Edmond Public Schools has petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over efforts to ban two national bestselling books
Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Ryan Walters has already made headlines for sending context-free porn to his fellow lawmakers. He’s now accusing one of the school districts under his jurisdiction of supporting the exposure of children to what he describes as “pornography” in schools. What horrendous, degenerate, pornographic display of hedonism is Walters’ administration accusing teachers of hiding in libraries? Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle.
Yesterday, Edmond Public Schools petitioned the state Supreme Court to rule on a threat from the Oklahoma Department of Education, headed by Walters, to remove the two books — or face consequences. The dispute between Walters and the school district is just the latest in a long list of culture war battles staked out by the “anti-woke,” porn-obsessed superintendent.
Read The Handmaids Tale in my very early teens (had scoured every inch of my library’s sci-fi and fantasy sections and it was under sci-fi) and re-read it as a young adult.
It horrified me both as a teen and an adult, even though I had a different perspective between those phases. Watching the series lately reconnected me with that horror, albeit from a more informed perspective and seeing way more parallels in the more recent development of our societies.
My kids (teens) have seen the TV series, and the book (a used copy) is in their shelf of books to read. Of course the series and the book are surrounded with discussions about ethics, respect and the values of life.
Edit: And yes, I’ve read pretty much everything Stephen King had written until recently. I was probably around 12 when I read It. I still think it is fucked up, but the main part that is, is how horribly people treat kids, animals and other humans. The scary non-humans are most often not the real monsters.
The orgy in It sounds fucked-up and The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely horrifying. But teens are old enough to read something like that and also know enough put down the book if it gets too disturbing. Also, considering we live in an age where kids are spending hours on their phones, maybe we shouldn’t discourage them from reading books.
And yeah, I scoured my library’s sci-fi section too (although I’m not big on fantasy). I could absolutely see schools banning authors like P.K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Heinlein.