Staff at Palo Alto High School are criticizing Redwood National Park for marking nine books about Native American history to be potentially removed from the park’s visitor center in response to the Trump administration’s executive order. 

For Paly Social Justice Pathway history teacher Caitlin Drewes, the administration’s directive instructing parks to take out signs or information that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, omits significant parts of American history.

“There are so many different histories of America,” Drewes said. “When you make a directive like this, to tell only ‘the truth’ and to take out the bad, what you’re doing is taking away multiple perspectives. You’re bringing it back to the one dominant perspective, the master narrative.”

Paly librarian Sima Thomas reflected on what trends of censorship from the federal level could mean for Paly.

“I haven’t had any pushback from anywhere,” Thomas said. “This space [Paly library] feels, for now, protected, but it does also feel like national parks were always these kinds of bastions of education and connection with the land.”

Thomas said she believes book bans urged by the government are indicative of their weaknesses.

“They [government officials] know that their perspective is fragile and vulnerable to being dismantled,” Thomas said.