White House appoints co-ordinator to lead response to book bans

The White House has appointed a new co-ordinator in the Department of Education (DoE) to lead the response to the increasing book bans taking place in various states.

The co-ordinator will work within the department’s Office for Civil Rights, to "provide new trainings for schools nationwide on how book bans that target specific communities and create a hostile school environment may violate federal civil rights laws".

Book bans have increasingly become a problem in the US, with 2022 seeing the highest number of bans in 20 years. According to the White House, these bans "disproportionately strip books about LGBTQI+ communities, communities of color, and other communities off of library and classroom shelves".

News of the new position to combat these efforts comes after the DoE announced a resolution agreement with Forsyth Country School district in Georgia, regarding its removal of library books featuring Black and LGBTQ+ characters. 

Last month Penguin Random House, together with PEN America and authors and parents of children affected by book bans carried out by a Florida school district, filed a lawsuit calling for books on race, racism and LGBTQ identities to be returned to shelves.

A White House statement said: "Book banning erodes our democracy, removes vital resources for student learning, and can contribute to the stigma and isolation that LGBTQI+ people and other communities face. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is announcing that to support its ongoing work to defend the rights of LGBTQI+ students and other underserved communities, it will appoint a new co-ordinator to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students."