Censorship Controversy: The Banning of Persepolis

In 2013, Lane Technical High School students flooded the school grounds chanting things like “No more banned books!” and “Let us read!” under the freezing rain. Their principal was told by his supervisor to remove all copies of Persepolis (by: Marjane Satrapi), a graphic novel depicting one woman’s childhood during the Islāmic revolution in Iran, from all classrooms and the school’s library. The resulting protest against the book’s removal has earned the students the Illinois Library Association’s 2013 Intellectual Freedom Award. Despite the student’s effort against banning the book however, The Chicago Public School district claimed to have the right to ban Persepolis from their library considering the fact that the book contains questionable language and depicts scenes of torture...but are they really “protecting” children from the evils of the world? From literary

Not necessarily. “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books…” said the U.S. Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees School District. The Court has recognized that the First Amendment rights of students are “directly and sharply implicated” when a book is removed from a school library. Therefore, the option to remove books from school libraries is limited. The law requires that if a book is to be removed, a question must be made as to the motivation and intention of the party calling for its removal. If the party’s intention is to deny students access to ideas with which the party disagrees, it is a violation of the First Amendment. Not only have schools ignored student’s pleas for the freedom of their favorite books, but they may have also disobeyed the first amendment. In conclusion, books shouldn’t be banned, because words are how we live—and for some of us, they’re why we