Parents push Virginia school board to burn controversial books

Spotsylvania school librarians are clearing their shelves of books deemed "sexually explicit" after a parent complained of finding shocking titles on sexuality, faith, and race. Some staffers and students are now starting to push back on the plan.

The school board voted unanimously to remove the books Monday, with two members even advocating burning the offensive books.

[WUSAnews]

Spotsylvania school librarians are clearing their shelves of books deemed "sexually explicit" after a parent complained of finding shocking titles on sexuality, faith, and race. Some staffers and students are now starting to push back on the plan.

[scasey]

Fundamentalism wants to restrict your reading options. Fahrenheit 451 is a book frequently burned. It’s a book about burning books.

[daphneanne]

“Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.” - Heinrich Heine

[briannacoppolino]

The reason there aren't many "heterosexual" books when you put that in a search bar is because it goes without saying.There are more books about straight people than one can possibly imagine. The only reason someone would use the word heterosexual is for contrast.

[kurtjaissle]

Everyone on that board should be removed.

[briannacoppolino]

My old English teacher told me something while we were studying Orwell's 1984...
"If your country bans books, be worried."
"If your country bans this particular book, get out while you still can."

[leoschenk]

I want their address so I can send them Fahrenheit 451 over and over and over again

[sharonannrees]

I’m a retired librarian and this is astonishing and dangerous, ignorance is not bliss!

[nikolaus]

The people on the board that want the books to be burned should be forced to read those books or better yet be removed from the board. This is gonna be like that scene in Indiana Jones where the names are having a book burning

[nm]

Ah, yes, good old burning of the books we don't agree with, ignore those Nazi parallels and ignoring the internet exists.

I'm a little over how aloof these folks have become.

[missrobin]

How soon they forgot their outrage over Dr.. Seuss....

[TheBoriskuehn]

Just make sure that Indiana Jones isn't in the vicinity when you start your little book-burning party...

[jeanberes]

Burning books? Hmmm, where have I heard this story before? “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it”…George Santayana.

[DRKrust]

The burning of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin Dynasty (213–210 BCE), the obliteration of the Library of Baghdad (1258), the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl (1430s), the burning of Maya codices on the order of bishop Diego de Landa (1562), and thousands of books were burned in bonfires as Germans gave the Nazi salute during the wave of book-burnings that spread throughout Germany and the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981). You want books out you don't like, fine, but burning books is a sign of ignorance, hatred, bigotry and evil, not morality or justness. That there are Americans calling for book burnings in 2021 is alarming.

[robinlillian]

"Those who burn books will eventually burn people." Heinrich Heine

[eddieheron]

How pathetic, though predictably backward. I’m all for religion to be taught as a SUBJECT, while TOTALLY rejecting any ‘compliance’ with any actual religion - like ‘morning prayers’ that used to infuriate me - I’m from Scotland and that doesn’t happen any more - at least in ‘regular’ schools. As for RACE and LGBT in particular - are they going back in time, claiming RACISM doesn’t exist and rejection of FACT that people seem to be born with ‘alternative’ sexual orientation?

[caseydeletetsky]

Such hypocrites. Either you support freedom of speech or you don't. If you are going to start restricting what your kids are reading, start with all your hate speech. Way more damaging.

[Matthew]

This is interesting. Personally i wouldn’t care what books are available to high school students at all. The ease that they can acquire any information they want can’t be under estimated. A single look on any device with access to the internet will hand them everything they could possibly want. TLDR: restricting high school student books is unnecessary due to internet access.

[Hellfox]

Burning books... and fascists LAUGH hysterically

[caseydeletetsky]

All this will do is make them more curious and more eager to seek it out. So go for it. Maybe the next generations coming out of the racist and intolerant parts of our country will defeat their parents ignorance and hateful ways.