From the Archives: The Day They Came For Ms. Magazine at Ygnacio Valley High School

It's September again

It's Banned Books Week again. If you're a longtime reader of this newsletter, you'll understand how angry I've been about books being banned by "concerned parents." I'd instead call them "racist homo/transphobes," but that would be unkind. Around this time of year, I try to remember Ms. Jane Juska and how she made history at my high school.

For two years, I had Ms. Juska as a Creative Writing teacher. Our desks were shaped like a horseshoe so we could see each other. She’d sit in the middle of the room at a desk to see all of us. Every Monday, we would talk about our weekends. One Monday in the fall of 1990, she sat down and held up a piece of paper. “Well, I got an essay rejected by Ms. Magazine this weekend.” This was back when writers would get their rejections in a self-addressed stamped envelope, light as a feather.

I …