To the Editor,
Like movies, all books are not appropriate for children.
Many movies for adults are given a “R” or higher rating and ages 17 and younger are banned from viewing them without an adult present. The books that I have reviewed on the schools “banned list” could not be portrayed on the screen without a “R” or higher rating, nor could the books be read out loud in the classroom. These books are not being banned from the general public they are being taken out of public schools where children read them, not adults. Parents can still find these books and get them for their children if they wish, just as they can take them into a “R” rated movie. Many of the themes include rape, incest, pedophilia and other topics I feel uncomfortable writing here. We work hard as parents to protect our children from those things. It seems we may want to take thought about how reading those same things with graphic descriptions may affect the very children we are wanting to protect. The human brain is not fully developed until the mid twenties and lacks the reasoning skills of an adult. The written word can be more descriptive and graphic than a “R” rated movie can portray. We do not bring rated R movies into schools and we are careful about other movies we bring in. Might we want to also be careful about other media? HB374 does not call for banning books. You can read the law at Utah.gov by searching HB374. The Utah law is applying the same content boundaries that already exist in schools to all forms of media.
—Julie Nelson
Delta
