By Kathie Giorgio
In 2020, I was nominated and accepted for my graduating high school’s “Wall of Stars”. To be on the Wall of Stars, recipients had to be successful in their fields and had to give back to their community. I was chosen because of the books I’d had traditionally published, the success of my small business (an international creative writing studio), and my involvement in creating and sponsoring a book festival, plus many volunteer appearances.
I was thrilled.
In 2023, my books were removed from my school’s library, and all the school district libraries, as part of a “sweep” involving “questionable” books.
I was shocked.
In late 2024, I was asked to be a guest speaker for my graduating high school’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. I was encouraged to give a gift of my books to the school’s library.
I was thrilled.
I spoke at the Celebration in January 2025, and four months later, I was informed by the Deputy Superintendent of the Waukesha Wisconsin School District that my gift was not being accepted and would not be put into the school library. The books were returned to me.
I was shocked.
This is the world of book-banning. Like a rollercoaster, it has twists and turns that are breathtaking and breath-stealing. I was not new to this world, but I never expected it to come from my high school, which I loved and appreciated.
Let’s wind back the clock.
I attended three high schools during the usual freshman through senior years. I landed at Waukesha North High School in January 1977, the second semester of my junior year. I graduated in June 1978. When I arrived, I was a very angry and sad teenager. But by the end of my first semester, I felt at home. I was in a public school that lauded the arts, was strong in art and music, and most of all, writing. I took amazing classes – creative writing, journalism, Growing Up In Literature & Reality, Mystery & The Macabre, Science Fiction & Fantasy. I wrote for the school paper and for the literary magazine. And I read incredible books, which were part of the curriculum. Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack. Wanda Hickey’s Night Of Golden Memories. Say You Love Me, Junie Moon. Howl. The Pill Versus The Spring Hill Mine Disaster. The Dharma Bums.
Most importantly, I had a creative writing teacher who believed in me. We are still friends today.
The most memorable event, though, especially given my recent exposure to banning at this same school decades later, was a controversial short story that I wrote for the school literary magazine. Parents declared it shouldn’t be published. But the school administration read the story, and then backed me. The story appeared. It was my first experience with censorship, and it was a positive one – my voice was heard.
This school not only supported me, it formed me. I went on to major in creative writing, received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, and I opened AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, a creative writing studio, which is now 20 years old and international. I’ve had 15 books, a mix of novels, short story, poetry, and essay collections, published in the last 14 years. Number 16 comes out this fall. I’m at work on number 17.
I feel that this life wouldn’t have happened without this particular school, this particular teacher, this particular administration. I have no qualms in calling my high school a lifesaver.
But now? I’m on the book-banning rollercoaster, run by that same lifesaver.
In the first response from the Deputy Superintendent, she explained the district preferred to have library books that feature high school age protagonists. I responded that the school’s reading lists, then and now, included such books as The Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, and more that did not include high school protagonists. Further, eleven of my fifteen books contained adolescent characters. One in particular, Olivia In Five, Seven, Five; Autism In Haiku, a poetry collection, was not only about a high school age student, but a student that attended and graduated from Waukesha North High School – my daughter.
The next email, from a school board member, explained that the administration preferred library books to reflect the core curriculum. I responded that my books were on the core curriculum, on many different reading lists at the school, from 2012 to 2023. I also explained that a recent walk through the school library included displays of Manga and romance books. How, I wondered, did this connect to the core curriculum?
As a final offer of compromise, I suggested that the books be put on display in one of the school showcases. They wouldn’t be able to be touched or read, but they would be seen.
The response: “We aren’t in the practice of displaying books that aren’t in the library.”
I feel very disturbed by all of this. It didn’t seem right that I was on the Wall of Stars, meant to present alumni role models to the school body, but my books were not welcome in the library. So despite treasuring this award, I asked that my name be removed from the Wall.
My last email from the Deputy Superintendent said that the administration considered my request and agreed.
Media has been active in following this story. There have been TV news reports and newspaper articles. My books and I were apparently even discussed on a local conservative radio talk show, which I turned off after a few minutes because of the derisive commentary. The district has offered no explanation to me or to news resources as to why my books specifically were not only removed from the library, after I’d been placed on the Wall of Stars, but were then blocked from the library after I’d been asked to be a guest presenter at the school’s anniversary celebration.
To me, this situation is a perfect metaphor for the concept of book-banning itself. There is neither a here nor there, no rhyme nor reason, no sense, no sensibility, no definite rules or regulations. Book-bannings just happen, often, as was the case in my school in 2023, without warning or discussion. One person complains, and a writer’s body of work disappears.
Sometimes, it seems that even those doing the banning don’t understand the impact. In a response from a school board member, I was told, “To be clear: this is not about banning or censoring your books. Materials not adopted into the curriculum remain fully accessible to the public through bookstores, libraries, and other channels.”
But it is about banning and censoring. Just because the books are available elsewhere does not mean that they aren’t being banned within the school system.
Today, in the mail, exactly one week after I requested to have my name removed from the Wall of Stars, I received an envelope from Waukesha North High School. Inside, there was only one thing: the nameplate that has my name, my year of graduation, and the word “literature” engraved on it. There was no letter, not even a blank sheet of paper, no acknowledgment of any kind.
In my office, I carefully leaned the nameplate against my beautiful trophy, and I sighed. I am sad, but I don’t question my decision to ask that my name be removed. I still have my award. It was given to me by an administration that supported me, from a school that encouraged me to follow a dream path. That path has turned into a rollercoaster.
And they are everywhere.
RESOURCES:
Channel 6 TV in Milwaukee, news report on the banning:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper article #1 on the banning:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper article #2 on the banning:
The Waukesha Freeman newspaper article on the banning:
Emails from the School District of Waukesha administration and school board available upon request.
