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Date: January 28, 2025 05:08PM
“When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
- Sinclair Lewis
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/01/28/utah-students-banned-books/https://www.alternet.org/utah-book-ban/In addition to banning over a dozen books from school libraries and classrooms six months ago, the Utah State Board of Education is now prohibiting students from bringing their own copies of those books into the building, The Washington Post reports.
"These titles should not be brought to school or used for classroom activities, assignments, or personal reading while on school property," the State Board's guidelines reads, according to the public radio station KUER.
Authors including Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood and Sarah J. Maas' books are included on the banned list, which Let Utah Read co-founder Peter Bromberg told the Post "could grow quickly" in the coming weeks.
READ MORE: ‘Literally heartbreaking as a librarian:’ 150 titles pulled from Tennessee school libraries
"Now a kid might get in trouble or be disciplined for bringing a book to school that has not been adjudicated by a judge or a court of law, or even their own school district board that’s been elected by their own community," Bromberg told the newspaper.
Asron Terr, director of public advocacy at FIRE, a free-expression organization, argues that banning students from bringing their own copies is much worse than banning the books from school libraries.
"We've seen plenty of disputes over schools removing books from school libraries and whether that amounts to a ban. But this is different. This is an escalation," he told the Post. "This goes beyond the school deciding what to include in its own curriculum or library. The state is banning students from personally possessing books that they have a First Amendment right to access and read on their own time."