WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Lemon Tree Wellness & Consulting and Climb Out of the Darkness are holding their annual walk and community building event at H .
to the constitution, the removal and banning of books for students in school libraries. these books overwhelmingly target stories and authors, narratives, people of color, and lgbtq individuals, so that places a discrimination claim under the constitution and from a first amendment perspective they are picking in choosing books they don t like that portray stories that they don t agree with, that they think are inappropriate, that don t depict a family the way they think it should be shown, and just picking in choosing and taking those off the shelves. that s viewpoint based discrimination, precisely what strength the heart is worst red but. so we are asking the court to stand with us in vindicate these kids freedom to read. and the thing is, if you look at the commonly banned books, gender queer is the number one banned book, these are the most commonly, all boys are blue, about the lgbtq experience, out of darkness, your book, ashley, and the bluest eye is the other book.
so ashley, tell us about your book and how surprised were you when you found out it was bent band. what s your book about? out of darkness takes a historical event as the backdrop for an interracial romance. you look at the cover, this is one of the reasons why rate wing groups love to waive this book around and say that it s filth. but one of the things that is interesting is that this book was on the shelves from 2015 to 2021 without a single complaint. and as i school english teacher i can tell you that s because it meets the needs of young readers, it helps high school students reckoned with our history, look at what our realities of racism in america, and imagine other possibilities for the future. in 2021, right-wing groups try telling parents but that was a problem and that s when books like out of darkness started being targeted. you said you re a former english teacher. i believe i saw you with ali
[laughter] nothing like kicking off a presidential campaign with a big fat ally. does this man know what s happening in his state? i won one county alone at least 100 books were pulled from school libraries because of the complaints of one person? pan america, the nonprofit group that advocates for free expense freshen is monitoring these bans across the country, alongside publisher pen penguin random house. they filed a lawsuit against a florida school district for removing books related to race in the lgbtq community after high school teacher complained. joining me now is suzanne nossel pen america ceo, and ashley ho perez, a plaintive in the suit and author of out of darkness, one of the most banned books in recent years, according to pan america. thank you both for being here. ms. suzanne nossel, please explain your lost suit. great to see you, joy. great to be here. we are suing in escambia county challenging under the first amendment in the 14th amendment