The school board in Nampa, Idaho voted to ban 24 books “forever.” This means classic books like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Bluest Eye, The Kite Runner, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are banned from Nampa’s school libraries.
Vice Chair Tracey Pearson said that it was just a matter of time before the books “traumatized or caused mental destruction” to students. That’s what Kurt Vonnegut once called a “rotten lesson” to teach “young people in a free society,” where students should have access to “all sorts of opinions and information, in order that they will be better equipped to make decisions and to survive.”
The ban also violates the First Amendment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a national nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that defends free expression, wants to fight back. We want to represent students and parents — for free — in a legal challenge to the ban. But we need students and parents to help.
Sign up below or contact us at 833-451-FIRE (3473). Come to the “Read In” protest (organized by the Nampa Banned Book Fan Club) and talk to FIRE lawyer Katlyn Patton about how you can help stop censorship — not only in Nampa, but libraries across the country.
WHERE: Nampa School District Office (619 S. Canyon St.) WHEN: June 13 at 6:00 p.m.
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