Sept. 22 to Sept. 28 is Banned Books Week. Established in 1982, Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to read. According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, in 2023 there were reportedly 1,247 efforts to censor books and other resources in libraries many of them representing LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC voices and experiences — an increase of 65 percent from the year before. In total, 4,240 unique book titles were targeted. Republican state senators in Georgia in March of 2024 passed a bill that would force state libraries to cut ties with the American Library Association. Senate Bill 390 was passed by a vote of 33-20 vote with no support from Democratic senators. The bill’s supporters cited the ALA’s progressive policies and Emily Drabinski, the group’s lesbian president, as motivation for the legislation. Critics of the bill and reading censorship say that the book ban limits intellectual freedom in schools calling it a national crisis that “threatens public schools’ ability to cultivate a robust, well-informed citizenry.” Cobb County School District, the second largest in Georgia with 106,00 students has banned two more books from schools and 20 libraries. The books Flamer by Mike Curato and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews have been removed with school officials saying that both contain objectionable content that is not suitable for students. Flamer is a graphic novel about a boy who realizes he is gay and how he is treated at summer camp. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl contains some discussion of sex and a lot of profanity, but is mainly about two high school boys who befriend a girl dying of cancer. Both were among the most challenged books of 2022, according to a list published by the American Library Association. In April of 2022, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill (S.B.) 226 into law, which changes the process by which Georgia schools may ban books. This law, which went into effect at the beginning of this year, provides a streamlined process by which books can be banned in public schools. However, Cobb County school officials admit that the book ban deviates from proper procedure for having reading materials assessed and removed in that the school district requires parents to raise the issue of objectionable content and make a formal complaint to the school superintendent’s office. “This rising tide of educational intimidation exposes the movement that cloaks itself in the language of ‘parental rights’ for what it really is: a smoke screen for efforts to suppress teaching and learning and hijack public education in America,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of Free Expression and Education programs at PEN America.  “The opportunity for parents to inspect and object to school curricula is already commonly granted in public school systems, as it should be. But this spate of provisions dramatically expands these powers in ways that are designed to spur schools and educators to self-censor. These bills risk turning every classroom into an ideological battleground, forcing teachers out of the profession, and jeopardizing the future of millions of students.”     The post Book Ban Prevents Georgia Students from Reading About Sexuality and Racism appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.