Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is your point that "ban" is the wrong word because students are not banned from reading such books, even at the school library, so long as they bring their own copy? That's a very narrow and non-standard use of the term. The ban here applies to banning the school from providing such books, and I can easily find other examples where "ban" is used to describe restrictions on a school placed by the district or legislatu…
It's not a very narrow and non standard use of the term. A ban is a prohibition on doing or having something. That's been the standard definition as long as I can remember. Is Swahili banned in schools because they don't teach a Swahili class? Those are almost all hyperbolic news articles. News articles are designed to stir emotion. Just because multiple click driven publications misuse a word because it drives click…
Not relevant given that I highlighted how the schools were banned either by the district or by state law, not banning themselves.
Which would, per your definition, make it a ban.
Would you prefer seeing only scholarly publications describe it as a ban?
"Do School Junk Food Bans Improve Student Health? Evidence from Canada", in Canadian Public Policy, https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cpp.2016-090
"Examining Compliance with a Statewide Law Banning Junk Food and Beverage Marketing in Maine Schools", Public Health Reports, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003335491212700...
"Banning All Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Middle Schools", Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...
"Breaking habits: The effect of the French vending machine ban on school snacking and sugar intakes", JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, https://cris.unibo.it/bitstream/11585/606157/6/CapacciS_JPAM... (this banned all vending machines from primary and secondary schools, no matter what was sold).
With a Google Scholar search I could easily give hundreds of similar citations.
> I don't sell junk food, is that a ban because you can't buy junk food from me?
Are you being serious or merely cantankerous?
If the school librarian wants to have keep a copy of the 1975 book "Forever ..." by Judy Blume in circulation, and state law prohibits it, why is that not a ban?
It is, after all, "a prohibition on doing or having something."
If a school want to have a soda vending machine on campus, because of the extra revenue it brings the school, but the district changes policy to prevent that option, why is it not a ban?