Stop Book Bans From Pulling 3,743 Books Off School Shelves This Year
The Issue
This isn't a few concerned parents pulling one book. It's organized. PEN America recorded 6,870 school book-ban cases across 23 states and 87 public school districts during the 2024–25 school year, hitting 3,743 unique titles. Since July 2021, that count has climbed to 22,810 cases across 45 states and 451 districts — the largest wave of school censorship any living American has seen.
Picture a kid walking into their school library for the book a friend told them to read and the shelf is empty. Now multiply that by thousands of classrooms with a new school year just starting. These aren't dusty titles nobody wanted; they're the books that helped students feel seen, understood, and curious about the world.
Personally, as someone diagnosed with a neurodivergence, unrestricted access to a wide range of books has allowed me to better understand myself and navigate the world at large. Growing up, my ADHD made sustained focused and reading comprehension extremely frustrating. Luckily, by having access to books that interested me, including many newly banned books, I was able to build a consistent reading habit to overcome my challenges. I used to re-read the same page multiple times, which often lead me to give up on many books, but now I can read for hours on end with minimal difficulties.
Many of these bans are orchestrated under the guise of protection, whereas the real goal is censorship. "Protecting Children" and "Parental Rights" have become buzz words to diminish students' first amendment rights. All students deserve to read and learn as they please without politicians bullying school leaders into censoring according to their ideology.
There's a real fix in Congress right now. The Fight Book Bans Act (H.R. 7691), reintroduced this spring by Rep. Maxwell Frost, would fund school districts to stand up to bad-faith book bans instead of caving to them. Tell the U.S. House Education & Workforce Committee to move the Fight Book Bans Act forward, and protect students' freedom to read before another school year gets censored.
Paid partnership. Anthony Kozlowski is a Change Ambassador who receives compensation in connection with this petition.
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The Issue
This isn't a few concerned parents pulling one book. It's organized. PEN America recorded 6,870 school book-ban cases across 23 states and 87 public school districts during the 2024–25 school year, hitting 3,743 unique titles. Since July 2021, that count has climbed to 22,810 cases across 45 states and 451 districts — the largest wave of school censorship any living American has seen.
Picture a kid walking into their school library for the book a friend told them to read and the shelf is empty. Now multiply that by thousands of classrooms with a new school year just starting. These aren't dusty titles nobody wanted; they're the books that helped students feel seen, understood, and curious about the world.
Personally, as someone diagnosed with a neurodivergence, unrestricted access to a wide range of books has allowed me to better understand myself and navigate the world at large. Growing up, my ADHD made sustained focused and reading comprehension extremely frustrating. Luckily, by having access to books that interested me, including many newly banned books, I was able to build a consistent reading habit to overcome my challenges. I used to re-read the same page multiple times, which often lead me to give up on many books, but now I can read for hours on end with minimal difficulties.
Many of these bans are orchestrated under the guise of protection, whereas the real goal is censorship. "Protecting Children" and "Parental Rights" have become buzz words to diminish students' first amendment rights. All students deserve to read and learn as they please without politicians bullying school leaders into censoring according to their ideology.
There's a real fix in Congress right now. The Fight Book Bans Act (H.R. 7691), reintroduced this spring by Rep. Maxwell Frost, would fund school districts to stand up to bad-faith book bans instead of caving to them. Tell the U.S. House Education & Workforce Committee to move the Fight Book Bans Act forward, and protect students' freedom to read before another school year gets censored.
Paid partnership. Anthony Kozlowski is a Change Ambassador who receives compensation in connection with this petition.
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Petition created on August 17, 2026