What exactly does it mean for a book to be banned? It can mean two different things, simply making it completely inaccessible or it can be making it simply harder to obtain such as requiring parental permission. Though most books in America do not get banned and instantly disappear, most books get challenged. When a book is challenged it is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a group. However, when a book is banned that is a removal of the book.  

Book banning is simply censorship and one of the largest forms of it. Censorship occurs when private individuals, government officials or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists or bookstore shelves because they object to their content and ideas. This takes away the writers’ freedom of speech and freedom to express themselves. As well as the readers general right to receive information through literature.  

Scott High school’s 10^th Grade English Teacher, Tracy Brown, says that banning books can halt a student’s learning experience. 

“In my opinion, banning books in schools can undermine the educational experience. Rather than shielding students from challenging ideas, providing them with guidance and context to understand those ideas meaningfully may be more beneficial.” Brown Said. 

This is not the first time in history that books have been banned at a high rate. In Germany beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German.” In the aftermath of the book burnings, the Nazi regime raided bookstores, libraries, and publishers’ warehouses to confiscate materials it deemed dangerous or difficult. In a lesser way, in present day America books are being banned to protect the people from what others think are difficult ideas and information. The most targeted topics being related to racial injustice and gender identity.  

The banning and censorship of books in the United States, is not new the first book banned was in 1637, and there are only around 25 copies surviving. The Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. The numbers of books being challenged has grown year after year. 

Among the most challenged books in America is a book titled Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury. In this book, as ordered by the government, firefighters find books and burn them. All books are against the law, and you are only to read the sparse selection that the government gives the people. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was banned several times in an effort to censor the graphic content of the story. Ironically even though the story is about censorship, the novel has also been subject to censorship and banning.  

The banning and censorship in America of subjectively dangerous books suppresses cultural education and threatens young readers’ ability to make their own free ideas. Book banning is like ripping a chapter out of the books of America. We are banning pieces of our cultural story and preventing generations after us from grasping our past. Especially since the main books being threatened are those about discrimination. That is why federal judges have repeatedly ruled that removing books from school library shelves based on the objections of a person or group, or due to prejudice against a group is unconstitutional censorship that violates students’ First Amendment rights.