What are schools but havens for knowledge? Places where young minds can come to learn and express their thoughts in ways they see fit. Schools, and more specifically, school libraries, are, for many, easily accessible sources for curious youths wishing to enrich themselves with a great story or even learn more about the world around them. Well, that beautiful prospect is now at risk.
In May of 2023, Iowa’s Governor, Kim Reynolds, signed Senate File 496 into commission, which states that any and all studies relating to gender and sexual orientation may not be taught under 7th grade, as well as banning all books/teaching materials that depict sex from public schools and their libraries. The law also requires that in the event that a student informs staff to refer to themselves with specific pronouns, the school is required by law to inform their parents, this bill also aims to better mandate systems for schools that give parents better control over what their kids are reading. Not to mention, that any staff member caught violating these rules Essentially, this law aims undermine those of the LGBT+ community and to ban books/general access to knowledge that the minority of the population have deemed “Dangerous to children.” This law is a travesty and clearly only exists because a specific group of people want the rest of Iowa to think the same way they do.
Let’s talk specifics, currently this law bans some 450 books, many of which being famous literature such as 1984 by George Orwell, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Oddly enough it seems that this law targets a lot of what most people would consider well taught books in middle to high school. Such as previously stated 1984 (which funnily enough warns about the dangers of restricting knowledge).
Much of Reynolds’ administration, including herself, have gone on record to state that they don’t feel that this law is a “ban” on books per say. Cindy Golding, an Iowa Representative, has stated “There is no such thing as a book banning in Iowa.” She went on to say that since students can still read these books outside of school, the books themselves are not banned. “A book ban is when books are not allowed to be sold or owned in Iowa,” she said. “What we’ve said is these materials are not appropriate for education.” The American Library Association says “When books or other library materials are banned, they are removed from the curriculum or library.” While what Golding says is partially true, the purposeful removal of texts from a school library is still clearly a ban, not to mention a clear attempt to restrict information that she and the rest of Reynolds’ administration find harmful. Reynolds has also gone on to describe depictions of sex in media as all being pornography. So in her words, mentioning sex makes a book porn? What about the bible? Funny, seeing religious texts are exempt from this law, seems rather biased don’t you think?
Another point that’s just baffling is the fact that most of these laws are entirely centered around making the lives of LGBT+ members even harder. Banning books is already unacceptable, but purposely attacking a group of children because you don’t agree with them is even more terrifying. Schools are supposed to be safe places where kids can learn and even discover themselves, and for some, that’s what they have to be. For example, many students use school as a place where they can escape their terrible home lives or overbearing parents, so by intentionally forcing staff to have to alert parents about pronouns is in many cases a direct attack on our children. Reynolds is surely aware of this and chooses to endanger children anyway simply because her opinion differs from theirs. What kind of adult does that to a child?
Everything about this screams fear. Reynolds is clearly doing this because she thinks that children who identify sexually outside her norm are dangerous to society and that’s simply just diabolical. It’s also a direct attack on the staff, because by not complying with her bigoted law, many faculty can lose their jobs. Imagine a system where teachers and school officials are afraid of being punished for trying to be fair and protect their students, like how does this benefit anyone other than herself and her supporters.
Sure you could make the argument that not enough schools provide ample tools for parents to protect their own children from sources of information they don’t want their kids to access, but if that were the only facet of this law, which many of its supporters will claim, than why doesn’t the bill only attempt to solve that problem instead of blatantly trying to endanger a specific minority of students. Her arguments are so paper thin that it would honestly be far less insulting at this point if she would just flat out state her bigoted opinion, rather than quietly trying to beat around the bush.
Clearly Senate File 496 is nothing but another attempt to stomp on the LGBT+ community in Iowa and restrict information that doesn’t apply to Kimberly Reynolds own beliefs. It’s rather ridiculous that a bill like this could have even been signed in the first place. We as adults shouldn’t be calling to actively endanger children just because our stubborn minds are stuck in the dark ages. Schools should be schools, not tools for manipulation and scrutiny.
