I am not an attorney, and I’m certainly not a free speech expert. As a parent, I’d be the first to agree that kids these days are often exposed to material that’s inappropriate or downright indecent, and I’ve been known to question what my own children read in school.

But censorship is different. Censorship is the effort of parents – or librarians, school board members or other officials, but usually parents – to remove a questionable book so that no one, whatever their age, their studies or their families’ own views, can read it. Dairy Queen has been banned from at least one public school library because it “promotes homosexuality;” doubtless The Off Season will be censored far more. I find this appalling. Writing about a subject that touches the lives of millions of Americans does not “promote” this reality: what really disturbed those librarians was the fact I even acknowledged homosexuality.

These censors – and others who have criticized Dairy Queen’s profanity, and D.J.’s lack of respect for her parents – don’t trust teens’ abilities to rationally analyze a book. Reading is but one step; far more important for a student, and for our national intellect, is reasoning out the book’s meanings and implications. Are the characters believable, sympathetic? Should we endorse a particular character, or a book as a whole? Is it appropriate to include a gay character? How about a father who curses and doesn’t talk to his kids? These are extremely valid questions, and the students I’ve met on school visits, when given the courtesy to ponder and debate, provide thoughtful, reasoned, valid answers.

For more information on censorship and how you can work to prevent it, visit these websites:

• The American Library Association
• The First Amendment
• Challenged and Banned Books
• The National Coalition Against Censorship
• American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression