Massachusetts Rep. Aryanna Pressley introduces bill to fight book bans

Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said Thursday she is sponsoring the Books Save Lives Act to stop discriminatory book bans and require public and school libraries to maintain a diverse collection of books.

"The fight for books is a fight for intellectual freedom; a fight for education; a fight for democracy; a fight for justice," Pressley said.

The bill would classify discriminatory book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws, require public libraries and school libraries to maintain diverse book collections, and ensure that schools have trained librarians.

The Pressley bill would also require the Comptroller General of the United States to create "a report on the effect that recent campaigns to ban books in public libraries and 25 public schools have had on underrepresented communities."

PEN America Thursday released a report on nearly 6,000 public schools book bans between July 2021 and June 2023 called Spineless Shelves: Two Years of Book Banning.

"We are continually alarmed to see how the movement to ban books has intensified since 2021 and puts at risk the freedoms to read and learn, all the while threatening core principles of education," said PEN America's Sabrina Baêta in a statement.

More than 3,000 books were banned during the 2022-23 school year, a full one-third more than were banned in the previous year, according to Pressley.

Educators have been threatened with firing for providing banned books to students and some teachers have left states where book bans are happening.

"These attacks rely on authoritarian tactics of fear, intimidation and silencing, straining and fostering mistrust in our public schools and undermining our schools, educators and librarians ability to meet their goals of educating students with knowledge and critical thinking and facilitating the ongoing unification that undergirds a pluralistic society," said PEN America Freedom To read director Kasey Meehan.

According to PEN America's report, Florida and Texas have continue to lead the country in number of book bans, "but the crisis has spread to 41 states."

Florida had 1,972 book bans in 37 school districts -- the highest number of book bans of any state. Texas had 1,426 bans and had the most book bans 2021-2022 with 801 bans in 22 districts.