To: The Garrett-Keyser-Butler Community School Board and Superintendent Dan Durrwachter
Book bans, ban knowledge. Support Garrett staff today.
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We, the undersigned students, parents, alumni, educators, and concerned community members of Garrett-Keyser-Butler School Corporation (GKB), strongly OPPOSE the board's recent decision to remove six acclaimed works of literature from the high school curriculum and library.
This ban—on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, A Thousand Splendid Suns, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Brave New World, A Handmaid’s Tale, and Forrest Gump—represents a profound failure in judgment, disregard for trained educators, and a dangerous new low in policy-making based on flawed and unreliable information.
The Facts Demand a Reversal:
The board’s decision is fundamentally unsound for the following reasons:
The board’s decision is fundamentally unsound for the following reasons:
- Misapplication of State Law: The board's initial rationale was to comply with Indiana state laws, including Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 442. This is an outrageous misapplication of the law. As numerous experts and even the bill's author have noted, SEA 442 is narrowly focused on "instruction on human sexuality" and does not apply to classic, mandatory literature taught in English classes. The school board is using this law to justify a book ban where no justification exists.
- Failure of Due Diligence and Reliance on AI: At a recent school board meeting, a board member admitted to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine if these books were "obscene" and appropriate for students. Policy for our students cannot be set by a flawed AI algorithm. This decision bypasses the professional judgment of our licensed teachers, librarians, and curriculum specialists, substituting years of training and literary expertise with an unverified digital output.
- Overriding Educator Expertise: The removed books are staples of serious literary study, chosen by trained high school teachers for their ability to foster critical thinking, historical context, and empathy. The board’s action disregards this professional judgment and disrupts student learning weeks into the school year.
- Limiting Parental Rights: Families already possess the right to decide what their own children read through opt-out options. This blanket ban removes that choice for all families and imposes the personal moral views of a few board members upon the entire student body.
Our Demand
We demand that the Garrett-Keyser-Butler School Board immediately reverse its vote to remove these six essential works of literature. We ask the board to restore the books to the high school curriculum and to commit to relying on the expertise of its professional educators, not on misleading legal interpretations or unreliable AI content.
We demand that the Garrett-Keyser-Butler School Board immediately reverse its vote to remove these six essential works of literature. We ask the board to restore the books to the high school curriculum and to commit to relying on the expertise of its professional educators, not on misleading legal interpretations or unreliable AI content.
Book banning has no place in our schools. Please reverse this harmful decision and demonstrate that the GKB Board values academic freedom, intellectual rigor, and the professional judgment of the people you hired to educate our children.
Why is this important?
Book banning has no place in our schools. Please reverse this harmful decision and demonstrate that the GKB Board values academic freedom, intellectual rigor, and the professional judgment of the people you hired to educate our children.
đź“š Banning books is always on the wrong side of history.
đź“š Banning books is always on the wrong side of history.
How it will be delivered
in person
