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Literary Activism

The Ongoing Censorship of High School Advanced Placement Courses: Book Censorship News, July 26, 2024

If THE HANDMAID'S TALE has been in the AP curriculum for a decade, how come it's suddenly a problem now?

Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

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Editor’s Note: since publication, a couple of small clarifications have been made.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses have been part of high school curriculum since the early 1950s. There were initially 11 subject areas in which high school students could take courses similar to those found in 101-level college classes and, if they passed a standard test with a high enough mark at the end of the year, earn college credit for the work. The AP curriculum has given college-bound high schoolers an elective opportunity to skip the fundamentals when they enter their higher educational institution and not only save money, but save time and create space to study more subjects during their time at university.

The number of students taking AP tests has grown dramatically, especially in the last decade. This is in part due to readiness by students and in part because there are so many more subjects offered as part of the program. As of writing, there are 38 different AP subject areas ranging from art to language, science to math, literature to social sciences, history, and more.

It should, at this point, be little surprise to hear that these courses and their accompanying curriculum have become areas where politicians and parents eager to dismantle public goods—schools and libraries specifically—are turning more and more attention.

AP African American Studies, launched in the 2022-2023 school year, has been one of the prime targets. The course, developed in order to better educate and promote the history and contributions of African Americans throughout US history, was piloted at fewer than 70 high schools before its much wider launch to over 800 in the 2023-2024 school year. Due to both racist beliefs and racist legislation targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the course has been challenged in several states and either revoked or preemptively banned in districts throughout the country. Indeed, this era in book banning was marked by a right-wing moral panic over Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) and ongoing rhetoric around how books like The 1619 Project made white kids “feel bad.”

In early 2023, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, demanded that the course be revised to fit the requirements the state places on the kinds of books and materials that can be taught in public schools (this debate had been happening in the state legislature since its announcement in 2022). This led to Illinois’s governor, J.B. Pritzker, to fire back, stating that, unlike Florida, Illinois would not demand changes to the curriculum and planned to allow students to take the course exactly as it was planned. This high-profile debate was about the AP course, but it also was not about the course at all. It was about who has the power to determine what hundreds of thousands of high school students would be allowed to access based on what their state government decreed “appropriate” or “inappropriate.”

Without a lot of press—indeed, the South Carolina Department of Education Supervisor Ellen Weaver has done a lot of things without national press attention given to others who’ve done equally damaging things—the state of South Carolina eliminated AP African American Studies courses in public schools this year as well (students may take it as an elective in individual high schools, but it would not be supported at the state level meaning students may not get credit toward graduation requirements for taking the course). The reasons listed are unclear, though what is clear is the underlying belief by Weaver and her department that the course doesn’t teach “accurate” African American history. Arkansas, in the days before the 2023-2024 school year began, also dropped support for the course.

These courses have been subject to cancelation at the local level, too. Harford County, Maryland, has been debating whether or not to allow the AP African American Studies course to happen in their district. The board canceled the course in June, claiming it was “too divisive,” then this month, reversed their decision. A story about the increasing popularity of the course in Montgomery County, Maryland, counters what the board in Harford initially said; what neither points to more succinctly is that the popularity of the course corresponds with the course being out of its pilot stage and open to wider enrollment (and, of course, student interest).

It’s not only the AP African American Studies course struggling under right-wing legislation. Others are as well, for reasons similar to those relating to the AP African American Studies course and for reasons of the changing targets of this current wave of censorship. As we moved from the CRT rhetoric to the pornography rhetoric, so, too, we see the issue at heart in other AP courses.

Elmbrook School District (Wisconsin), is comprised of the Village of Elm Grove and City of Brookfield, two Milwaukee suburbs. Currently under debate in the district is whether or not two texts selected for the AP Literature curriculum—texts that have been part of the curriculum following board-approved policies for at least a decade—are pornographic and thus, inappropriate for the classroom.

