Compared to plenty of other student populations, Stillwater Area High School students are amazingly lucky. With a nationaly renowned yearbook and newspaper, SAHS has had experiences with attempts at censorship. Censorship of books in English rooms and books in the library, as well as newspaper and yearbook hiccups and even website blocking.

 English teacher Laurie Hansen explained how she feels about the subject, “Censorship is when a third party comes in to try and keep a student from reading something or writing something. Especially in journalism and in newspaper too, it might happen, where someone might try to stop a student from writing and publishing something. But in literature it’s definitely when that third party steps in and tries to say ‘my child can’t read this and here’s why. I’m not as opposed to if they want an alternative, but I’m opposed to censorship in that most of the time those people don’t want to just keep their own child from reading it they want to keep everyone from reading it and that’s what’s so insidious about a censor.”

 Censorship has crossed the line in many schools across the country, sometimes even in the state. Books being read in classrooms are highly debated. Hansen continued, “The riskiest book I teach right now… is The Kite Runner. That has a rape in it, it’s a pre teen boy raping a younger boy which I always think, you know, how’s the class going to handle this? I still think, at least in my regular classes, there’s a lot of homophobia. And they look at it as more of a gay thing when really it’s a crazy sociopath pedophile. Gay men like other gay men, a pedophile is a pedophile in this book. So we talk about those issues. It’s such a good book,though,  it’s one of the few books I teach that, even most of the boys, can’t put down. They’re reading in other classes, other teachers have to tell them to put the book away, it’s so compelling. It’s that event and what happens after it and it’s that guy and how he moves on from that moment is what makes it a great story. It’s a horrible thing that happens, but is there a moral value in teaching the book? Absolutely, of course.”

 Librarian Kristine Vick explained that, though no book has been banned at SAHS there have been  attempts, “There’s a difference between reading a book alone in your room and reading a book in a classroom. A classroom allows for discussion of certain topics and when books are being attempted to be censored it’s because the content is violent or profane.” Vick said.

Hansen added, “Those kinds of events happen in the world and I don’t think it’s worthwhile to shelter kids. One problem I have with the censors is they’re the kind of people that want their kids to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening. People get raped, there’s murder, there’s all these unwholesome things in the world and shielding them from those things I don’t think is healthy or good education. I can see why they do it, parents want to protect their kids, but I don’t think it’s good parenting… I’m such a proponent of those stories and how they can be so morally uplifting by the end, and that’s why I think it’s better to do it in a classroom so I can kind of guide  them in the things I want them to think about and the lessons that can be learned from the events in the stories.”

It doesn’t look like SAHS is going to be pressed any time soon to censor books or writing. For the most part, the students are still lucky that they can read whatever they want and write whatever their heart desires. Their rights and voices are safe.