Novel Songs

Occupy Wall Street Library Sending Books to Tucson

I’m disappointed that this actually happened in Tucson public schools and hope actions like these raise awareness about the situation, but it will mostly be symbolic. The kids who want to read these books have free access to them outside of schools in public libraries. The problem is that the books won’t be taught and the majority of the students who don’t read outside of school but could be encouraged to read through characters they could relate to still won’t be exposed. Some of the “banned books,” like The Tempest, make absolutely no sense and barely fit the arbitrary guidelines.

The Occupy Wall Street Library and Occupy Tuscon are raising funds to redistribute books that have been removedfrom Tucson Unified School District.

Last year, Arizona passed the controversial H.B. 2281, a bill banning school curriculum “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” Along with the bill, a number of ethnic studies books have been removed from school district shelves (list follows below).

Check it out: “Acting in solidarity with OccupyTucson and the students, parents, and teachers of the Tucson Unified School District we are going send copies of the banned texts to Tucson for distribution. Lots of copies. As many copies as we can find and buy. We respect the rights of authors and publishers, so all copies will be completely legally purchased though an independent bookseller or directly from the publisher. Donations of the these texts are, of course, welcomed. We’ll be collecting funds via the WePay link on this page. Any amount will be gladly welcomed and all donations will go toward the purchase of books or shipping books.”

(Source: thelifeguardlibrarian)