Samantha McKnight Speech at Rally against Book Bans
Those that ban books have never been on the right side of history. Books teach a diversity of ideas that oppressors do not wish for us to have. We, the “impressionable” youth, are being warped by these horrible ideas in books. The banned books, for the most part, share a common theme. The books share the perspectives of marginalized identities. Most of the books represent something that most or some high schoolers experience even with the use of profanity or sex throughout the book. Regardless of this, high schoolers will do the things you tell us not to do. When we found out that these books were being banned, what did we do? Immediately read them. People that barely ever read books are reading these books specifically, and the list of students that want to read them is a mile longer. If Terri Schwantson wanted to suppress these stories, she has done quite the opposite.
Across the nation, 41% of banned books have LGBTQ themes. 22 out of the current 52 of our banned books have LGBTQ themes. Books serve as a voice for the voiceless. A connection to the disconnected. Queer students exist in our schools and allowing a queer student to view themself in a book is an extremely liberating thing. And allowing the voices and experiences of queer people to reach those of straight people can build a level of empathy and understanding that would not have existed without books. Removing our stories removes the voices of those that would not be reached otherwise. By removing books like Crank, students that have been victims to rape will never feel like their voices are heard because one singular school board member decided in executive session that what actually happened to them is not appropriate for high schoolers. Even though it happens. To high schoolers.
Now, in response to the outcry of completely illegal book banning or “reviewing”, Dr. Hasty released the official criteria for Media Materials review. Firstly, the document states that all media materials should “reflect the ideas and beliefs of religious, social, political, historical, and ethnic groups”. The books that are being banned are targeting specific religious, social, and ethnic groups. The banning of these books is completely silencing voices that are represented in our school, but they’re just not the majority. But, the review process still isn’t even being followed. A review committee of at least five people must be appointed with two community members. but there are only three people on the committee, none of whom are community members. The complaints of banned books are being taken extremely seriously without any thought for what the books are actually about.
And finally, the most hypocritical part of the entire process is step five of the review process. “Any materials identified in a complaint may remain in use pending its review and its disposition by the board of education.” Our books have been removed from the shelves or checked out with no intention of return. They have not remained in use pending their review, even though no one has read the books. They don’t know what the books are about and do not know if there is any reason for the complaints. No one is following the rules here. They are making conscious choices to remove our books.
When I started writing this speech, there were 13 books on the list of banned books. Now, there are 52. This will keep spiraling and spiraling farther and farther without action. Now it’s 52 books, next week there will be a hundred. In a month, our libraries will look like Floridas. Completely bare shelves with no stories to tell, nothing to learn from. People that ban books are always on the wrong side of history. We need to continue to fight against this hypocrisy. In June, we can petition for a recall election of Terri Schwantson. So if you are 18, register to vote. Sign the petition to remove Terri Schwanston from the School board. We need 600 signatures from registered voters in June. We can stop this blatant disregard for our education before things spiral out of control.