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An Idaho school district banned books. Here’s what a student did at her graduation (www.idahostatesman.com)

submitted 5 months ago by FirstCircle@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Annabelle Jenkins walked onto the stage during her graduation ceremony from the Idaho Fine Arts Academy in the West Ada School District with a book tucked into her sleeve.

When she stood before West Ada Superintendent Derek Bub, she slipped out the book — the graphic novel of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault — faced the audience and smiled, and handed it toward Bub. It was one of 10 books the West Ada School District had removed from libraries earlier in the school year.

Bub did not take the book. Jenkins dropped it at his feet and walked off the stage without shaking his hand.

A TikTok video she posted of the incident that night garnered over 24 million views and more than 15,000 comments.

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[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

What an unnecessarily combative and argumentative response...

I was very charitable, yes? And I explained the process in place for school districts -which are not libraries- yes? I also explained there is no method in place to deliver books by age-yes? We don't hand out books willy nilly to everyone in schools -which, again: not libraries.

Edit: since there are downvotes but no engagement with what I'm saying. School districts have different liabilities in place that libraries don't. It's ok if you disagree with me. I am not pro banning books. I think if they had an age appropriate delivery mechanism they should not ban any books really. That's all.

Please: don't fight with everyone all the time. Life is too short.

2nd Edit: I just realized this is Lemmy.ml and you guys can't engage with anything without getting ass-mad up the wazoo. Have fun being bitter angry people.

Cheers ❤️

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 15 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Schools have libraries, and those libraries are naturally segmented by age because of being attached to a specific school (elementary, middle, high). Kids have to know the book is there and seek it out, so that puts an additional buffer.

Books are also delivered via the classroom. Teachers, of course, exercise judgement there on what is age appropriate, both for content and for reading level. The bar should be higher there because students have little to no choice on the book.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world -3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yes, in the article they mentioned not being able to segment by age at this school. If I understand correctly, high schoolers start around 14 so there is a balancing act required because the liabilities differ from those of libraries.

[–] ChaosCoati@midwest.social 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I find the school’s claim to be a lazy cop-out. My child’s school is K-12, and I recently had to go through a whole paperwork process to give my 3rd grader permission to check out middle school level books.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I totally agree. I think if the school really wanted, they could figure this out somehow.

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