Censorship, Classrooms, and Content Warnings

As society and social media promote the understanding of how to accommodate people with trauma or mental illnesses, the topic of content warnings has become largely debated. Content warnings appear everywhere, from TV show intros to infographics on Instagram. But as a form of mainstream popular media, books must come with content warnings as well.

Reading shouldn’t be sacrificed or avoided in fear of discomforting themes. It’s impossible to know what an entire novel might reference, and even if it’s mentioned in just a paragraph, certain themes can trigger people with certain traumas. Expecting someone with mental illness to thoroughly research or avoid a book is unacceptable, especially when 60 percent of men and 50 percent of women have experienced trauma and six percent of people in the U.S. suffer from PTSD.

As someone with mental illness and trauma symptoms, I know how hard it sometimes is to get through a day. The outside world is unforgiving, and trigger warnings don’t exist in real life. Triggers are harmful and often can’t be avoided, but an advantage of the online world is that it is catered to you. As more people learn about the benefits of content warnings, these content warnings should be applied to books. Every work of writing has a target audience, and part of a reader’s experience can include having one’s opinions challenged. But literature should not cause harm, especially when it can be avoided by actions as easy as flagging down graphic material and writing a few sentences inside the cover of a novel.

However, there is a fine line between trigger warnings and censorship. I firmly believe that banned books should not exist. Just two decades ago, there would’ve been a trigger warning on a book if a character was gay. This circumstance is not the same today. Content warnings shouldn’t restrict information or limit free speech. They should only make a note of potentially harmful themes. Sexual orientation, gender, and critical race theory are not threatening topics. Each piece of literature will not be pleasing to every reader, but there is a huge difference between having personal discomfort you have to work through and being triggered. “Being [made] uncomfortable by topics or values or things that upset you is very different than having a symptomatic mental health response,” University of Tulsa professor Dr. Elana Newman stated.

Schools still need to integrate books with serious themes into the syllabus and required reading. Reading about the Holocaust, mental illness, family dynamics, and racism is crucial, and these topics deserve to be discussed in a safe and unfiltered environment. In one of my former ELA classes, we were reading a passage aloud when the teacher announced a trigger warning for violence. While it was helpful, what would have happened if students felt like they couldn’t safely digest the content? If students tell the school that they can’t safely read a book in the syllabus while maintaining their emotional health, the school system should be able to treat this situation like any physical injury and value students’ well-being over anything else.

“I think that if I were in this sort of situation, which I know some of my colleagues have, I would have a conversation with the student, to determine whether the problem could be resolved by confronting the topic, and if not, I would find another possibility. In any situation, I feel that it’s of utmost value to partner with the student to find a successful alternative,” Stuyvesant English teacher Hugh Francis said. He acknowledges that there is a difference between being uncomfortable with a topic (as that feeling is something many of the best and most important books evoke) and having a personal experience with a certain trauma or having been adjacent to it. Francis also brings up the difference between not being able to read a work of fiction safely and ignoring history. “If we never have conversations about these things, we’re essentially inviting [them] to happen,” Francis said. This consequence is detrimental for topics like the Holocaust and rape.

As of now, there is no concrete policy at Stuyvesant in terms of trigger warnings in English class. Many teachers provide them, but some prefer not to due to the possibility of spoiling the rest of a book. To me, that’s not what a content warning does. It simply gives people a heads-up to be able to prepare physically and emotionally for challenging topics ahead. Content warnings only give a brief mention of a subject, not when, where, or how. If a book is spoiled by a trigger warning because the whole plot centers around that theme, then people should probably know about it anyway.

The school system has to become more comfortable with the concept of trigger warnings. It should be mandatory for professors to give them before the beginning of a new unit or book. It’s important to communicate to students that being open with teachers about concerns and trauma is a welcome conversation. Students need to be assured that, after a feasible explanation, there will be an alternative lesson that will give them full credit and learning possibilities. Nobody should feel afraid at school.