Censorship on Writing

I have recently been made aware of a young high school student who was arrested for a piece that he wrote for a school project. In the Facebook post that he wrote as apart of a creative writing assignment he talks about shooting his neighbour's dinosaur with a gun. This brings up the topic of censorship of writing, and what is acceptable.

In my opinion there should have been no reason to arrest a kid on such a silly topic, first of all it was a creative project, and secondly it was about a dinosaur. Imagine if things like that were occurring all the time? How would that impact creativity of writing, or even the courage to write?

In this last week I have also been made aware that lots of books have been, and are still being banned. In a video that I watched called "Banned Books Week: 13 Authors Speak Out" the authors all stated their opinions regarding book banning, and all of them disagreed with it. A quote that I took away from that short video is said by author Bill Garfield, "If you don't want to read it, don't read it." I agree completely with the what he says. In the end it is always up to you whether you choose to read a book or piece of writing or not. Books and the freedom of expression should not be banned or censored on a persons choice or opinion.