The Signal | America's Book Banning Crisis, with PEN America's Sabrina Baêta

While voters overwhelmingly rejected pro-book banning, Moms for Liberty-backed Republican school board candidates in Bucks County – and across the United States – at the polls in November, the country still finds itself in the midst of a book-banning crisis. Pennsylvania has the dubious distinction of cracking the Top 5 book banning states, coming in at #3 with a reported 644 instances of bans across 16 districts. PEN America published a report last month, Spineless Shelves, documenting this censorship scourge afflicting K-12 school libraries and classrooms. I spoke with one of the report’s authors to discuss the scope of this problem over the last two years and why librarians, teachers, students and communities need to remain vigilant and proactive in protecting student’s freedom to read.

Sabrina Baêta is a Program Manager with Freedom to Read at PEN America. She engages in research and awareness-building around censorship attacks on public K-12 education, especially as it relates to literature accessibility in libraries and classrooms. Sabrina graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Music in Voice, and then from the University of Central Florida with a Master of Nonprofit Management. She is a poet, essayist, and writer and prior to PEN America, worked in educational publishing and in a variety of performing arts and education nonprofits.

Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Reading Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue:

1. The Magic Pebble and a Lazy Bull: The Book Ban Movement Has a Long Timeline, by Laura Pappano
2. ‘Major Win’ in Florida Court Case Against Book Banning, by School Library Journal
3. Book Banning Will Not Stop at Schools, Kelly Jensen
4. Teachers, Students and the Central York Community Defeated a Racist Book Ban in Their School District, by Cyril Mychalejko
5. The Bucks County Courier Times Fails Readers With Its Book (Banning) Policy Editorial, by Cyril Mychalejko

ORGANIZATIONS

• PEN America
• American Library Association
• Advocates for Inclusive Education (Bucks County)
• Ridge Network
• The Network for Public Education

ALSO LISTEN TO: 

• EPISODE 2 – The Merchants of Deception: The Dark Money and Front Groups Behind School Privatization, with Maurice Cunningham
• EPISODE 6 – The Right’s Long War On Public Education, With Jennifer Berkshire
• EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
• EPISODE 8 – Students and Teachers Fight Back Against Book Banning in Central York, with Christina Ellis and Ben Hodge
• EPISODE 11 –Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman