(WASHINGTON)– A federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia today ordered the Department of Defense to restore all books banned in five schools at U.S. military installations, a ruling PEN America called a victory for the freedom to read.
Judge Patricia Giles granted a preliminary injunction against the book removals, which occurred as the result of executive orders from President Trump related to sex, gender, and race. Books banned included An ABC of Equality by Chana Ginelle Ewing, several volumes of the Heartstopper novel series about a friendship and romance between two school boys by Alice Oseman, and You Call This Democracy? by Elizabeth Rusch.
“The scale of book removals across schools for military families in response to edicts from the White House is a further escalation of the book banning crisis and comes on the heels of four years of coordinated efforts to suppress and restrict reading material for public school students nationwide. This ruling is a solid first step in a long road to restoring and protecting students’ freedom to read in schools run for military families, and we hope this decision will serve as useful precedent in other courts. We stand with the student plaintiffs in E.K. v. DoDEA in celebrating this initial victory in defense of the right to read” said PEN America’s Freedom to Read Program Director Kasey Meehan
The ruling applies to five schools located at military installations in Quantico, Virginia; Aviano, Italy; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Japan.
The judge cited PEN America’s lawsuit against the Escambia County, FL School Board throughout the opinion, relying in part on decisions of the judge in that case to resolve questions involving standing and the government speech doctrine.
PEN America’s latest report, The Normalization of Books Bans, highlights several executive orders from the White House, mainly “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” that were used as justification for the removal in July of almost 600 books from Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools.
PEN America recently welcomed the introduction of the Stop Censoring Military Families Act in response to the federal bans on books in schools on military bases. The bill – which is still needed as the ruling only affects five schools where student plaintiffs are enrolled – would reinstate all books removed from DODEA schools’ classrooms and libraries and protect school curricula from future censorship by the Trump administration or any future administration.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], (201) 247-5057