Hundreds of books have been challenged or banned in schools throughout the US. These books are banned on a huge range of reasons, from obscene language to sexual content to violence to the discussion of menstruation. But all of these things are facts of life. Should academic institutions have the power to censor books?
No, schools should not be able to ban books
Schools should not have the capability to regulate what children are reading.
Banning school books suppresses diversity
Prohibiting books restricts learning about other lifestyles.
Banning school books is an attack on freedom of speech and expression
The First Amendment gives everyone the right to hear all sides of an issue to make their own conclusions and judgments. Banning books infringes upon this right by preventing a person from receiving and interpreting ideas. This prevents a meaningful exercise of our freedom of speech and expression.
Society has become far more interconnected, multicultural, and plural since the practice of book burning first began. Because of this, there is no need for censorship given our commitment to understanding and embracing content that is foreign to us and reflects different beliefs than we have.
School books should be banned if they promote hate speech
Hate speech is the public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. School is the place for young adults to get education and should not be manipulated to be a platform to disseminate hate and violence.
