(WASHINGTON)– Today, news outlets report that the Williamson County, Tennessee, school district removed access to the digital library app Epic! for all K-5 families after a parental complaint about the book An ABC of Equality, which is designed for 1-4 year olds. In response, PEN America issued the following comment from Nadine Farid Johnson, PEN America’s Washington director and co-author of its new report Banned in the USA, issued this week: “This immediate and full-scale suspension of access to a system of library books by a school board is emblematic of the precise issue we highlight in our report. This is an online library system to which parents subscribe, and upon which parents, teachers, and students rely. Suspending access to 40,000 books without adherence to appropriate process, and with utter disregard for the First Amendment rights of the tens of thousands of students impacted, is a dereliction of duty on the part of the school board. Unfortunately, it not only sets a worrisome precedent; it also undermines the very education this school board is responsible for ensuring.”