Countless hours are spent in a classroom full of books with stories and poems.
Posters of quotes from the “greats” such as Shakespeare, Dickens, and Steinbeck fill many classroom walls.
Unbeknownst to many, each piece of media read or studied each year has a greater impact on k-12 than any other age group.
The degree of age-conformity is completely age dependent, and has been the cause of many university studies.
In particular, adolescents tend to be perceptible to influence given by authority such as teachers and parents.
This includes the novels commonly included in the high school curriculum such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hunger Games, and Of Mice and Men.
Safe consumption of media within schools and filtration of these novels is one of Idaho public schools top priorities.
The argument is commonly made that this intense level of book banning needs to be lessened, less commonly do students and parents tend to side with the legislation on book banning.
“Banning books can be good in some cases, because when these agendas are pushed onto young children, they can’t make their own opinions and only accept the ones of the teacher,” Alyssa Ryckman said.
Many news sources urge parents to keep an eye on the “anti-America” agendas being pushed on children.
However, many classics and important pieces of literature are being group in with this mass banning throughout the more recent years.
Classics like To Kill a Mockingbird are being banned in many public schools throughout the country.
In fact, this very same novel remains the most challenged and banned boo throughout the country.
Challenged in Santa Cruz in 1995, To Kill a Mockingbird, was banned for racial content.
In 1996, in Lindale Texas it was challenged again for “values that did not align with the community.”
Although these mass bannings throughout our country indefinitely shape the classroom culture, the messages and themes of the classics that are banned can still be taught with other books with less controversy.
Lakeland has had its fair share of policies and challenges for books throughout English classrooms.
The process that allows for these challenges to be made by anyone in the community who feels that the material taught is unfitting, inappropriate or misleading.
The challenges are able to be submitted to the Lakeland 272 school board through a form with questions such as, “What brought this material to your attention?” as well as specifics about page numbers and sections.
These challenges are then discussed and deemed worthy of being taught, or disqualified and banned from classrooms in Lakeland.
The requirements that are necessary include, but are not limited to the fact that they must be enriching and supportive of the classroom curriculum, as well as accessible by any parent at the school at all times, unless it interferes with learning.
However, these policies are extremely vague and open-ended.
In other words, many parents feel that what is read to and by their children, is decided majorly by the school board.
The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle written by Leslie Connor was banned from the sixth grade English classrooms at Lakeland Middle School during the 2024 school year.
Some members of the community felt that the content that got the book banned was not prominent enough in the story to ban the whole book.
The main character in the book has two LGBTQ+ fathers, this was the main cause for concern, as many parents did not want their young children reading about this.
The argument was made though, that the book was an inspiring story that shows a young boy overcoming the struggle to be believed and accepted for his learning disability, dyslexia.
A few of the board members, including Randi Bain, say that the parents’ concerns were “harmless” parts of the book. Bain even stated that she hopes students will get the chance to read it again in the future.
One big issue with this argument and banning particularly, is that there was no option for parents to opt their child out of reading it.
Because this book was put in the curriculum after syllabuses went home and were signed, parents did not know students would read this book until the students came home with it.
The Parent Committee group is a big factor in many challenges over books.
A group of parents within the Lakeland 272 district meet monthly with District Officials to express and discuss concerns over not only books, but also many other factors within the school district.
This group catches many concerning topics within the literature that is taught, but also can advocate for classic pieces to be supported and not banned.
