From Sept. 18 through 24th, schools and libraries all over the country participate in Banned Books Week. It is a movement that spreads awareness towards books that are not available in schools because they get censored when controversial topics are included in a book. 

Many schools ban books to monitor what kids are reading. Books that are about LGBTQA+ communities, different ethnicities, and political viewpoints are commonly removed from school libraries. 

“People sometimes want to restrict the kinds of ideas that you have access to,” Librarian Lauren Kluck said. “RRISD’s policy talks about having a variety of topics, perspectives and diversity. There is a process in place called a reconsideration policy for if someone wants to challenge [the policy].” 

Books such as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas have been banned for explicit content and because it included an anti-police message and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling has been banned for promoting witchcraft and encouraging rebellion against teachers.

“There’s no reason why these books should be banned,”  Eileen Wu ’25 said.“People should be able to read books and make their own opinions based on them. Their opinions shouldn’t be limited by the banning of books.”

Banned Books Week was created to emphasize the importance of having the freedom to read and to avoid the disadvantages of censorship. 

”I think that the freedom to read is protected by the constitution, in the 1st amendment, so it’s important to protect that,” Ms. Kluck said. 

Libraries contain many informational resources that allow students to gain understanding of world topics. Banned Books Week is a movement that provides the protection of these resources.

 “Books play a major part in the gathering of information and everyone should have access to all information,” Wu said. “No books should be banned because banning books is restricting information and is destructive to the moving forward of society.”