"The Danvers Teachers Association responded to residents at Monday's school committee meeting who raised concerns about the teaching of a book that depicts racism and police brutality. Eighth graders in Danvers are currently reading the 2015 novel "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. It tells the story of two boys, one Black and one white, whose lives are changed by police brutality, according to Kiely's website."
"Stone also read a quote from Jason Reynolds, one of the book's authors. "Specifically, for a lot of us, it doesn't always feel like you're banning the book itself. Sometimes it feels like you're banning the people that those books are about, that you're saying that those lives are lives that should only exist in the shadows," Reynolds said in a 2023 NPR interview about book bans."
Danvers eighth graders are reading All American Boys, a 2015 novel portraying two boys—one Black, one white—whose lives are affected by police brutality. Some parents opted their children out citing profanity and depictions of substance abuse and violence. The Danvers Teachers Association read a letter opposing censorship and argued that objecting to the book denies students ELA class alongside peers. The association highlighted concerns that banning books or perspectives silences Black American experiences. The school committee clarified that no books are banned, and the previously paused inclusion of Stamped for Kids was later reinstated.
Read at Boston.com
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