Broad Book Ban Takes a Break

As society turns to a new chapter, Iowa turns away from a proposed ban. This was a ban prompted by Senate File 496. This ban had many outcomes, including a limit on identity expression and a ban of books within schools. This ban was recently put on pause.

This ban on literature and limit on identity access began in October of 2023 and was brought to a halt in early January 2024. According to an article from Little Village on Jan. 8, school districts are “returning the books it removed from school libraries because of a book ban in the sweeping education bill pushed through the Iowa Legislature.”

AHS senior Adelynn Welsh is an avid reader and felt “very unsafe” in regards to Senate File 496 flowing through. Welsh believes that “books are a form of art,” and that the break in book banning is good. “Books more than often have something to teach,” said Welsh. “There are things that are dangerous to children, and books are not one of them.” Many students at AHS agree with this statement.

Welsh furthered to comment on the section of the bill that flowed through. This section requires educators to report identity changes within the school and classroom setting to parents. “It’s basically telling someone they can’t exist and be themselves,” said Welsh. Welsh believes that “having all these different kinds of people is a beautiful thing” and that stopping students from expressing themselves within a school will result negatively for the students.

Junior Nissa Molgaard reflected on the identity restrictions that arose with the passing of part of Senate File 496. “I think that this will negatively impact students who are already in a bad situation at home, especially if they have a different identity at school.” Molgaard continued on to state, “I unfortunately don’t think that lawmakers had this in mind when making the law.”

Although warned that this bill could “force vulnerable trans and nonbinary students to come out to their families before they are ready, or hide their identities from teachers and school counselors they trust,” according to the Little Village article, it was decided that students must get written consent from their parents before any identity alterations within the school.

For additional information read this previous story.
https://ahsneedle.com/38548/showcase/story-time/

About the Contributors

Alix Nath, AHS Needle Editor

Alix Nath is a junior editor for the senior magazine and AHS Needle who likes to “dabble in a little bit of everything”, including The Javelin. Nath credits their brother Felix Nath, a 2022 AHS graduate, as the biggest inspiration for why they joined the journalism program. Nath’s proudest journalism accomplishment is their work on the senior magazine during their sophomore year. They made several writing contributions, major edits that aided the production of the magazine, and felt “really proud of how [the senior magazine] ended up because of the effort everyone put into it.” Nath’s journalism work strives to capture the “things you wouldn’t normally see,” shining extra light on the behind-the-scene processes of well-known events. Their tendency to dabble goes further than journalism. Nath is an active participant in AHS theatre - usually working as crew or tech, - speech and debate, concert band, marching band as a member of the color guard, and QSA. They draw happiness from school activities as well as their three cats and two dogs. A quote that would describe Nath and their passions best is, “I’m not always the best at things, but I try my best at things.” By J. Molina

Claire Pellett, Staff Writer, Lead Podcast Editor

Ella Meyer is an AHS junior and in her second year of journalism. Meyer is the lead podcast editor for AHS journalism. Her favorite part is First Fridays.Meyer said, “It is when all of the leads get together and we talk about stuff and we just usually end up having some sort of fun and like laughing and just having a pretty good time.” Meyer is specialized in the podcast department of journalism. Her favorite memory in Journalism is over the summer of 2023 a group went to Media Now, which is a journalism camp. “I had so much fun, you do crazy games and I got really close with some of my fellow journalism people because we had to spend a week together in a dorm room in all these dorms and I'd say that’s probably my favorite. It got crazy and we had so much fun.” Meyer likes how journalism is different by how everyone works together, shares ideas as well as supporting each other on the ideas, and giving each other the best feedback possible so you can succeed. Currently Meyer is not involved in anything but journalism but Meyer picked up scrapbooking and is looking forward to it. She also enjoys reading in her free time. Meyer is most proud of her Read Across America Yearbook page that she made last year. She got a lot of compliments on and Ms. Berryhill entered it into a contest and they are still waiting for the results. Meyer hopes to go into an education major to teach journalism down the road. Story by Jersey Green

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Broad Book Ban Takes a Break

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