The celebration of Banned books week is an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read, and emphasizes the attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Many schools, including here at ELARA have had books banned as it is seen to be inappropriate, offensive or not age-appropriate for students.

To quote a student from ELARA whose information remains anonymous, “Most of the interesting books we read in class are banned, and they were the only ones I enjoyed reading more than other ones”. From this response of the student, it is clear how much of a difference these books bring to the classroom. Rather than reading boring simple ones, these books that are considered to be contraband, bring a new sense of learning to students and a type of enjoyment in school they’ve haven’t felt before. 

Many schools around America try to diminish sophisticated topics such as LGBTQ+, racism, religious or political views away from books. In LAUSD, many schools have banned books yet teachers still promote reading them and have them in their classroom to allow students to have a greater understanding of our society and world around them. This is more than just books, at least once in our life students can refer to one book they genuinely enjoyed from school, or took away a very important topic/life lesson of humanity. 

To show it isn’t just an LAUSD effect, but to all people one article from Santa Clara County Library, “Books are an essential foundation of democracy. Our ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ depends on a public that is informed and empathetic, and books teach us both information and empathy.” This was said by the new honorary chair of Banned Books week, George Takei to show how with the world around us, we should be aware and empathetic for those who were unfortunate. This is still relevant to the future as we need to be educated as our world is in chaos right now, we need more people with knowledge and empathy for those who suffer just like ones in our past. 

To add on to this statement and quote, another student from ELARA has stated, “We should be educated on our past, especially because now it’s repeating itself with racial discrimination in our community”. This issue shows how it affects us as students here in East LA. It is important to be informed on our history and how our people fought for our rights and the books written on their experiences. Racial discrimination is everywhere in our society now, and our books of the people who fought for our rights shouldn’t have their voices banned as it prevents people from today from being aware of how people back then overcome these obstacles. 

However, it may not seem like a drastic change and some schools still have these prohibited books, the teachers college of Columbia University has stated, “The American Library Association reported a record-breaking number of attempts to ban books in 2022— up 38 percent from the previous year. Most of the books pulled off shelves are “written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.” Teachers have made this statement to show their disagreement with the subject of limiting students’ opportunities to read essential books in schools. This shows how it involves everyone of all school districts, and here in East LA, we’re lucky to still have some of these books to our knowledge and learn about the many diversities of genders, sexualities, and races from where we live. 

Now, as readers your knowledge is important as us students are the future voices of our country and society. A knowledgeable, empathetic, and informed person of the world around us, the type of generation we are, can keep these books to have us wake and make sure nothing in the past can happen again. Using your voices and platforms such as social media, joining direct advocacy groups for this cause and even attending libraries who promote the usage of banned books, can help make an impact on this cause. All discrimination and inequity in our world can be erased, simply by being knowledgeable of our past and books that have been written to make sure voices of the past are heard and history wouldn’t repeat. 

For students it isn’t just books, it’s about voices not being heard, from the histories of our past. Sure, you read these books just for school and to have a grade, but these books carry important information of the voices of our past, and are the reason many people are shaped who they are now and how our society is evolving by the type of people we become, based on what we read.