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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION AGAINST BOOK BANS
WHEREAS, as John Milton laid out in his 1644 treatise, Areopagitica, "he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself"; and
WHEREAS, according to PEN America, from July 2022 through June 2023 there were over 3,400 instances of individual books banned, representing a 33 percent increase in bans compared to the prior year; and
WHEREAS, according to PEN American, of 1,648 unique book titles banned throughout the 2021-22 school year, 41 percent explicitly addressed LGBTQ+ themes or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+, 40 percent contained protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color, and 21 percent directly addressed issues of race and racism; and
WHEREAS, of the overall 2,532 bans in the 2021-2022 school year, 96 percent of them were enacted without following the best practice guidelines for book challenges outlined by the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the National Council of Teachers of English; and
WHEREAS, according to the Every Library Institute, over 75 percent of Americans oppose book banning, and more than 50 percent of voters are concerned about legislation being created to regulate Americans' access to books; and
WHEREAS, according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institution, nearly nine of 10 Americans oppose banning books that include depictions of slavery from being taught in public schools; and
WHEREAS, PRRI also reports over 80 percent of Americans oppose banning public high school courses like AP African American History because the topics of slavery and segregation are likely to make white students feel guilty or uncomfortable; and
WHEREAS, in 1969, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expressio...
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