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Menomonee Falls school book ban, 33 titles removed

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Published  October 20, 2023 4:48pm CDT
Education
FOX6 News Milwaukee

Menomonee Falls High School bans 33 books

Menomonee Falls High School has banned 33 books from its school library, including some well-known works.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. - Menomonee Falls High School has removed 33 books from its school library after the school district banned the titles, including Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." 

"Some of them are pretty significant in literary history," said William Gottemoller, a 2023 graduate and current Harvard University freshman. "Those are very influential and significant books in the American canon, and yet they are being removed from our library."

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The district cites two reasons to pull the books: profanity and/or sexually explicit content. FOX6 News wanted to know exactly what the complaints were for each book, but the superintendent did not share.

Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" does have some sexual content, including an animal having intercourse with a human. Patricia McCormick's book "Sold" is about a 13-year-old girl forced into sexual slavery; it uses explicit language to describe her assaults and trauma.

Menomonee Falls High School

"If we are to allow that generation to become the leaders of the future, they need to have access to every single book that is in the Western canon," Gottemoller said. "I think Nina [Nina Christensen, the school board president] and our superintendent are missing the point of literature in the first place, especially literature that’s meant to serve some sort of political or emotional cause.

"It’s not meant to be all sugar and spice and clear and very nice. It’s meant to be evocative, it’s meant to provoke you, to challenge what you believe about the world. And that is the premise of an education in the first place: You don’t learn what to think – you learn how to think."

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The Menomonee Falls School District's current policy allows a parent or person living there to make a complaint about a book. That triggers several levels of review, including a reconsideration committee.

There are questions about what process was used for these 33 books. The district said it was using an older policy because that's when the complaints came in. However, activist group Grassroots Menomonee Falls Area said the older policy still required three levels of review. 

"While we acknowledge the School District's concern for age-appropriate and content guidelines, we emphasize the importance of adhering to established policies and procedures," the group wrote in a statement. "The failure to adhere to this established policy raises concerns about transparency and accountability."

Grassroots Menomonee Falls Area said the process should hear from students, parents, educators and community members. In addition, the group urged, "The potential educational benefits of these books should be weighed against concerns raised by the guidelines."

FOX6 asked the superintendent for an interview, but he pointed to the district's statement. FOX6 also asked each school board member for an interview, but did not immediately hear back.

Here's the complete list of 33 books now removed from the Menomonee Falls High School library:

  • "A Court of Frost and Starlight" by Sarah J. Maas
  • "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
  • "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas
  • "A Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas
  • "Boy Toy" by Barry Lyga
  • "Breathless" by Jennifer Niven
  • "Damsel" by Elana Arnold
  • "Empire of Storms" by Sarah J. Maas
  • "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi
  • "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins
  • "Jesus Land: A Memoir" by Julia Scheeres
  • "Kingdom of Ash" by Sarah J Maas
  • "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo
  • "Living Dead Girl" by Elizabeth Scott
  • "Lucky" by Alice Sebold
  • "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult
  • "Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins
  • "Shine" by Lauren Myracle
  • "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
  • "Sold" by Patricia McCormick
  • "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
  • "The Carnival at Bray" by Jessie Ann Foley
  • "The Duff: a Novel" by Kody Keplinger
  • "The Freedom Writers Diary"    
  • "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
  • "The Haters" by Jesse Andrews
  • "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
  • "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
  • "The Sun and Her Flowers" by Rupi Kaur
  • "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins
  • "What Girls Are Made Of" by Elana Arnold
  • "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire
  • "You: A Novel" by Caroline Kepnes