Gabby Paterson

When you open a book, you envelop yourself in a new society or even a new world. You can take part in adventures with Huckleberry Finn or travel across vast lands with Frodo Baggins. For centuries, books have provided an escape from reality for students and has allowed them to expand both their creativity and knowledge. 

Recently, Park County School District 1 has been in the process of creating a new book policy that adequately addresses the current conflicts in our nation. There will be new guidelines that will deem books either inappropriate or appropriate in a school setting. 

I truly believe this book policy doesn’t matter and will not make a difference, particularly at the high school. Students seldom check out books at Powell High School, and the books that are of major concern to parents and the community aren’t even being checked on a regular basis or at all. 

Books aren’t the only outlet where kids are exposed to inappropriate or controversial topics. Students watch TV shows, listen to true crime podcasts and watch movies that are far more concerning than books that have seldom been checked out at the high school. Additionally, our culture has changed immensely, and I hardly ever see a student in the high school reading a book unless it is for a class assignment. This is both concerning and upsetting to me because books provide an abundance of knowledge and insight to our world.

As we grow up, we begin to formulate our own opinions and ideas about the world including politics and religion. Our teenage years are a critical period in our development which includes starting to make our own decisions. This freedom to make our own choices and explore different ideas is threatened when certain books that introduce “inappropriate” content are removed from our reach.

When adults don’t allow young adults to be exposed to different ideas and viewpoints, they are limiting our opportunities to succeed outside of our small town and Wyoming in general. Living in a small town shelters us from what other large cities or places in the country are like. I think some people in the community don’t realize how many students want to get out of Powell or Wyoming in general to have new, diverse experiences. 

It is hard to accept the truth sometimes, however, some high schoolers already engage in the behavior that is deemed inappropriate in these books. Not acknowledging this means our community is being ignorant and blind to what is actually happening in our community and our world. And in no way am I saying that a book with excessive profanity or sexual content should be allowed in an elementary school; I am concerned with why certain books are being taken out of a high school library where students are at most four years away from being adults. While I agree it is a good idea to implement content ratings on books for those who are concerned with what content they read or the parents who are concerned with what their child reads, there shouldn’t be an expectation that all parents want to control what their child reads. If a parent wants to monitor what their child reads, that is their prerogative, but that doesn’t mean they should be able to control or influence what every other student in the school reads.