[ti:US Parents Oppose School Book Bans] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]The number of book bannings around the country [00:02.88]has reached a level not seen for many years. [00:06.12]Censorship efforts have happened in places [00:09.96]like Florida and Tennessee. [00:12.28]One Tennessee school board banned [00:15.40]Art Spiegelman's graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus. [00:20.12]Other states have tried to pass similar measures. [00:24.32]There have also been strong reactions from individuals [00:28.24]and free speech organizations. [00:31.28]Stephana Ferrell is a mother of two in Orange County, Florida. [00:35.76]At a local school board meeting, some officials criticized [00:40.00]Maia Kobabe's graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir. [00:45.16]The county decided last autumn to remove it from high schools. [00:50.44]Ferrell said, "By winter break, [00:52.60]we realized this was happening all over the state [00:56.32]and needed to start a project to rally parents [00:59.68]to protect access to information and ideas in school." [01:04.84]With another Orange County parent, [01:07.36]she founded the Florida Freedom to Read Project. [01:10.80]The group works with other parent groups in the state [01:14.60]on a number of educational issues. [01:17.36]Ferrell said they also work to "keep or get back books [01:21.48]that have gone under challenge or have been banned." [01:26.04]Over the past year, book challenges and bans [01:29.28]have reached levels not seen in many years. [01:32.32]That information comes from officials [01:35.24]at the American Library Association, [01:37.84]the National Coalition Against Censorship, or NCAC, [01:42.44]and other supporters of free speech. [01:46.16]"There are some books with pornography and pedophilia [01:50.04]that should absolutely be removed [01:51.96]from K through 12 school libraries," said Yael Levin. [01:56.76]She is a spokesperson for No Left Turn in Education. [02:02.00]The nationwide group opposes what it calls [02:05.04]a "Leftist agenda" for public schools. [02:08.72]Bills have been proposed that restrict classroom reading [02:12.24]and discussion around the country, says PEN America. [02:16.72]The group works to defend free speech in the U.S. [02:20.72]Almost all of the bills, it says, [02:23.52]center on sexuality, gender identity or race. [02:28.40]In Missouri, a proposed bill would ban teachers [02:32.28]from using The 1619 Project. [02:35.40]That is a special project of the New York Times Magazine [02:39.40]that centers around slavery in American history. [02:42.72]It was released last year as a book. [02:46.00]In an answer to such moves, [02:48.60]group like the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN America [02:53.12]and the NCAC have been working with local activists, [02:58.00]educators and families around the country. [03:02.48]The head of book publisher Penguin Random House, Markus Dohle, [03:07.04]has said he will personally donate $500,000 for a book defense fund. [03:13.32]Hachette Book Group has announced "emergency donations" [03:17.28]to PEN, NCAC and the Authors Guild. [03:21.76]In Missouri, the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, [03:26.44]sought action in federal court last month. [03:30.04]The organization was hoping to prevent the Wentzville school district [03:34.64]from removing books including Gender Queer, [03:37.52]Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Keise Laymon's Heavy. [03:43.76]Vera Eidelman is a lawyer with the ACLU Speech, Privacy [03:48.32]and Technology Project. [03:50.00]She said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 [03:55.12]that "local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves [03:59.60]simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books." [04:04.48]However, Eidelman said, school officials are permitted [04:08.64]to ban books for reasons other than not approving of the ideas in the books. [04:13.88]Officials might decide, for example, [04:16.68]that the book uses too much vulgar language. [04:20.04]But the meaning of vulgarity can change and be unclear, she said. [04:25.64]And that can be used by the government to ban books. [04:30.32]Two anti-banning measures were started in Pennsylvania. [04:34.32]In Kutztown, student Joslyn Diffenbaugh formed a banned book club [04:40.08]that began with a reading of George Orwell's "Animal Farm." [04:44.36]And the Pennridge Improvement Project has started a drive [04:48.76]to purchase books that have been removed from schools [04:51.96]and put them in small free libraries around the area. [04:56.44]I'm Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM