Narragansett High studies negative effects of censorship
‘Sometimes the reasons for books being banned can be silly.’ — Maegen Powers, library specialist
Rebecca Leonard
News Correspondent
TEMPLETON The Narragansett Regional High School is celebrating the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, with an eye toward educating students about censorship.
“We’re doing it to create awareness on how censorship can ruin learning environments, especially if kids can only see one side of an opinion,” said Maegen Powers, a library specialist at the school.
According to the American Library Association website, the week is used to highlight the value of free and open access to information and the harm of censorship.
Ms. Powers has pulled 45 or more books off the shelves to display them throughout the library for students and faculty to look through. The covers of the books are wrapped in crime scene tape or are covered with brown paper with explanations about why they were banned written across the front.
So far, Ms. Powers explained, there’s already been a lot of interest from students and some surprise by the books that have been on the banned books list in the past.
“Sometimes the reasons for books being banned can be silly,” expressed Ms. Powers.
Some of the books that have raised questions are “James and the Giant Peach,” “Diary of Anne Frank,” “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See,” and “And Tango Makes Three.”
Even the first book from the illustrated “Where’s Waldo” series made the list of the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned Books throughout the 1990s for a beach scene where a topless woman was depicted.
According to Ms. Powers, depending on what part of the country you live in, some of the books are still banned from public schools.
The “Harry Potter” series of books is still occasionally challenged for the use of witchcraft, setting bad examples and being too dark.
Raising awareness on censorship isn’t the only way Ms. Powers is helping out the students at Narragansett.
She has also resumed library classes for the middle school students, where they learn how books are catalogued in the library and how to do research through the online databases. She uses scavenger hunts to get the students accustomed to the Dewey Decimal System.
Ms. Powers has also started working on getting a interlibrary loan system set up so students can borrow books from other libraries that the high school doesn’t have.
Banned Books Week occurs in the last week of September every year – this year it is running at the school from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. For more information, visit www.ala.com.
“It’s all to get everyone familiar with a library they came come to,” stated Ms. Powers.
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