Yorktown High School: Book Banning

As stated in a previous post, Conservative Southern states are not the only places where people are attempting to ban books. My hometown, Yorktown Heights, has been in the process of banning a variety of books from both the middle school and high school. The district began questioning "political stances" being taken in the schools during June 2020, when a group of conservative parents found out that a guidance counselor supported the Black Lives Matter Movement. Parents attempted to get the counselor fired, claiming that he was "indoctrinating children," and pushing a "liberal agenda" onto kids that was filled with hate for white people. 

This past February, the Yorktown Community was notified in the Newspaper that the middle and high schools had nine books removed from the library and under review. They were removed because parents and community members complained that the books were "vulgar" and were not appropriate for schools. According to the paper, the books under review were:

“Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” by Susan Kuklin

 “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)” by L.C. Rosen

“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

“Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe

"All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson

Although the district did not provide a full list of books, the books listed above show that race, gender and sexuality are being portrayed as "inappropriate" in the community. The district claims that they did not "completely remove" the books from the library, however the libraries only had one copy per book to begin with. When the board decided to put the books up for review, they removed them from the library so that they could be read and a decision could be made, causing them to be removed "temporarily." It has been three months, and the books are still not accessible to students. Yorktown schools are already predominantly white, conservative institutions, so removing these intersectional books further isolates marginalized students. They are being denied access to representations of their lives in schools, and also, students outside of those marginalized identity groups do not have the access to learn and educate themselves about groups different from their own. 

As a country, we need to recognize that the problem does not simply lie within the conservative south. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice are prominent across the country, and are negatively impacting the experiences of students in schools, and threatening their safety.

Works Cited

“Complaints Prompt Review of Yorktown High School Library Books.” TAPinto, https://www.tapinto.net/towns/yorktown/sections/education/articles/complaints-prompt-review-of-yorktown-high-school-library-books.