Last summer, Utah’s government implemented a book-banning law, Department of Education section 53G-10-103, eradicating all forms of material that were deemed too sensitive for young adults, rendering them completely inaccessible across all Utah schools and libraries. Merely three districts can now initiate a statewide ban for the material in question, which is “only 3 of over 40 statewide school districts in Utah,” as Katherine Kidd said in her report “Utah’s New Law Banning Books Ignites Censorship Debate.”
Evidently, Utahns everywhere strongly disagree with this action. Claire Oliver, a Senior at Skyline High School, stated that it is pointless to ban a book that directly reflects reality. She explained, “Huckleberry Finn was banned because it had [an offensive term] in it, and it’s like—that word is something students are gonna hear in real life, and so banning the book essentially does nothing.” The world is full of unexpected factors, that is just how it is; to try and control the unpredictable would be futile, and that has been proven time and time again. This is a concept essential for young adults to learn and understand.
The books that have been banned over the years contain overly “sensitive material,” sure, but the type of content growing adults can absorb should be exactly as such; Oliver considered the act of banning this material a “restriction of our freedoms, because, you know, the material in many banned books is—I mean it’s technically mature content, but it’s not too mature for a high school student, like 1984 by George Orwell or anything like that.”
It was intriguing of her to bring up 1984, one of America’s notoriously banned books, which explicitly covered the dangers of living under a totalitarian dictatorship. It was banned solely due to its scrutinization of suspicious government behavior and explicit content, which were deemed “unnecessary.” However, what other book can shake someone to their core with an undeniable epiphany, without such “unnecessary” content? Orwell’s 1984 urged readers to open their eyes and really see the world around them, without being dragged around by an inviolable source. The messages in banned books “are not going to spread if no one is allowed to read [them],” said Melody Kirby, another senior at Skyline High School.
When Kirby and Oliver were asked what message banning these books sends to our community, they essentially gave the same answer: We do not deserve to understand our world nor ourselves because it is too intense for us.
