Girls Who Code founder condemns a school district banning her books

Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, condemned the Central York School District in Pennsylvania for banning "The Girls Who Code," which chronicles the adventures of a group of girls as part of a programming club at their school.

And is that 4 of the titles published by Girls Who Code were recently added to the ban index of PEN America textbooks, which are banned for the 2021-2022 school year.

The "banned" books were the first four in the Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code series; Team BFF: Race to the Finish!; Girls Who Code, Lights, Music, Code!; and Spotlight on Coding Club!

The organization Girls who Code, founded in 2012, has taken on the task of getting girls, especially black girls, interested in programming and thus increasing the proportion of women and diversity in computer science. In 2017, the association published its first book. This was followed by the now affected four-part book series. She said she was "just shocked" when she first heard about the ban.

"This is about controlling women and it starts with controlling our daughters and the information they have access to."

He explained that his international non-profit organization use these stories to teach children to code.

“It felt like a direct attack on the movement we built for girls to program. Especially in districts that don't have the technology or have patchy Wi-Fi, books are a great way to learn programming and a way to equalize access to programming, she said.

The books are about girls who code and participate in hackathons. The theme of friendship is also central. And there are code snippets to learn and practice. There is really no reason to ban books. That is why then one asks the question why some schools prohibit them in the classroom?

To answer this question Reshma Saujani, attributed the ban to a group called "Mothers for Freedom" (MFL), which advocates for parents' rights in schools and control of educational materials.

In addition, he tweeted:

"Maybe they don't want girls to learn programming because it's a way to be financially secure." Saujani also vowed to fight the so-called ban through her other nonprofit organization, Marshall Plan for Moms.

On the other hand, it is also said that there are probably political reasons behind this, as Saujani suspects. Because Girls Who Code is politically active in Pennsylvania. The Central York school district is seen as a changing region in which political opponents attack each other with particular ferocity. Saujani says the book ban is part of a larger effort by Moms for Liberty to control the content of instruction.

Saujani adds that removing the books doesn't just hurt visibility of women in tech fields, but it also hurts diversity in the industry, as many of the show's leads are young people of color.

“You cannot be what you cannot see. They don't want girls to learn to code because it's a way to be financially secure."

"The allegations that Moms for Liberty has worked to ban Girls Who Code are completely false," MFL co-founders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice told us in a statement. "In addition, the Central York School District has confirmed that the book is currently on library shelves.

"Mothers for Freedom will continue to fight for the fundamental rights of parents because selecting age-appropriate content from a school library is not about banning books, it's about empowering parents to participate in their children's education."

For its part, a Twitter user sums up the possible reasons of the Girls Who Code ban, as her daughter attended the Girls Who Code summer coding camp and enjoyed it. But she argues that the problem it lies in the content that the organization sends through its email list.

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