ACLU of Wisconsin challenges book bans in several area school districts

MILWAUKEE — If you feel like you've been hearing more about banned books recently, it's because challenges against books have skyrocketed across the cross country in recent years.

According to the American Library Association (ALA) in 2012 there were 464 attempts to ban or restrict books across the country. In 2021 that number skyrocketed to 729. Last year there were over 1,269 attempts.

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Earlier this year, the Menomonee Falls School District pulled 33 books from shelves. Many of those books were deemed too "sexually explicit."

For Hallie Schmeling, a mom of two students in the district and a co-leader of the organization Grassroots Menomonee Falls, the bans didn't come as a surprise.

"Honestly on one hand, I'm like welp here we go. You know you could see it all over the country, in neighboring school districts And, so, we were like well it's our time. Am I happy about it? No," Schmeling said. "If you're looking to exclude books, you're also excluding children. And that's a problem."

Because of National Trends, she again wasn't shocked to hear that just one parent challenged 100s of books in the Elkhorn School District. Schmeling said there's a pattern to the books being banned.

"What we've noticed mostly is that it's marginalized people, whether it's books written about women and the also the LGBTQIA community," Schmeling said. "Either the author or the story is about one of those things."

On the ALA's list of the 13 most challenged books last year, more than half were challenged due to LGBTQ+ content. Some of the titles include 'Gender Queer' by Maia Kobabe, 'Flamer' by Mike Curato and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky.

"If there's no access to these things for someone who identifies as LGBTQIA for example, what message is that sending? So I'm fearful of what they'll interpret,"Schmeling shared.

The ACLU of Wisconsin filed records requests Wednesday with six school districts for information about their decisions to ban books from school libraries including Menomonee Falls and Elhorn.

The other districts are Howard-Suamico, Waukesha, Elmbrook, and Kenosha.

According to ACLU, school officials have removed books in these six districts in response to pressure campaigns from "extremist parent groups."

The ACLU's requests note that removing books from school libraries threatens the First Amendment rights of students and their families. ACLU says the Supreme Court held over 40 years ago that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”

The interim legal director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, Tim Muth, said in part, "Book banning has historically been used to marginalize underrepresented and disempowered voices and communities. We are particularly troubled by the dangerous anti- LGBTQ+ rhetoric accompanying much of the recent book-banning advocacy. Nationally, LGBTQ+ youth are far more likely to be bullied and harassed at school, alienated from their families and communities, and suffer from depression and suicidal ideation than their non- LGBTQ+ peers. For LGBTQ+ youth who are isolated at home, in school, or in their community, access to LGBTQ+ representation or information in books and literature can be a refuge – and, in some cases, life-saving."