Banned Books Week—an annual event that is observed in the first week of October—promotes the right of students to read all types of literature in public school systems and other learning environments. Though Chapel Hill High School faculty report the school has largely been unaffected by challenges to reading lists and curricula, Banned Books Week does highlight the importance of equitable reading opportunities.
Banning books has become increasingly common in school systems across the nation. Recent data from The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom show that there has been a rise in book censorship, especially in the Southern states. Challenged books typically feature graphic violence, explicit sexual content, offensive language or other content that may be seen as unsuitable for young readers.
In 2021 alone, more than 1,500 books were challenged or banned in the United States, according to The Washington Post. Most of these cases involve books that are written by or about LGBTQ+ or Black individuals.
Chapel Hill High Librarian SaCola Lehr said the annual observance of Banned Books is critical in public schools. “As a librarian, [Banned Books Week] holds a special place in my heart. It’s a time when we celebrate the freedom to read and express diverse viewpoints, even when they may be unpopular or controversial,” she said.
According to local radio station WUNC, North Carolina’s 115 public school districts have faced nearly 200 challenges to books within since 2021. English teachers at Chapel Hill High School, though, report that they haven’t noticed this trend within the district.
“We’re lucky in this district; we’re pretty protected and respected as professionals here,” English department chair William Schrader said.
The most banned book in the United States is one that is often taught at Chapel Hill High School in 9th grade or in the AP Language and Composition course, typically taken by juniors. George Orwell’s novel 1984 has been banned—and even burned—because of its political themes and sexual content.
Tom Stanfa teaches 1984 in his English 9 class. “This book is all about Orwell’s distrust of authoritarian government,” he said. “The only issue would be that critique may be a threat to those governments. It’s not the books that are inherently evil; it’s what people do with it that causes issues.”
Another challenged book that has a home in the school’s library is Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The novel is a story about the high school experience of a girl who was sexually assaulted the summer before her freshman year.
Media center assistant Libby Diesel curated a selection of frequently challenged books for the school library’s recent display for Banned Books Week, which included Speak, as well as Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe; The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison; and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky.
“I wanted to keep the titles more recent in order to grab people’s attention. All banned books deal with important issues or ideas, but these were the ones I felt like were the most important according to what is happening in the world around us,” Diesel said.
Schrader believes that efforts such as Diesel’s to promote freedom of choice to read benefits students and the community as a whole.
“One of the beautiful things about public education is that there are a lot of people from different backgrounds in the same environment, which makes for a bigger opportunity to expose them to different kinds of literature and expand their knowledge of different perspectives so that they can make up their own opinions,” he said.
Schrader’s colleague English teacher Brian Wasson worries, though, the rise of challenges to school reading lists may slowly be beginning to creep in from other areas.
“The belief that if kids and the general population are not exposed to anything, then what they don’t know can’t actually hurt them is not true. An enlightened mind should never be underestimated,” he said.
