To the Editor:

First, I’d like to thank those of you who have reached out to thank me and my colleagues in the NHS English department for speaking out on the proposed book ban. I’d also like every one of you to understand that the onus is not only on English teachers. Perhaps we are, as experts in literature and lovers of books, the natural carriers of the banner of freedom to read, but every person who lives or teaches in Newtown is responsible for making their voices heard.

I want to emphasize that this is a crisis point. If the BOE votes to remove texts from our libraries they will not only be breaking the law as it’s been interpreted by the courts, but they will be making our district look backwards and foolish. They will also be opening the floodgates for a small political group in town to come after everything we stand for as a district. They have more book challenges waiting in the wings. Our BOE would need to abdicate all other responsibilities and become merely a book-banning rubber-stamp organization to appease them.

One of the overarching themes of these books is that the refuge of art and literature was salvation and a place of safety for both authors. I have seen this time and again the sometimes-dark literature we grapple with at NHS, and in my own experience with a traumatic childhood and the experience of my own adolescent depression and anxiety. I found hope, commiseration, sympathy, and refuge in books, music, and film. These pieces of art did not give me the idea to be depressed. Instead, they showed me there were others like me, and hope for a brighter future.

I believe the point of any Board of Education is clear. It is to be an elected governing body whose task is to support the community’s education of all its students. Its job is to support the work of the district. The work of the district must be the work of any educational institution: to broaden the minds of its students, not to narrow them. The Newtown Board of Education has approved curriculum, policy, hiring, and professional development that has enriched its staff and cultivated a culture of open inquiry and critical thinking. To vote to ban books over the recommendation of our own hired experts would be anathema to everything this Board has ever purported to stand for, and frankly a slap in the face to every educator in this district.

This week has been teacher appreciation week and it strikes me as sadly ironic that I have spent so much of my emotional energy in the past several months trying to get our board to see what should be obvious: that learning matters. That critical thinking matters. That context matters. That teachers’ expertise matters. Please do not leave this all on educators’ shoulders. Please speak on Tuesday or write to the BOE to make all voices heard in opposition to book banning.

Jacqui Kaplan

Sandy Hook