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Ankeny, West Des Moines and Waukee school districts have all recently received removal requests from parents directed towards certain titles. These districts are considering banning said titles, which some community members feel to be obscene or inappropriate for children.

Some of these titles include “Lawn Boy,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” Lawn Boy tells the story of a young Mexican-American man discovering his sexuality, All Boys Aren’t Blue is an essay collection following the author’s journey growing up as a queer black man, and Gender Queer: A Memoir is a graphic novel detailing an asexual and nonbinary person’s adolescence.

Removal requests cite explicit material as the reason the books should be removed. Some of the content being deemed explicit includes discussions of incest, rape and Gender Queer’s inclusion of a sexually-focused cartoon.

All three of these books have been pulled from the Waukee Northwest High School library for review. In Ankeny, only Gender Queer has been taken off the shelves. The West Des Moines school district determined that Gender Queer would remain available in their high school library’s collection because it provided value for LGBTQ students.

On Gender Queer, the minutes of the West Des Moines Superintendent’s Teaching & Learning Advisory Committee state that “Students need to be connected to school, and a book like this could help students feel that sense of belonging.”

The controversy over these books, and others, is reaching the ears of those in the state legislature. State Senate President Jake Chapman of Adel recently introduced a bill named Senate File 2198 that would penalize school librarians for the distribution of certain materials. Penalties could range from monetary fines to felony charges. He also argues that it would allow for parents to have more involvement in what their kids are reading at school.

Iowa code already states that it is illegal to distribute obscene material to minors, but SF 2198 would promote the enforcement of the code and potentially change the boundaries of what is considered obscene. Under Chapman’s bill, the panels depicting sex acts in Gender Queer would constitute obscenity.

Though book removal requests are increasingly common, SF 2198’s passage is not yet assured. Some more moderate Republicans have expressed concern about the harshness of the bill’s punishments, including Majority Leader Jack Whitver.

In a January 28th episode of Iowa Press, Whitver said, “I think charging anyone with felonies for these types of things, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

SF 2198 would mainly focus on school libraries, as the Library Bill of Rights makes it harder to regulate content available in public libraries. Still, Des Moines Public Library director Sue Woody had a reaction to the news of the removal requests and the introduction of the bill.

“We are spending a lot of time and energy that is completely displaced. The energy spent on what people can and cannot read should be spent on money, time, passion regarding literacy rates.”

Woody argued that the ongoing pandemic’s effect on literacy was more pertinent than finding books to ban. Literacy rates have staggered since the onset of the COVID-19 virus, with one Stanford study showing that second and third-graders were thirty percent behind where they would be normally.

“Why are we not spending our energy on kids who are so far below their reading level that by the time they are old enough to read these books, they won’t be able to?” Woody asked.

Joshua Call has been an English and Honors professor at Grand View University for thirteen years. He incorporates various books which contain the controversial themes that opposing groups want to censor.

“Literature is the vehicle to provide experience, a lens, a perspective, of understanding things. But literature is quite simply not capable of forcing people to adopt any particular perspective,” Call said.

Call sets a diagnosis for the misinterpretation of meaning from a text: the lack of reading.

“People need to be reading more across the board. We are quite frankly having a crisis of literacy in our country. People increasingly do not read,” Call said.

Through his experience, Call has been able to understand the value of knowing the stories that have gone untold.

Call remembers the issues that the Oklahoma Public School system

had with certain controversial books regarding life and the way to live it, containing themes of the LGBTQ community.

“I was suspended multiple times for reading banned books,” Call said.

A point Call constantly makes to his students is over the importance of engaging, or at least attempting to engage in an open conversation on literature; something people should keep in mind when wanting to prohibit books. Call encourages the educational practice of reading for students, teachers and anyone who is willing to open their minds.

“Let’s keep reading and see what reading does for what we think and most importantly, how we think,” Call said.

Ruby Herrera, parent of an Iowa high school student, expects her daughter to be exposed to diverse topics.

“It’s important to me that she is challenged with diverse books because that’s how I want to prepare her for the world,” Herrera said. “I cannot just keep her sheltered to what I believe.”

Parents being aware that not everything is in their control is important.

“I’m not going to have all of the answers, so maybe books can be a source for that,” Herrera said.

Emanuel Sinclair Mitchell, Deputy Director of The Des Moines Public Library

shared their passion on the purpose libraries have in communities.

“Our vision is to provide information that meets the needs of our community,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell describes what a job in providing literature and access to education for youth should look like.

“At that point, you’re inspiring so many young individuals, making reading fun for them and opening their mind to the world. And all of this is done through books,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell knows first-hand how a library should operate with regard to recent book bans.

“We are just providing books that really represent our demographics. Uncensored, unbiased. Just what they do to represent our community,” Mitchell said.

The main goal in literacy should be the education of the learner.

“As long as we continue to push literacy and work on reading skills and keeping an optimistic and open mind, and having those courageous conversations with your kids, then I’m fine,” Mitchell said.

Darcy Hankenson, a school librarian at Hubbell Elementary in Des Moines, acknowledged her worries about the bill, but was hopeful that it would not end up passing.

“I believe in the power of knowledge and the power of books. I believe there are enough smart people in the world who will understand the value of them, that I don’t feel fearful,” Hankenson said. “That could be misguided, or too optimistic, but people will always try to squash things that they don’t like. That doesn’t keep them from growing up. And you know what? The things people want to squash are way too powerful for those people to squash.”

Currently, SF 2198 has passed through a subcommittee and a committee, but has yet to be voted on. It is likely that it will undergo a vote before the end of the Iowa Senate’s session in April.