Understanding The Nation’s Mounting Book Banning Crisis In Public Schools, With PEN America’s Sabrina Baêta
From July 2021-June 2023, there were 5,894 instances of book bans across 41 states & 247 public school districts. And Pennsylvania was one of the worst states, coming in behind just Florida and Texas.
While voters overwhelmingly rejected pro-book banning, Moms for Liberty-backed Republican school board candidates in Bucks County – and across the United States – at the polls in November, the country still finds itself in the midst of a book banning crisis. In fact, Pennsylvania has the dubious distinction of cracking the Top 5 book banning states, coming in at #3 with a reported 644 instances of bans across 16 districts. PEN America published a report last month, Spineless Shelves, documenting this censorship scourge afflicting K-12 school libraries and classrooms. I spoke with one of the report’s authors to discuss the scope of this problem over the last two years and why librarians, teachers, students and communities need to remain vigilant and proactive in protecting student’s freedom to read.
Sabrina Baêta is a Program Manager with Freedom to Read at PEN America. She engages in research and awareness-building around censorship attacks on public K-12 education, especially as it relates to literature accessibility in libraries and classrooms. Sabrina graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Music in Voice, and then from the University of Central Florida with a Master of Nonprofit Management. She is a poet, essayist, and writer and prior to PEN America, worked in educational publishing and in a variety of performing arts and education nonprofits.
[Also listen on Apple, Spotify, Google, iHeart, and Podbean. Read the transcript below.]
My 5 Reading Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue:
The Magic Pebble and a Lazy Bull: The Book Ban Movement Has a Long Timeline, by Laura Pappano
‘Major Win’ in Florida Court Case Against Book Banning, by School Library Journal
Book Banning Will Not Stop at Schools, Kelly Jensen
Teachers, Students and the Central York Community Defeated a Racist Book Ban in Their School District, by Cyril Mychalejko
The Bucks County Courier Times Fails Readers With Its Book (Banning) Policy Editorial, by Cyril Mychalejko
ORGANIZATIONS
ALSO LISTEN TO:
EPISODE 6 – The Right’s Long War On Public Education, With Jennifer Berkshire
EPISODE 8 – Students and Teachers Fight Back Against Book Banning in Central York, with Christina Ellis and Ben Hodge
EPISODE 11 – Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman
Click here for a full TRANSCRIPT: https://buckscountybeacon.com/2024/01/understanding-the-nations-mounting-book-banning-crisis-in-public-schools-with-pen-americas-sabrina-baeta/