Penguin Random House is teaming up with an authors’ group to sue a Florida school district after it banned a number of books. Penguin, nonprofit PEN America, several authors, and two parents have joined forces in a lawsuit against Escambia County School District and their School Board claiming they violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments by removing / restricting books from school libraries. The team is pointing out that the district “disproportionately targeted books ‘by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ people.’” Among those banned include The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, all of which are traditionally encouraged in Advanced Placement high school literature courses. In the lawsuit, the team cites a PEN analysis that found “more than 40% of books temporarily or permanently removed from school libraries nationwide last year had LGBTQ themes or prominent LGBTQ characters. More than a fifth directly addressed issues of race or racism.” (Business Insider)
