Maria Gonzalez covers the “I Fucked Your Boyfriend” bumper sticker story at the Walla Walla Union Bulletin in which a student was suspended for keeping a bumper sticker on her car after the school asked her to remove it. In a letter to the board, NCAC asks the district to “reconsider and repeal the discipinary action, and to [...]
The New Rochelle Board of Education announces that it will replace the 50 censored copies of Girl, Interrupted and that [N]o further modifications of this type, i.e., removal of pages, shall be permitted under any circumstances. It has always been the policy of the City School District of New Rochelle that students be advised in advance if a particular assigned [...]
Michigan State University student Kara Spencer sent out an email to 391 MSU faculty stating her concerns about plans to shorten the change the fall 2009 academic calendar and schedule. Her email called for a review of the decision. One recipient of the email - a plant biology professor - complained to university administrators, who called in Spencer for a [...]
Professor Adam Habib has been barred from speaking at US universities, presumably for his critique of the US and Middle East foreign policies. Today, After the government moved to dismiss the case, Judge George O’Toole of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the case will proceed. A South African scholar, Habib has written at the [...]
Following Barney Rosset's National Book Award in November (and NCAC's honoring Rosset as a Free Speech Defender), Newsweek has published a long piece on Rosset, his work and his role in bringing new literature and thought to the American conversation. An excerpt: Before Rosset challenged federal and state obscenity laws, censorship (and self-censorship) was an accepted feature of publishing. His [...]
According to the artist, his series of photographs of gay BYU students and their "support person" (which the artist defined as a family member, friend, or partner) was taken down from the Fine Art Classes show because "the topic of homosexuality is a bit much for the BYU audience". In his blog, he writes: While I knew this topic would [...]
And yet not without consequences. After the November 4th election of Barack Obama, 4 North Carolina State students hit the “Free Expression Tunnel” to spray paint messages that have now sparked a fierce debate on campus about how to respond to hate speech. The messages, including one that read “let’s shoot that Nigger in the head”, have prompted strong response [...]
A recent incident a Berkeley's Addison Street Gallery forced the City to review its guidelines on art shown in the gallery. The guidelines, which included a blanket ban on any representations of guns, had led to the cancellation to The Art of Democracy, a touring poster show. After letters from the ACLU and NCAC, the City decided to modify its [...]
Students at New Rochelle High School found that pages from their reading assignment, Girl Interrupted, had been ripped out. Turns out: school officials pulled the pages to remove content they deemed "inappropriate" because of sexual content and profanity. It appears that the books were censored without first undergoing a formal review process. NCAC is working on a formal response to [...]
juicy campus, tsu, aclu, first amendment, sarah falcon
Slate’s Emily Bazelon has a piece today on the Lori Drew case. The terrible backstory: in 2006, Drew, her daughter, and her assistant, created a fake Myspace profile of a 16 year old boy and sent messages to a teen neighbor, Megan Meier. After exchanging flirtatious messages, the “16-year-old” then wrote, “The world would be a better place without you.” [...]
Interesting post on Slashdot about how social network groups influence tastes of the members. The article's by Bennett Haselton (the founder of peacefire.org). The article cites a study showing that: They also noted that in the "social influence" worlds where users could see each others' downloads, increasing download numbers had a snowball effect that widened the difference between the successful [...]
December 3, 2008 Superintendent Richard B. Carter Principal Darcy Weisner Walla Walla Public Schools 364 South Park Street Walla Walla, WA99362 Dear Principal Darcy Weisner and Superintendent Richard B. Carter: We are deeply concerned about the recent suspension of Meagan White from Walla WallaHigh School because of a bumper sticker on her vehicle. Walla Walla School Board’s official “Freedom [...]
2009 is approaching, and as we plan our next year, we want to know: what censorship issue is nearest and dearest to you? Your answers can help shape this blog and the kind of projects NCAC pursues. Feel free to write in answers. And send it along to friends and frenemies. [polldaddy poll="1158458"]
TTYL, Lauren Myracle.
And for a high school in Portage, IN, it also equals attention from journalists and student rights advocates alike. There are two issues at hand. One is the banning of a book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, from the ninth grade English curriculum. The other is a decision by the school administration to institute a policy [...]
A friend of NCAC reading this blog at work saw the following: An 11th grade student was recently told to remove her bumper sticker from her car parked in the Wala Wala High School (WA) parking lot. The content of the sticker: "I **censored**ed Your Boyfriend." Content filtering at the office censored the anti-censorship blog. Brilliant.
In a very strong letter to the Des Moines Register, parent Wendy Sontag defends keeping And Tango Makes Three in the Ankeny Public School libraries. She writes: Like the Russells, I consider myself a "values-conscious Christian parent." However it is clear that the Russells do not speak for me. My two bright, caring daughters began their academic careers at East [...]
For the most up-to-date Kids' Right to Read Project Report, click here. Individual Book Challenges (Alphabetical by Title) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Hachette) Banned in Prineville, Oregon, December 2008 School officials in Crook County, OR, removed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie from ninth grade English classes at [...]
The Kids’ Right to Read Project is a collaboration of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). The Kids' Right to Read Project offers support, education, and advocacy to people facing book challenges or bans and engages local activists in promoting the freedom to read. In the past couple of years, KRRP [...]
Jane Breskin Zalben is a well-known author and illustrator who has published more than forty-five books for young readers. She is the author of the well-known Pearl books as well as the critically acclaimed novel Unfinished Dreams. In this interview, she speaks with The Kids' Right to Read Project about the effects of censorship on her work.
