Americans tried to ban books from school library shelves 6,780 times last year as part of an active and growing campaign by state legislatures and organized conservative groups to rid schools of LGBTQ+ themes, racial history, discussions of sexuality and steamy scenes in young-adult fiction.
A national group that tracks book bans and advocates against censorship, Pen America, found titles including “A Clockwork Orange” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Looking for Alaska” were frequent targets of the more than 4,000 requests to ban books from public school libraries.
Tomorrow, the state House of Representatives' Government Committee is slated to hear two bills that experts say would make it illegal for schools to carry titles like "Romeo and Juliet," "1984" and even the Bible, and make felons of public librarians who loan them out to students.
Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman reads a children’s book.
“This book and dozens of other books just like it are currently on the shelves of almost every public library system in the state of Arizona. That's wrong. So this bill seeks to end that,” the sponsor of both bills, Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, said during a committee hearing last month.
Earlier this year, we asked the Pima County Library District (PCLD) which books had been challenged and what the district ultimately decided to do with each request.
Only three books were challenged, and none were taken off the shelves.1
Lightly redacted public documents released by the county show which books people wanted removed from the shelves and why.
In the first challenge, the book was panned by a critic for “not being medically accurate.”
Staff were quick to point out that “Parents With Inconvenient Truths About Trans” is a collection of essays.
“It is customary for personal essay collections to be cataloged as nonfiction in library collections. Essays do not have to be factual or accurate,” staff responded. “The title was requested by a customer; copies have checked out repeatedly during the nearly 18 months it has been in the collection.”
Then came the familiar line found in all three letters provided to the Tucson Agenda, saying there are other books to choose from.
“The library has a responsibility to be inclusive in selection, offering materials individuals may find controversial or unacceptable. As our policy explains, 'It is the individual's responsibility to reject, either for themselves or their children, any materials the customer finds unsuitable.’ PCPL will not remove the physical book from the collection.”
Another person asked that “Yes! No! A First Conversation About Consent” be pulled from the library shelves, arguing that the illustrated book on consent was essentially child pornography.
“Weather (sic) photo or drawn this is child pornography. It could damage mental health or behavior seeing these things too soon,” the person wrote.
Additionally, the book should be removed from county shelves and sent to “the authorities,” and the person requested that “under no circumstances should the book be put back on the stacks.”
We’ll note that the very short letter asking for the book to be pulled was filled with spelling errors.
The Pima County Public Library staffer wrote back that the book has “received positive reviews in both professional and popular sources,” and an independent review of the book in 2022 stated the “affirmative consent, bodily autonomy, and correct vocabulary for body parts and more are all addressed in the frank, easy-to-understand text.”
Again, staff offered other options for books to read.
“Although this board book was not appropriate for your family, we have over 1,600 titles to choose from in the board book collection,” the staffer told the complainant.
The complaint about “Every Body: A First Conversation About Bodies” was solely limited to one page, and despite initial guesses that the objection might involve the book’s themes of bodily autonomy or acceptance, the person who wrote in was concerned about racism.
“The page that concerns me: Before you were born, a group of white men started making up lots of ideas about bodies that weren’t true. They said that one kind of body was the best, and that being fat was bad and skinny was good. They were very wrong, but lots of people listened to them,” the person wrote to the library district.
In an odd twist, the person suggested that the library should replace the book with a second edition of the same book, with the problematic language altered. (To be clear, there is no second edition of the book.)
Again, thankfully, library staff artfully explained that second editions are somewhat rare — and even fewer subsequent editions of children’s books contain significant editorial changes.
“As for your recommendation for a second edition, we have no control over books being edited for a second edition. That decision lies with the authors and publishers. Additionally, I will note that board books rarely have a second edition published,” the county staffer wrote.
We also asked Tucson Unified School District about requests to ban books over the last two years and received a note saying they had no documents responsive to our request — meaning it has been a minute since anyone tried to ban books at TUSD.
The City of Tucson and Tucson Electric Power are asking for feedback today on a proposed 25-year energy sharing agreement that would outline how the utility would grow over time.
The seven-page draft agreement includes sections on reducing greenhouse emissions, providing “safe, reliable, affordable energy” and protecting “vulnerable” communities.
