How and Why Book Banning in Schools is a Serious Threat to the United States
For me, books have always been the source of my understanding of the world. Since even before I was able to read on my own, the books my parents read to me helped to inform me of right and wrong. Reading taught helped me make sense of the prejudices that surrounded me and how to fight them. Reading taught me about the spectrum of sexuality, the beauty of other cultures, how to navigate and understand complicated emotions, both U.S. and world history and a myriad of other valuable things. Now, access to books, especially for children, is under attack.
Under the guise of “protection,” schools and parents are attempting to restrict access to books for students through book bans in schools and libraries. A report done by Pen America found that there were 6,870 instances of book bans in the 2024-25 school year. Book censorship is becoming a tool of political extremist groups to attempt to influence public education and push political agendas. The vast majority of books targeted in these bans have contained similar themes of race and racism, sexuality, gender identity, sexual trauma or mental health issues.
These bans are explicit violations of students first amendment constitutional rights and are detrimental to the development of children’s world views. By choosing to ban books with topics that students are frequently already struggling to understand, we are teaching our students that certain aspects of their identities are not valued. If children are not seeing themselves or those around them in the books they are reading, they will learn to place value on only one perspective, the white, cisgender, heterosexual norm. Children who do not fit into this category may start to feel alienated and that what they are going through is not worthy of representation. Pen America found that these bans have had numerous negative effects on school systems including decreasing student’s engagement in reading, discouraging critical thinking skills and interfering with teaching.
Book banning and censorship has always been an issue in the United States but has gotten worse under the Trump Administration. Previously, book bans were usually implemented by individual school administrations, smaller political or religious groups or parents and have been limited to counties or school districts. However, the Trump administration has taken book banning a step further. Three executive orders signed by President Trump in January 2025 allowed the Department of Defense Education Activity to remove 596 books from schools (ACLU). Some of the censored books included topics like slavery, Native American history, sexuality and gender identities, LGBTQ+ and women’s history and other themes that all children have the right and should automatically be learning about. The government should not be able to censor material just because they disagree with the content presented.
Books are a vital source of knowledge and understanding for students and book bans are unconstitutional ways of attempting to influence children. So how do we fight book bans and censorship? Instead of rushing to ban controversial content, we should be allowing students to ask questions and learn about difficult subjects in educational environments. As college students, we should be educating ourselves on the history of censorship so we can identify it when it is happening. We should make sure to seek out books that have been banned, not only to get the value of the content they present but also to support authors who are under attack (ALA). We should know what legislation and court cases are occurring surrounding book banning and voice our support for those who are fighting against censorship. We can advocate for our first amendment rights by writing to state legislators and telling them to protect our books (Pen America). Education is one of the most powerful tools against oppression and it is our job to make sure it stays available, especially for children.
Works Referenced:
https://pen.org/report/the-normalization-of-book-banning
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/dodea-must-return-books-to-shelves-judge-rules
https://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/activity