In a meeting of the Teaching and Learning Committee, two of three members voted to amend the AP Lit curriculum by eliminating The Handmaid’s Tale and The Kite Runner. They argued that the books were pornographic and they would never want their own children to read them. The titles being taught in the classroom with “minor” students would be inappropriate. In the history of the books being taught in the district, no parents have opted their child out of the books. AP Lit is an elective upper level course, meaning the majority of students are 17 or 18. Two of the three members of that committee are supported and backed by WisRed, a group whose sole purpose is to elect conservative people into positions of power and “turn Wisconsin red.” That includes Sam Hughes, backed by this group as well to the tune of over $6,100; he’s also backed by the 1776 Project PAC. (There is a third board member not on the committee, Linda Boucher, who is also backed by WisRed).

The final decision has yet to be made, though it likely will in August. The full school board, minus the board president who was on vacation, discussed the AP Lit curriculum at their July meeting, which you can watch here beginning at minute 43. Most speakers defended the books, and their prepared statements are well worth listening to (one parent talked about how he read both books and found The Handmaid’s Tale tame, given the accusations against it). But also among the individuals are those who showed up to provide public comment are those with a specific political agenda and philosophy in mind. Jacki Rynish-Knapp, who speaks at the 1:22 mark, suggests removing the books from curriculum is fine because the books will still be available elsewhere. Jackie is friends with Nicole Hunker, who lost her bid to become an Elmbrook School board member earlier this year.

Then, there’s Jacob Melin. He’s not a district resident but brought “a couple of questions” to the board. What Melin doesn’t mention is that he’s an aide to Wisconsin State Assembly member Tom Michalski, one of the sponsors of a state “parental rights” bill in 2023 and coauthor of failed Assembly Bill 308, which would criminalize librarians and educators for “possessing obscene material.”

If these books are of concern and, in the words of those seeking to remove them, potentially illegal, then why have they been approved and used in the curriculum so long before without complaint?

The situation in Elmbrook, like those replicated throughout the country, isn’t about protecting young people. It’s about scoring political points on the backs of those very students. When your targets are those who have no voting rights and whose voices are constantly undermined, derided, and ignored, there’s no actual game being played. This is simply power begetting power, with the intention of making it impossible for others to better themselves and push back.

Like public libraries and higher education more broadly, of course programs like the AP are a prime target for censorship. These stories are not one-offs, but almost certainly, over the next year, as public education is further dismantled by right-wing politics and voucher entitlement programs, AP courses will continue to be picked apart, watered down, or eliminated altogether in the name of “appropriateness,” whatever the flavor of that idea is that moment.

