Conservative culture warriors have declared a new front in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
Over two days, officials in the Lee’s Summit School District received more than 200 complaints targeting close to 60 books in school libraries, district officials told us Friday. The book challenges are not the first in the district, and surely won’t be the last. School leaders must abide by their own policies of reviewing the formal complaints — but they must reject any coordinated effort to ban books.
On Thursday, things got heated during the open comment portion of the Board of Education’s monthly meeting. Although an unruly speaker was escorted from the meeting by police without incident, the commotion did not amount to much. A local leader of a conservative group wanted to fuss about a book district leaders have regularly refused to remove from the shelves at Lee’s Summit high schools.
As Chuck Quesenberry of We the People of Jackson County — a local group known to kick up dust — read from the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a LGBTQ-themed collection of coming-of-age essays by George M. Johnson, he was warned not to use profanity. Unmoved by the edict from school board President Kathryn Campbell, Quesenberry continued to read passages from the book that included a reference to male anatomy.
“It’s in the library!” someone from the crowd yelled out in support of Quesenberry. Campbell, trying to maintain order, pounded a gavel.
“Excuse me,” Campbell said. “This isn’t a discourse.” Campbell reminded the speaker he was violating board policy. Quesenberry’s provocative behavior continued until he was removed from the building by a Lee’s Summit Police officer.
There we have it, folks: political theater. And it’s a tired act.
“Last night, during public comments, a speaker began to read from a book and was asked to stop,” a spokesperson for the Lee’s Summit Police Department wrote in an email. “When he did not stop, the board asked the officer to escort the man from the meeting. The man complied and was escorted out of the building. No arrest, no charges.”
In a message on social media, we asked Quesenberry why he is opposed to certain books in Lee’s Summit Schools.
“Read the pornography in the Lee’s Summit high school libraries,” Quesenberry replied to us. “This is not political. This is right and wrong.”
Over two days, four people filed complaints against at least 57 book titles, according to district officials. Most are written for or by marginalized people. The overwhelming majority of the authors are women. Many are people of color.
Books written by members of minority groups have been the target of similar challenges nationwide, with many protests targeting the same list of titles downloaded from the internet. As of Friday, 205 complaints were on file with Lee’s Summit schools. According to district policy, a media review committee will analyze the complaints and make recommendations to the school board, which has the final say.
Attempts to reach Campbell, the school board president, were unsuccessful.
Lee’s Summit, one of very few districts in the area that has rejected demands for censorship, must stay the course. A loud, vocal minority cannot and should not speak for all students and their parents, or for district stakeholders. Students’ right to read what they choose is important. Intellectual liberty is a basic tenet of a free nation.
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” is one of the most-challenged books in America, according to the American Library Association. Twice, critics in Lee’s Summit tried to have it removed from the district’s high schools. Each time, the board voted to keep it in place. We urge the board to continue to follow the lead of its librarians and media specialists, who choose the appropriate books for all students.
Lee’s Summit is not the first metropolitan area school district to have books challenged — and most likely will not be the last. A right-wing movement to ban books, and ideas, is alive and well.
The crusade is as absurd as it is pointless. In an age when young people carry the internet around in their hip pockets, high school library shelves are not their primary source of information that finger-wagging busybodies label as too adult. Teachers and school boards know it’s impossible to hide the truth from students. They shouldn’t give in to anyone’s noisy, moralizing demands for censorship.
Books challenged in Lee’s Summit Schools
1. “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas
2. “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas
3.“A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas
4. “A Court of Wings and Ruin” by Sarah J. Maas
5. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
6. “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven
7. “Call Me by Your Name” by André Aciman
8. “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins
9. “Damsel” by Elana K. Arnold
10. “Empire of Storms” by Sarah J. Maas
11. “Fade” by Lisa McMann
12. “Flamer” by Mike Curato
13. “Forever for a Year” by B.T. Gottfred
14. “Half a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
15. “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi
16. “I Never” by Laura Hopper
17. “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins
18. “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover
19. “Jesus Land: A Memoir” by Julia Scheeres
20. “Juliet Takes a Breath: A Graphic Novel” by Gabby Rivera
21. “Kingdom of Ash” by Sarah J. Maas
22. “l8r, g8r” by Lauren Myracle
23. “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo
24. “Like a Love Story” by Abdi Nazemian
25. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green
26. “Lucky” by Alice Sebold
27. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews
28. “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur
29. “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult
30. “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
31. “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood
32. “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez
33. “People Kill People” by Ellen Hopkins
34. “Perfect” by Ellen Hopkins
35. “Ramona Blue” by Julie Murphy
36. “Red at the Bone” by Jacqueline Woodson
37. “Red Hood” by Elana K. Arnold
38. “Shine” by Lauren Myracle
39. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
40. “Sold” by Patricia McCormick
41. “Speak: The Graphic Novel” by Laurie Halse Anderson
42. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
43. “The Freedom Writers Diary” by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell
44. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
45. “The Haters” by Jesse Andrews
46. “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Lauren Myracle
47. “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
48. “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold
49. “The Nowhere Girls” by Amy Reed
50. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
51. “The Sun and Her Flowers” by Rupi Kaur
52. “Tilt” by Ellen Hopkins
53. “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
54. “What Girls Are Made Of” by Elana K. Arnold
55. “Where I End and You Begin” by Preston Norton
56. “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire
57. “YOLO” by Lauren Myracle
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