Challenging what they call a spike in efforts to ban books from school and public libraries, particularly books with LGBTQ+ themes, Los Angeles County supervisors moved forward on Tuesday, June 27, with an effort to make county library eBooks — including publications banned in other jurisdictions — available to all California teens and residents.
The motion by supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath and Janice Hahn, which was approved unanimously by the board, cited a recent report from the nonprofit PEN America that found a 28% increase in book bans enacted across the country in the first half of the 2022-23 school year, compared to the previous six months.
“The number of banned books in California is on the rise,” the motion stated. “In 2020, the Burbank Unified School District banned inclusion of classics such as ‘Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain and ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck from their curriculum.”
“… We’ve seen concerted efforts to do the same in other parts of the state, such as the San Ramon Valley Unified School District in the Bay Area and Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District in the Central Valley whose book challenge policy allows for a book’s immediate removal in response to a single parent’s objection,” according to the motion. “The trend is so alarming that recently Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond issued a letter to school districts statewide cautioning against book bans.”
The motion also noted the recent firing of the Temecula Valley Unified School District superintendent for “including LGBTQ+ civil rights icon Harvey Milk in the school curriculum.” Horvath and Hahn noted in the motion that according to the American Library Association, “almost all of the top 10 books targeted for censorship last year in California schools and libraries included LGBTQ+ themes.”
The motion instructed county library officials to report back in 30 days with a plan to make digital county library cards available to all residents and teens in California — with the goal of launching the program during Banned Books Week Oct. 1-7 — and identifying a funding source for purchasing eBooks, “including commonly banned books.”
“I am deeply troubled by rise in bans on books that uplift the experience of LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and historically marginalized communities,” Horvath said in a statement after the vote. “L.A. County is prepared to expand access to literature throughout our state as others seek to ban it. We have an obligation to ensure that residents across California are able to consume literature that promotes inclusive learning and a truthful telling of our nation’s history.”
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AV Observer & Stuff says
Wrecks sure is deranged like Trump, McCarthy and a few commenters here.
He's Number One says
Wrecks is by far the most deranged. People like Trump, McCarthy, Frank Rizzo, Biden, AOC, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Marv Crist, etc. a nut, but even he has made some sense at times.
Saint Peter at THE gate says
Out of that list Trump and Wrecks have made the most “cents” lying and cheating or profit.
What gets me are the gullibles who are now contributing to Trump’s campaign coffer that he is using to pay lawyers fees except when he doesn’t pay.
Why isn’t Wrecks a Trump attorney? He likes publicity and he’s just the type like Rudy Giuliani and the rest.
Trump and Wrecks will eventually get what’s coming to them like Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein, Leona Helmsley, and many others who scammed, cheated and lied, got caught and went to prison.
I’m always hydrated so I’ll have plenty of tears available when they get their poetic just desserts. I hear the Cool Whip topping is made with petroleum biproducts just for them.
Gayle says
“almost all of the top 10 books targeted for censorship last year in California schools and libraries included LGBTQ+ themes.”
As they should be.
Shaking my head in disgust… says
The problem is that it’s being shoved down everyone’s throat. They are just charging ahead, not listening to their “stakeholders”! It’s all of LA County.
It’s going to be part of the new standards and adopted curriculum in the public schools for students as young as kindergarten. School librarians are reading stories to kindergarten students about being transgender.
Teachers are outraged. Many don’t want to teach it. They’ve complained to admin and the school board. Parents who know don’t want it in the textbooks. The new curriculum is going to include LGBTQ content, like the language arts book is going to have stories with these characters and about these issues.
They’ve already saturated the textbooks, even elementary level, with race issues that have pitted groups against each other.
There is a time and place for everything but elementary school is not the time and place for these topics. They don’t have the cognitive development or maturity to deal with it.
Again, this woke BOS is hellbent on destroying the county.
M. Dewey says
I heard they are banning Wrecks’ book “Times I Told the Truth” because it was full of empty pages.
Dr AV says
The AV seems to be ground zero for WDS.