KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Students are upset about changes coming to school libraries this fall. Back in 2022, Governor Bill Lee signed "The Age Appropriate Materials Act" into law. But this year, lawmakers added even more specific restrictions. The changes to that law require schools to pull books with content deemed "sexual" or "excessively violent."
On Wednesday in Market Square, students shared their opposition to the plan. The event was organized by East Tennessee Freedom Schools.
"Freedom Schools basically helps children read and write better," said Brandan Summey, a rising 6th grader. "So usually when we do our work, we take a book and then we read the book, then we do work on the book."
It's a free six week summer enrichment program run by the Children's Defense Fund for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade. Executive Director Denise Dean said at the end of each program, there's a call to action.
"We have a National Day of Social Action," said Dean. "We've protested a rally about the climate crisis, gun violence. This summer, we're talking about banned books. And so one of the things an overarching theme for freedom schools is I can make a difference. And one of the ways we work with our scholars to make a difference is by raising their voices about issues that are important to them in their community."
Students, parents, and Freedom Schools staff began by walking around Market Square and chanting.
"What we're doing is we're basically protesting, banning books so our children and children after us and multiple generations can read the books that we grew up with," said Summey.
Then the students marched to the stage and read excerpts of books that could potentially be banned.
"We've marched, we've chanted, we are reading sections from different banned books," said Dean. Then explaining why they were banned and why it doesn't make sense to us. And talk about what's lost when we ban books. They're criminalizing the reading of certain books, especially what's painful is when they criminalize us reading books about our culture or our history, Black, Latino, Asian, low social economic, whatever. So not having the access to material that allows us to not only grow in our understanding but also in some instances, cultivating empathy and understanding of those that are different from us."
Dean said its important to get children to advocate for what they want because they're the future. She said this is especially important when it comes to book bans and children losing access to certain books.
"It's just a loss for our society and what we're doing with Freedom Schools is we're growing future citizens," said Dean. "These are people who are gonna be voting in five or 10 years. And we need to have them able to be thoughtful to think critically about the issues in their community and ways that they can address whenever there's a challenge."
Dean said it's important to hear from the students firsthand because they're impacted the most by changes to what's allowed in school libraries.
"I've read all the banned books just because of how long I've been on this planet, right? But the Children for them to see a book or hear about a book and then be told they can't have that because it'll make them smarter, right? Or give you a perspective that we don't want you advocating for."
And the students agree.
"I think it's important because most of the books that we have that they're banning, give good lessons on life, which is basically why they're banning them," said Summey.
Summey said initially he didn't want to join the program, but now he's glad he did.
"It's amazing," said Summey. "I love it. Freedom Schools is just one of the best summer schools that I've ever been to."
He said he'd go back again.
Dean said she's encouraging people to reach out to their local school boards and lawmakers about the changes.
Knox County Schools voted last week to add language from the state law into district policy. The superintendent, Jon Rysewyk, said the district won't be in full compliance on the first day of school. He said there are gray areas of the law, that will take time for the district to translate.