While there are 12 topics enumerated in the agreement, there are few specifics. Instead, the agreement includes a general consensus to work together on those topics.
For example, it’s unclear how TEP would reduce greenhouse emissions (and by how much) while also honoring its commitments to other partners. The agreement for the Data Center Campus proposal requires TEP to provide 286 megawatts of electricity — enough energy to power tens of thousands of homes — to the developers of Project Blue data centers.
In exchange for signing the agreement, TEP would give the cash-strapped City of Tucson $2 million a year.
The energy sharing agreement is a precursor to an extension of the franchise agreement, which is expected to go before voters this fall.
And it comes as the city is considering a takeover of TEP in favor of a publicly owned utility service.
For what it’s worth, a clause in the agreement states if the city pursues a takeover, the ESA would be null and void.
ICE’s side of the story: The death last week of Emmanuel Damas, a 56-year-old asylum seeker from Haiti who local officials said died from an untreated tooth infection, caused an uproar that hasn’t subsided, including a vigil outside the detention center where he was held in Florence, Angela Gervasi reports for Arizona Public Media. ICE officials released a statement on Friday that includes a detailed timeline of Damas’ medical care from February 19 until his death.
All politics is local: The Australian mining company South32 signed a deal with local officials in Santa Cruz County that will put several million dollars toward emergency services, two mobile health clinics, early childhood education and other community investments, Genesis Lara writes for the Nogales International. At a recent public meeting, residents had another investment they’d like to see: Funding for environmental and health studies that aren’t conducted by the mining company.
All politics is global: The U.S. attack on Iran is driving up gas prices everywhere, and in Tucson that means a 50-cent jump since last week, per KVOA’s Andrew Capasso. Tucson’s average price of $3.61 per gallon is less than the $4.11 in Phoenix, but higher than the national average of $3.50.
Inside the zoning zoo: Housing laws from the Legislature often create friction with city officials, including in Tucson. It’s a complicated situation and the Arizona Republic’s Catherine Reagor took a stab at sorting it all out when she moderated a debate between legislators and Phoenix-area mayors over “middle housing,” protecting historic homes, HOA requirements and other topics.
“Just build whatever you want, wherever you want is not the solution to this problem,” Former Mesa Mayor John Giles argued. “Just saying 'zoning is evil' is not correct.”
There’s nothing we like more than helping you sort out the dynamic between Southern Arizona officials and lawmakers at the Capitol. But we can’t do it without financial support from our readers.
Moving on: The vice president of the Amphitheater Unified School District governing board says he won’t seek re-election this year, JJ McKinney reports for KGUN. Matt Kopec served on the board for eight years,2 during which he watched schools close as enrollment dropped, school vouchers came on the scene and the district struggled through tough budget years. He says the highlights of his career were helping the district get through the pandemic and expanding early childhood education. Now, a seat is up for grabs on the governing board of one of the largest school districts in Southern Arizona.
The managing editor of the Sierra Vista Herald Review, Matt Hickman, wants to tag in the Arizona Attorney General in suing one of the biggest web-based prediction market platform in the world.
In January, Hickman put down a $5 bet with Kalshi that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, would leave before April 1, 2026.
In what would have netted him $11, Hickman instead got a refund after the company decided not to make $54 million in payouts after Khamenei was assassinated.
Hickman thinks Kalshi’s decision is unfair, as gambling is hardly based on fairly tale endings involving, rainbows, unicorns and puppies.
“Did they think we were betting on him to retire and take up golf?” Hickman wrote in the Herald Review.
Regardless of whether Attorney General Kris Mayes gets into the fight and Hickman gets his full payout, he already has his eye on controversial bets. He thinks there is good money on whether Conan O’Brien will say “6 7” during the Oscars next week.
1 While books did leave Pima County Library District shelves last year, they were for more obvious reasons — a book never returned, retired after it was no longer en vogue, replaced with a newer edition, and we’ve heard rumors of people destroying / defacing media — but nothing definitive.
2 He also briefly served as a lawmaker after winning an appointment in 2016, then being knocked out in that year's Democratic primary.