Book Censorship News: July 26, 2024

  • In huge news that dropped on Friday afternoon last week, the vendor ratings portion of Texas’s HB 900 (The Texas READER Act) was deemed unconstitutional.
  • This piece about the two year attempt to press charges against librarians in Granbury Independent School District (TX) is must-read. THIS is what’s meant by these laws at the state level trying to criminalize the profession.
  • “In accordance with law and new state library standards, the LTISD library policy bans ‘harmful’ or ‘obscene’ material that is ‘pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable.'” Lake Travis Independent School District (TX) just made it easier to ban books in their district, putting parents in control of what other people’s kids can read.
  • A resident of Maricopa County (AZ) and employee of the county school district is suggesting the public library system have a “code of conduct” implemented to ban kids from accessing LGBTQ+ books.
  • Frances Howell School District (MO), which implemented a book banning policy to make it easy for parents to remove books, is now back peddling on the policy. But is it really though?
  • PEN America and book banning expert and Wisconsin resident Tasslyn Magnusson talk about how Wisconsin censorship is real and widespread.
  • “For example, a book about Aboriginal Australian boys’ experiences with homophobia and racism was acquired by a high school library in 2022 and removed from the library in August 2023. A book with a character who was afraid her family would learn she has a girlfriend was removed from a school library six months after it was acquired. “Out of Darkness,” about an interracial couple in Texas in the 1930s, was acquired by Wheeler High School in 2022 and removed in August 2023.” A look at how the “divisive content” law in Georgia has targeted books in schools.
  • The new anti-book ban law in Colorado means that Durango Public Library has made it harder to ban books.
  • The bigots trying to ban books in Corpus Christi public libraries (TX) aren’t hiding that they are seeking to do so because the books have LGBTQ+ content. They’re not even playing the fake game of “inappropriate” or “pornographic.”
  • A “controversial” book review committee in Lodi School District (CA) was called off, and while that’s a story in and of itself, the real story here is that the school librarian figured out that BookLooks—Moms for Liberty’s “review” site—was being used to make decisions on books for the library and she spoke up about it.
  • Here’s a nice column from the Executive Director of the Dayton Public Library (OH) about why the library will not be banning books. We need more like this, and though this is very good, it could be more specific about who is doing the banning to make it clear this is targeted and coordinated.
  • “In his response, Dixon said, “While most of our community would accept any Christian books we were to purchase, we do have watchers that will object and possibly escalate.” AL.com has left email and voicemail messages requesting an interview with Dixon.” There are now issues in Clay, Alabama, as the *city manager* told the library not to purchase books with religious themes because it might upset watchdog groups. That’s…not how any of this works, y’all. You should purchase the Christian fairy tales book, right alongside the book about the kid with two moms. The city manager should not be the one making the calls, either.
  • Remember when the St. Charles Public Library board (MO) claimed they had no money and needed to shut down three branches because too many electronic items were being used by patrons? That plan is officially gone (because it wasn’t about that at all, of course).
  • Ottawa Public Library (Ontario, Canada) received a violent threat last week.
  • A bomb threat shut down the downtown branch of the Sarasota Public Library (FL).
  • Arkansas State Library received a bomb threat to its university library last week. This is the third specific university bomb threat in a week.
  • Carol Heger in West Bend, Wisconsin, pens a letter to the editor because she doesn’t like that there’s a nonbinary character in The 57 Bus (which she challenged with another “concerned parent” last year) who uses “they/them” pronouns, among a whole host of unhinged book complaints. These people vote.
  • “Citrus County Library [FL] Director Adam Chang has removed the book “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)” from the shelves after determining it contained inappropriate material. Another book, “Beyond Magenta” will be moved from the young adult nonfiction section to adult nonfiction “because it does have some pages and content that are better suited for an older audience,” Chang said.” This is the public library.
  • In a lawsuit filed over book bans in Nassau County schools (FL), the district is claiming that their decision constitutes government speech, which is not protected by the First Amendment. The implications from this case will be huge.
  • While we’re on lawsuits, one of the cases from Escambia County Schools (FL) is going to require a 7-year-old to testify. A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD.
  • A Pinellas County School (FL) board candidate is spreading the lie that Gender Queer is in the schools. It was banned three years ago.
  • The Alpena County Board of Commissioners has fired the board of the Alpena Public Library (MI) because they won’t ban books. Read that again: it’s fascism.
  • St. Joseph School District’s Board of Education (MO) will decide whether or not to ban The Bluest Eye next month.
  • Governor Glenn Youngkin appointed a book banner to the state board of education. This book banner happens to be Antonin Scalia’s daughter and lost her own school board race by a LOT. Recall that Virginia’s legislature passed an anti-book ban bill but Youngkin refused to sign it. This isn’t good, y’all.
  • This story is paywalled, but it’s about how books that have been banned sometimes “disappear” in libraries. It’s about Massachusetts libraries and the ways that those books often “go missing.”
  • Because of the bigots, Washoe County Libraries (NV) canceled one of their branch’s drag story time events.
  • Volusia County Council (FL) just abolished its library advisory board. They’re going to instead rely on library friends groups to make decisions about the library. This is a clear indication that the county has no idea how libraries run—advisory boards and friends groups are very different—and it’s an indication of how little they care about the county libraries. Keep an eye on this story, as it will not be the last time it comes up.
  • To deal with the new law, some northern Idaho libraries are considering making it so anyone under 18 cannot get a card that would allow them to check out anything in the library—even if they have explicit parental permission. So much for “parental rights” if those rights can’t be executed. If libraries were as full of porn as some folks think, then libraries would be far better funded.