It’s with sadness and frustration that I read about the banning of 33 books from the Menomonee Falls school district, including those by sound, profound authors such as Toni Morrison and Kurt Vonnegut ("Parents speak out on book removal,” Oct. 25).

Our children live in a world where they have access, with few restrictions via smart phones, to media with profanity and sexual explicitness without the substance a well written piece of literature can provide. Instead of an investigation by school board members, could our children have been better served focusing on problems actually harming them in today’s world? How many parents would be overjoyed to see their child reading vs. Instagram, even if they’re exposed to “questionable” material that’s already infiltrated every other area of their lives?

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I’ve been a parent for almost 25 years, to five children, and I’ve seen mental health struggles including hospitalization, suicidality, self-mutilation, eating disorders, rape, sexual assault, abuse, and even online bullying leading to suicide affect them and their peers. So if I were to choose a topic for school leadership to focus time on, there is a list a mile long ranking much higher than “keeping them safe” from a book.

Erin Cassidente, Menomonee Falls

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: School board wasting time banning books to shield kids from harm