Jack Fischer asked Laurie Halse Anderson:

Your book speak, is constantly on the banned books lists at schools, what (if you could) would you say to those parents that are pushing for speak to be banned?

Laurie Halse Anderson I would ask them why they are afraid to talk to their kids about sexual violence.

Every two minutes, someone in America is sexually assaulted. About 17% of American women and 3% American men have been sexually assaulted. 7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused. And juvenile victims know their assailant in 93% of cases.

Parents must face up to their responsibilities to prepare their children about the dangers of the world. They must get over their own squeamishness about discussing human sexuality in order to do so. If more boys were taught by their parents what sexual consent is, and that it is required - ALWAYS - we'd have less sexual violence.

If girls and women felt safer to speak up after a sexual assault, and the judicial system was prepared to consistently prosecute and punish rapists, then we'd begin to see those horrible numbers go down. (Lots more very good Statistics can be found here: https://www.rainn.org/statistics)

Some parents cringe at the idea of talking to their kids about these things. I have no patience for that. Who they want to be educating (and miseducating their kids about these things? Music videos? Internet porn? Locker room BS?

It's hard to be a parent. It's a whole lot harder to be the parent of a kid who has been sexually assaulted, or who is in jail after being found guilty of sexual assault. SPEAK opens the doors to some of the most important conversations a family will ever have.

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