More than 1,600 book titles across 32 states were banned from public schools during the 2021-2022 school year, with the bulk of the ban requests coming from a handful of right-wing groups pushing for censorship of books that feature LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color, a new report issued Monday said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat I want to be really clear about is the books are a pretext,\u201d Ashley Hope P\u00e9rez, an author of a banned book, said. \u201c(Book banning) is a proxy war on students who share the marginalized identities of the authors and characters in the books under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, P\u00e9rez wrote \u201cOut of Darkness,\u201d a young adult romance about a Mexican American girl and an African American boy set in the 1930s, but the book was banned from school districts last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The states with the most incidents of banning are Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, according to an updated report released Monday<\/a> by PEN America, a group that is dedicated to fighting book bans and advocates for the First Amendment. Overall, there were 2,532 incidents of banning across the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[T]he scope of such censorship has expanded drastically and in unprecedented fashion since the beginning of the 2021\u201322 school year,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, there are 1,648 unique book titles that were banned in 2021-2022. PEN previously published a report in April <\/a>that found 1,586 instances of individual books banned, affecting 1,145 titles, in 86 school districts across 26 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new report found that 50 groups at the state, national and local level, with as many as 300 chapters, \u201chave played a role in at least half of the book bans enacted across the country during the 2021\u201322 school year.\u201d Of those groups, 73% were formed in 2021, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose who are advocating on this issue are within their rights, their freedom of assembly, mobilization, using their voices, and that\u2019s perfectly appropriate,\u201d Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America, said during a press briefing with reporters Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut when the end goal is censorship, as a free expression organization, it\u2019s our obligation to call that out and to point out that even the use of legitimate tactics of expression can sometimes lead to a spurious and speech-defeating result,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia is among the states with book bans, according to the PEN report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe unprecedented flood of book bans in the 2021\u201322 school year reflects the increasing organization of groups involved in advocating for such bans, the increased involvement of state officials in book-banning debates, and the introduction of new laws and policies,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMore often than not, current challenges to books originate not from concerned parents acting individually but from political and advocacy groups working in concert to achieve the goal of limiting what books students can access and read in public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report was released in connection with Book Ban Week<\/a>, an annual campaign by the \u200b\u200bAmerican Library Association and Amnesty International to celebrate the freedom to read and to push back against censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ALA also released its own report <\/a>that found from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 of this year, there were 681 attempts to \u201cban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of those groups that have challenged school boards include Moms for Liberty, an organization formed in 2021 that has strong GOP ties and local chapters that \u201ctarget local school board meetings, school board members, administrators, and teachers\u201d to push right-wing policies, as reported by Media Matters.<\/a> Moms for Liberty has about 200 local chapters across 37 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at a Moms for Liberty convention in the summer<\/a>, where he touted \u201cparental rights,\u201d and praised the group for its efforts to get books banned from public schools. In Florida, there are 566 books that are banned, according to the report by PEN.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGroups demand bans<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Book Ban Week<\/h4>\n\n\n\n