To Kill a Mockingbird is a standard book assigned to freshman in the district to read; however, the book is one of the most banned of all time due to underlying themes such as racism. Throughout history there has been a stigma against books that have not fit societal norms and Banned Books Week which started Sunday and ends Saturday, hopes to bring attention to what has been done over the years.

“The first thing I’m doing is I’m trying to get information out there,” librarian Chelsea Hamilton said. “So the whole idea with Banned Book Week is in 1982, and teachers and librarians and educators got fed up with people trying to take books out of their libraries because they didn’t like X, Y, or Z. But that goes against the First Amendment, the intellectual freedom of press, freedom of speech.”

Teachers hope this week is an eye-opener for students who aren’t aware of the history of banned books.

“I think a lot of people people don’t know which books are banned.” English teacher Kacie Smith said. “I think there is sense of surprise when people do realize which books are banned and then there’s curiosity because they want to know why those books are banned which will hopefully will lead them to checking them out and actually reading them.”

Hamilton is bringing awareness to these books by showcasing them in a prominent place.

“What I’m doing is I found over 60 books that we have in our library that have been either banned or challenged to be banned and I put them out there,” Hamilton said. “I just really want students to read things that are outside of their comfort zone, read things that maybe you wouldn’t read before.”