Back in 2008, author John Green filmed a YouTube video titled “I Am Not A Pornographer.” In it, he discussed his debut novel Looking For Alaska, which had been out for three years. A high school outside of Buffalo, New York, was planning to teach it to 11th-graders as part of an English class. As Green explained, “because there are a few scenes in Looking For Alaska that some people find controversial,” school administrators and teachers gave parents a choice: they could agree with their child being taught the book, or they could ask for their child to read a different book.
“But there were a few people who weren’t happy with this solution,” Green said in the clip. “These people didn’t actually have kids in the 11th grade, but no matter. They think that my book is pornographic, and that it will cause immoral thoughts and actions in children. These people believe that no one should be allowed to read the book, even those people whose parents signed the permission slip.”
