reporter

More than 3,000 books were banned in the 2022-2023 school year worldwide. 

Book banning has started affecting schools around the world as well as parents at home. A book ban is a form of censorship for a book that contains inappropriate topics, meanings, or overall content that is not right for a particular reader. 

Many of the books that are at risk of being banned tend to be books that relate to being queer or LGBTQ. Two of the popular titles that are being banned are “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “Flamer” by Mike Curato. 

“Books that are frequently challenged tend to be written by minority authors or feature characters who are LGBTQ+,” Law’s Media Specialist Ms. Mundy said “ What is dangerous is eliminating that book entirely and depriving others of the right to read it.”

Many people don’t agree with the process of book banning. They believe that people should be able to read what they want to read and immerse into the learning process of our cultures.

“I think that learning about other people, other cultures, and other lifestyles help to promote understanding and empathy,” Mundy said. 

Other people believe that books should be banned because it is important to protect our younger generation from mature or controversial topics. 

“High school readers should not be required to read books especially if they are not comfortable with it,” sophomore Meghan Velasquez said. 

Many reasons that books are being banned as well as supported in the ban is because of different topics that some people deem inappropriate for the high school community, such as LGBTQIA.  In these books, readers see a variety of characters trying to figure out their identities, which can be viewed as controversial.

“One of the misunderstandings here is the assumption that a book with an LGBTQIA character is inherently sexual,” former Jonathan Law Librarian Ms. Briggs said “I think a lot of times we (adults) are trying to protect our kids from things they already know about, or at least could Google. Moving books around or banning them is ineffective in this regard.”

The issue of book banning has also impacted Law’s English teachers as they choose books for their curriculum. 

“It’s a weird time for teachers because we want to give kids more choice, we want to update and enliven the curriculum, but we are scared that we might show kids the wrong thing based on one parent or group of parents’ anger or their belief and then it gets taken,” English teacher Mr. Healy said.