By Maria LaMagna
<[email protected]>

This week the media center sponsors Banned Books Week. It began Sunday and ends tomorrow. Following this week, on Monday and Tuesday, media center specialist Bonnie Grimble said that English teachers may bring their classes to the media center to discuss “intellectual freedom issues.”

During these sessions, which Grimble said will last about 40 minutes, she will tell classes about a personal experience she had, witnessing a book burning in Warsaw, Poland. Classes will discuss and consider various reasons that governments and other authorities limit books, movies and other forms of communication. Then they will examine picture books that authorities have “challenged” over the years.

Grimble said that schools and governments have questioned the ethics of various books through the years, including The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird and even Where’s Waldo?

Junior Jason Wing said that he read To Kill a Mockingbird in his freshman English class and is confused as to why it would be banned in some communities.

“To Kill a Mockingbird shouldn’t be banned,” he said, “because it provides life lessons and it’s a book our parents read. We deserve to read it, too.”

The theme for this year’s Banned Books Week is “Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas, Limits Understanding, Closes Possibilities.” English teachers may contact Grimble to take part in Monday and Tuesday’s discussions.