High school student activism in York County, Pennsylvania reverses book ban

This week's Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch's e-letter has a bunch of great content including on how Joe Manchin totally fails to represent West Virginia when it comes to the state's great needs--it's got the fifth worst level of poverty in the country.

Students, parents and educators gather outside the Central York School District Educational Service Center to protest the district's banned resources list on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, in Springettsbury Township. 

Organizers of the protest brought along some of the books that are currently on the district's banned resources list.  Photos: Dan Rainville, York Daily Record.

Bunch writes about how school boards are capitulating to conservative parents angry about mask mandates and "critical race theory." 

He calls our attention to how high school students in the Central York School District in York County, Pennsylvania successfully organized against a school board "freeze" on books about the country's difficult history with race, racism and segregation ("Central York students speak out against book ban," WGAL-TV).  

Actions included protests and a campaign to stock Little Free Libraries with the banned books.

More than 200 pro-expression parents, as well as the author of two of the "frozen" books, came to Monday night's board meeting, where the school board then reversed its decision ("Central York school board votes unanimously to rescind book ban: 'It has taken far too long'," York Daily Record).

Organizing matters.

Rather than capitulate to the loony right wing, organize [fight] back.

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Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, other "organizing" efforts against the "Big Lie" include the PBS station in Harrisburg--the state's capital--mentioning the participation of elected officials complicit in the Big Lie, when reporting on them ("Countering the big lie: WITF newsroom’s coverage will connect lawmakers with their election-fraud actions," WITF-TV/PBS).   

The Legislature fought back by cutting its small appropriation to state public television and radio services ("State funding for Pa. public broadcasting eliminated in new budget," Pennsylvania Capital-Star).

Similarly, the Philadelphia Inquirer refuses to call what conservative legislators are doing wrt election reviews an "audit" because what they are doing doesn't meet the basic definition of what an audit is ("Words matter. So these journalists refuse to call GOP election meddling an ‘audit’," Washington Post).