“I heard that the school is going to ban some popular books from the school library,” says Haley.

“Hold on a second,” says Ms. Kahn. “Let me head off that rumor before it goes viral. Principal Jackson and some of us teachers were talking about the American Library Association’s annual list of the most common books people have tried to ban from libraries and schools. But as far as I know, no one is talking about banning any books at our school.”

“Why would anyone bother restricting kids’ access to library books?” says Max. “Kids can find way worse stuff on the internet than anything in a book.”

“That’s not even the point,” says Haley. “Nobody should be banning anything. People on one side of an issue might want to ban books that support the other side, but that’s not how we should deal with disagreements. Better to just take censorship off the table despite our not liking a lot of what gets written. We should talk with each other in a civil way about the topics we disagree about.”

“Well, I disagree with that,” says Marian. “I don’t think we should tolerate books and magazines that promote hatred or violence.”

Jamal joined in the conversation. “I write for the student paper, and we’ve had the issue of censorship come up there. Every once in a while, a parent says the school shouldn’t let students say certain things. Our faculty sponsor, Mr. Lee, always talks with us about considering the feelings and ideas of the critics. He encourages us to integrate opposing views into our arguments, but he defends our right to express ourselves and take on any topic.”

“There are obviously a lot of different dimensions to the issue of censorship,” says Ms. Kahn. “I wonder if anyone has done any research on young people’s attitudes towards censorship in schools. Maybe some of you could see what you can find out about that.”