Sophomore Jayleen Hernandez is starting a petition to ban the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” Jayleen believed it was a good idea because the book included an abundant amount of racist comments.

“I didn’t have a choice to read the book or not, it was a class assignment, and as I was reading it, I came across my own bias. Naturally, we come up with our ideas from the way we were raised, and I felt like these use of words were suppressive.”

Jayleen said that learning about the culture and things about the past are good so we can see how life was in the past. However, she seems to think that at least parts of the book should be filtered to a point where other people aren’t put in a position where they feel less than others.

“I believe that books like this are a direct influence on today’s society. The suppressive comments that are used in the book are a form of normalizing racism. People will argue that it’s okay to teach these types of books. I agree with this, but it would only be okay when people no longer feel offended but racist comments are still a part of this world.”

Jayleen asked individuals to sign the petition by asking if they were okay with racist comments and some agreed with her point of view.

 On a students point of view, sophomore Leann Lopez thought that at first, it was a joke, but then she realized how Jayleen is very contentious and that this was happening. She didn’t care about the situation because she believes our word wouldn’t matter.

To conclude the situation, Jayleen had a respectful talk with Mrs. Salinas and ended the argument.