The Young America’s Foundation will provide Burbank Unified School District students with copies of several books that were recently barred from the teaching curriculum.
Back in September 2020, BUSD teachers were told they couldn’t teach the five books — “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck, “The Cay” by Theodore Taylor, and “Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor — after a group of four parents complained to the district, calling the stories harmful toward black people.
With the help of donor Rob Raede, however, YAF will make the five books free to any middle or high school student in the 15,000-person school district who wants them.
“These books are classics of American fiction precisely because they address uncomfortable historical truths from our past,” Raede told YAF, reports The Los Angeles Times. “We are proud to do what we can to make sure the students of Burbank have access to this great literature, despite the efforts of the book-banning cowards on the school board to deny to their students the lessons contained within.”
In addition to putting the books Burbank schools are attempting to hide directly into students’ hands, YAF is calling on those with the power to do the right thing—the board members of the Burbank Unified School District—to immediately rescind their ban on these books.
— YAF (@yaf) December 7, 2020
Spencer Brown, a YAF spokesperson, previously told Fox News that the district was robbing students of the opportunity to “wrestle with the important ideas” in the books and “learn from them as they develop in their educational career.”
A spokesperson for BUSD disputed the characterization that the books have been banned, having told Fox News that the books are simply “on pause while we listen and learn from our [black indigenous people of color] students, parents, and teachers who have experienced these classroom books for over thirty years now and have come to our District sharing their experiences and their concerns.”
According to The Los Angeles Times, the district created a committee to review the allegations made about the books, and to determine a best course of action. The school superintendent also recently wrote a letter explaining the decision to remove the books from the reading list.
“When these books were selected they were not intentionally selected to guide us through conversations of race and racism. In addition, the complaints have created the space to have brave conversations, not just about the books in question, but also about our district’s policies, practices, and culture,” he wrote. “In my opinion, the number one goal of American public education is to provide access and opportunity to all students. We must constantly review our educational system to ensure we are making progress towards this goal. Only in doing so can we actually face what must be changed.”
The outcome of the committee review remains unclear, but the district says the books remain available in school libraries.
