Piggybacking off this past year’s law mandating teachers catalogue classroom libraries and provide that information to parents or guardians on request, some lawmakers are already preparing for a possible book banning spree. But …
“You gotta be careful,” said incoming Sen. Jay Taylor (R-Preston), “because as soon as you try to ban something, you’re declared racist or whatever and all that stuff.” Instead, he said, “It’s gotta be about ‘age appropriate.’ ”
Taylor was one of four senators to attend a meeting hosted by Dennis Westover. Sen. Michael Azinger (R-Wood), Del. Margitta Mazzochi (R-Logan) and Sen. Patricia Rucker (R-Jefferson) were also in attendance. Rucker, who was previously the Senate education chair and is expected to head a new committee on charter schools, arranged the meeting after Westover reached out to her, according to Mountain State Spotlight.
Westover was part of an unnamed group set up outside the Senate chambers with provocative posters reading “Kid porn in WV schools?” and passing out misleading flyers.
In the meeting with lawmakers, Westover showed slides of books he thinks should be banned, including ones about Ruby Bridges and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in addition to LGBTQ books, because he finds their content objectionable or uncomfortable.
Rucker tried to take a more measured approach, saying, “The role of the Legislature is not picking out curriculum, not dictating and micromanaging the instruction, but there should be parameters. It’s gotta be material that is appropriate to the age.”
There are those words again: “age appropriate.” But who gets to define what that means?
“Age appropriate” looks very different to different people. To the kids or siblings of gay, lesbian or trans people, it’s never too early to talk about the fact that two people of the same gender can “like-like” each other or that sometimes a person’s biological sex doesn’t match their gender expression. For children of color, there is no age limit on the discrimination they or their family face. But to extremists, even acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ individuals or racism in America is never appropriate, no matter the context or the age. And it’s the extremists — like Westover — who yell the loudest and work the hardest to have their own beliefs codified.
Ironically, there’s overlap between book-banning enthusiasts and people who call for “educational freedom,” “less government” and greater “parental choice” But there is no greater antithesis to educational freedom than censorship.
If parents want a greater say in what media their children consume, then they need to set those parameters with their own kids and explain why those limits are in place. Parents — or “activists” like Westover — should not be allowed to dictate what other people’s children can and cannot read.
Because while they’ll couch their censorship in the language of “age appropriateness,” those who wish to ban books ultimately seek to erase the existence of people they consider “other” and to teach kids there is only one “right” way to be — their way. We cannot give them that power.
