Empowering Students is “Perfectly Normal:" The Case for 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 in Middle Schools

In September of 2023, a middle school teacher wrote an open letter to the Lexington County, Virginia school board expressing outrage over the “graphic sexual content” included in the county middle school’s library. Swiftly following the letter, the school board removed two books from the county’s Lylburn Middle School library without due process and avowed to reconsider the guidelines for including books in the library. One of the two books in question was It’s Perfectly Normal, a non-fiction illustrated book intended to educate readers ten and up on sex, intercourse, and puberty. It’s Perfectly Normal and should be available in Lexington County, Virginia. The removal of It’s Perfectly Normal serves to stigmatize the topics of sex, sexuality, and puberty, implicitly telling students their bodies, feelings, and experiences are not “perfectly normal” after all. In “Empowering Students is ‘Perfectly Normal:' The Case for It’s Perfectly Normal in Middle Schools” the author explores the ramifications of banning a book on the basis of sexual content. The article explores the case itself, and its broader implications in an increasingly censored world.