Edmond Public Schools has petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over efforts to ban two national bestselling books
Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Ryan Walters has already made headlines for sending context-free porn to his fellow lawmakers. He’s now accusing one of the school districts under his jurisdiction of supporting the exposure of children to what he describes as “pornography” in schools. What horrendous, degenerate, pornographic display of hedonism is Walters’ administration accusing teachers of hiding in libraries? Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle.
Yesterday, Edmond Public Schools petitioned the state Supreme Court to rule on a threat from the Oklahoma Department of Education, headed by Walters, to remove the two books — or face consequences. The dispute between Walters and the school district is just the latest in a long list of culture war battles staked out by the “anti-woke,” porn-obsessed superintendent.
I have read The Kite Runner, and it contains situations involving manipulation and sexual abuse including rape. However hard it is to read in some parts (and especially if you’re grown and can read a lot into the obvious mental and physical abuse of children that perhaps isn’t always obvious to actual children), it is a damn good book showing life, love and hope from a non-western perspective.
That doesn’t sound like something that would belong in an elementary school library, but I also doubt that it is in elementary school libraries. If it’s in schools at all, it’s probably in high school libraries, and high schoolers can handle that.
I read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school. As you’re probably aware even if you haven’t read the book, seen the film or watched the TV series, the main character is raped over and over and it is legal and done with the government’s blessing. It didn’t traumatize me or turn me into a rapist or anything like that. Did it scare me? Sure. Because it was so plausible. But it should have scared me. That was the point.
I had a friend in high school who loved Steven King. I’ve never read It or seen the movies, but I know the book has a child orgy scene. She wasn’t scarred by it. She’s a good and loving parent now. Steven King didn’t destroy her.
And then, of course, there’s the fact that books with queer themes that don’t have anything sexual in them at all are also getting banned. Not to mention books about race. None of this is actually about protecting children.
Read The Handmaids Tale in my very early teens (had scoured every inch of my library’s sci-fi and fantasy sections and it was under sci-fi) and re-read it as a young adult.
It horrified me both as a teen and an adult, even though I had a different perspective between those phases. Watching the series lately reconnected me with that horror, albeit from a more informed perspective and seeing way more parallels in the more recent development of our societies.
My kids (teens) have seen the TV series, and the book (a used copy) is in their shelf of books to read. Of course the series and the book are surrounded with discussions about ethics, respect and the values of life.
Edit: And yes, I’ve read pretty much everything Stephen King had written until recently. I was probably around 12 when I read It. I still think it is fucked up, but the main part that is, is how horribly people treat kids, animals and other humans. The scary non-humans are most often not the real monsters.
The orgy in It sounds fucked-up and The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely horrifying. But teens are old enough to read something like that and also know enough put down the book if it gets too disturbing. Also, considering we live in an age where kids are spending hours on their phones, maybe we shouldn’t discourage them from reading books.
And yeah, I scoured my library’s sci-fi section too (although I’m not big on fantasy). I could absolutely see schools banning authors like P.K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Heinlein.