Essay On Censorship In Schools

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Have you ever been required to read a book in school that did not conform with your standards, or have you ever checked out a book from the school library that contained explicit or inappropriate content? If so, you are not alone. Indeed, books in school libraries and in assigned novels seem to have become increasingly unmonitored. The books assigned in schools--especially high schools-- clearly goes against many students values, standards and ideals. Censorship, the restriction of media or content that is considered offensive or inappropriate, must be applied in this situation to ensure that children and teens are not exposed to, forced to, or allowed to read explicit content in our places of education. First, schools are supposed to be a …show more content…

Indeed, an example of this unfortunate occurrence has been manifested in history multiple times. One Lee Malvo, a young adult in high school, was involved in a shooting in Washington. According to the article, “To Censor or not to Censor at the School library”, “Clearly reading inappropriate materials” (among other things) “contributed to his ultimate crime” (To Censor or Not to Censor at the School Library). When these materials, such as books with sexual content, severe profanity, graphic material or other explicit literature are available to students in schools at such a young age, the consequences are great. It is clear that inappropriate content is very unhealthy for people to be reading. Another example of this unfortunate occurrence is one Joe Jones who was accused of “assaulting a female middle school teacher.” Jones “confessed that ‘When I was young...I was looking at what the bad people did, not the good people. I was checking out the bad things, and that helped mess up my mind’”(To Censor or not to Censor at the school library). When we allow explicit content to be present in our schools --which are supposed to be safe places of learning anyway-- we raise the risk of students committing crimes and participation in risky