A Ban on Books, a Ban on Freedom: Menomonee Falls's Books Being Stripped From Shelves
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.
Bella Gruber
In my previous article A Ban on Books, a Ban on Freedom, I discussed the prevalence of books being banned in districts across the nation. In this past year, the storm of censorship has come to our neighboring district, Menomonee Falls, with 33 books being banned from the district. These books range from classic literature pieces like The Handmaid’s Tale to modern works like Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers.
The driving force that has been the cause of these books being banned is the school board’s values of maintaining consistency with the district policy and Procedure 365, a set of standards that reviews what materials are appropriate for students based on their age-appropriateness. As schools nationwide with book censorship issues have come to realize, banning books of such significance greatly impacts students’ perspectives of the world during their adolescent years. Doing so blinds them from having awareness of many real-world issues that would allow them to succeed outside of school.
The school board of Menomonee Falls’s website states that their duties are to oversee the superintendent’s work, develop policy, and evaluate the tax budget on an annual basis. Besides their meetings, which are often live-streamed then put on social media, the board members are rarely vocal outside of these meetings. Two of the board members, Nina Christensen (President) and Keri Duce, released their own personal statements following the meeting that the 33 books were removed. Christensen’s statement consisted of clarifications as to how these books were deemed inappropriate for students, along with the school board’s motives for removing these books: to comply with district and state policy. In contrast, Keri Duce’s statement was in support of the community’s woes to keep the books in the school system, saying “ I see you, I hear you, and I’m not done fighting for you.”
The actions of the school board are controversial in itself, but what has become even more upsetting for the community is the lack of vocalism from Christensen and Superintendent David Muñoz. Both of them have a very small media presence, and there is a considerable amount of uncertainty about their motives of removing the 33 books. Pictured below is an infographic on the inconsistencies between Christensen and Muñoz’s statements.
Photo courtesy of Grassroots Menomonee Falls.
Clearly, the statements shown don’t align, which has led some to believe that their true motive behind removing books isn’t as tied to keeping students safe from the content in these books; instead, it is more to maintain a certain political appearance within the district. While there isn’t much evidence to support this due to the silence from the board and Muñoz, the community has speculated the board’s motives since this event has been brought to light.
The silence from Christensen and Superintendent Muñoz doesn’t end on a local level. The Falls’s 33 removed books have gained attention on a national scale, for best-selling author Jodi Picoult has vocalized her opinions on the banning of her book Nineteen Minutes, which contains content about a school shooting. Picoult has been working alongside PEN America (an organization that protects free expression in literature) to raise awareness about book bans, while also using her platform on Twitter to inform her audience on the school board and superintendent’s choices. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Picoult has contacted Christensen and Superintendent Muñoz to talk to them directly via Zoom, in hopes of receiving an explanation for the removal of her books. She received no response after contacting them three times, and Muñoz and Christensen refused to comment when asked.
While the school board claims to only be acting in compliance with standards set for them to make policy within, outside political groups seem to be strongly influencing how Menomonee Falls, along with many other districts around the state, are making decisions regarding book censorship. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asserts that four main interest groups are influencing the censorship occurring in Wisconsin:
Moms For Liberty: Fights for parental rights at all levels of government. Highly involved at the school board level in removing books with sexual and LGBTQ+ content, some chapters have sought to remove over 150 books.
MassResistance: Anti-LGBTQ+ group that focuses on “pro-family activism” according to their website. With chapters existing in nearly every state (including one that is currently active in Kenosha), members are concerned about books in school libraries that contain pornographic and LGBTQ+ content.
Parents’ Rights in Education: Stands up against the politicization of education, viewpoint discrimination, Comprehensive Sexuality Education (including gender in sex ed.), student safety and privacy, and providing medical services without parental consent. In terms of books, this group is strongly against any that contain ideologies related to social justice/race theory, gender identity, and sexual education.
No Left Turn in Education: Extreme right-leaning lobbying and litigation group that aims to expose and end “radical indoctrination in K-12 schools.'' Challenging books similar to those now banned in the Falls, this group’s list of inappropriate books is said to teach radical and racist ideologies to students.
Looking at local interest groups, Grassroots Menomonee Falls has taken a stand in recent months against the school board’s hypocrisy by attending all school board meetings to provide their own public comment and has also created a Facebook page where they regularly post their input on the school board’s activity, the infographic below is an example of one of their posts—contextualizing the significance of these books.
Photo courtesy of Grassroots Menomonee Falls.
Naturally, these books’ fame has led them to be staple pieces of literature in English classrooms. For example, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five provides a unique view of war that goes beyond explaining the events in history. Instead, Vonnegut utilizes irony and satirical devices to reflect war’s impact on an individual’s perspectives on life: a lesson that is seldom taught in other war novels.
While the lessons that books are capable of teaching are valuable regardless of their content, it is easy for parents to want to be protective of views that they don’t want to expose their children to at a young age. This belief is valid, but we cannot lose sight that these are public schools that are being affected by those seeking to remove books. With that said, parents must realize that there are naturally going to be books that reflect all demographics of a public school—race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.; thus, it is the parent’s responsibility to individually parent their child to censor themselves from content that they would not like to be exposed to, rather than removing the book from all students’ reach. By doing this, parents and students are both satisfied with what books they’re able to read, simply through their ability to teach and learn respectful self-censorship.
Despite much protest from book activists, the removal of books from school libraries continues to rise in prevalence across districts of southeastern Wisconsin. Elmbrook school district is closely following in the footsteps of Menomonee Falls, targeting those with “any sexual content or the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters or topics,” says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kenosha Unified School District has also banned four books under the same reasoning within the past year, and just as Menomonee Falls has seen, many citizens have advocated against the removal of these books. The spreading of banning books in southeast Wisconsin under the same themes leaves one question: Which district will be next?
Sources:
Menomonee Falls school book ban, 33 titles removed
Menomonee Falls community voices comments on 33 books pulled from high school shelves
Are Wisconsin schools banning books? Here's what we know.
Moms for Liberty Banned Book List—The Novels They Want Taken Out of Schools
Kenosha residents, advocates react to removal of books from schools
Best-selling author Jodi Picoult says Menomonee Falls School District won't discuss book ban
