Students deserve to see their diverse experiences and communities reflected in the classroom. But across the country – including in New York – right-wing extremists have aggressively pushed to suppress books about communities of color and LGBTQ+ people.
The Freedom to Read Act (S1099 / A7777), which is awaiting your signature, would address this problem by empowering school library staff to curate collections that provide students with a wide variety of appropriate materials.
I’m writing to ask you to sign the Freedom to Read Act into law immediately.
During the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America documented 3,362 book banning incidents involving 1,557 books. Thirty percent of these books are about race, racism, or feature characters of color, while over a quarter include LGBTQIA+ characters or themes.
New York is not immune to these attacks. A Journal News investigation found that people filed more than 200 complaints about books in Hudson Valley school districts between 2020 and 2022. And that’s just one part of our state.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has received reports of school districts removing books by Black authors from the curriculum, declining library orders that include books on racism and slavery, and backing away from reading aloud stories that feature LGBTQIA+ characters.
The Freedom to Read Act would require the state’s Commissioner of Education to create regulations that make sure library collections are vibrant and inclusive. The bill would also require school library systems, like those in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers, to adopt policies that empower librarians to select diverse library collections.
Banning certain books, ideas, or themes threatens students’ rights and makes it impossible for schools to help students become informed, well-rounded citizens.
I’m counting on you to make sure students have vibrant, inclusive schools where books and ideas are openly discussed and debated, not censored.
