Saying that parents can go to a bookstore or to another library misses the point.
The point is for these materials to be widely available. Is there a "banned" book that isn't available on the internet for free? No.
So does blocking websites. Should school computers also provide unrestricted internet access? Or provide safer filtered access blocking a wide range of the most 'harmful' sites?
'Banned books' sounds dramatic, but is it any worse than blocking social media, porn, and gambling sites on the school network?
One website blocked here in Katy ISD is The Trevor Project, which is a suicide prevention support site for LGBTQ youth.
I strongly encourage you to visit this site for 2 minutes and imagine having to explain what policy this site violates.
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
This is a small group of busybodies trying to declare that their "boundary of appropriateness" should apply to all students. That's just a pleasant form of thoughtcrime.
A simple solution would be a third category between "appropriate" and "inappropriate " - call it "borderline" - and have an opt in policy for children for these books.
Letting each parent decide for their own child what is appropriate is fine.
What's happening here is not.
Source: Texas school parent, weirded out by casual fascism
If you genuinely care about child suicide, you'd want to keep children well away from social media for as long as humanly possible. It's harmful enough even to adults!
Big deal. We already shape opinions by having a vocal minority successfully shout down dissenting opinions.
From the article it's hard to tell whether this is from a vocal minority of the libraries target audience, or a majority opinion.
https://nassimtaleb.org/2016/08/intolerant-wins-dictatorship...