Issue 73, Spring 1999
- One of the artistic wonders of the world, Michaelangelo’s David, according to some, is not fit for children to see. To prevent his daughter from glimpsing a model of the nude statue from the school bus, a Connecticut parent had the Shelton school district reroute the bus stop. What does he do, we wonder, to stop the bus from passing Calvin Klein billboards?
- Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate inspired Janie Hill, director of a Texas Christian outreach ministry, to try to oust a city councilmember who voted to support children’s access to the books in the Wichita Falls public library. Hill claims the books “promote homosexuality in violation of God’s will and state law.” (In Wichita Falls a petition with 300 signatures causes the removal of any book!)
- Students who want to read Rolling Stone magazine in a high school library in Wales, Wisconsin, must prove they are 18 or have parental permission. The superintendent overruled a committee’s recommendation, after a school board member called it “pornographic.”
- In Louisiana, the St. Tammany Parish Police Jury ordered the local library to restrict access to R and NC-17 rated videos by minors under 17. NCAC wrote that this approach is likely unconstitutional, as well as unwise, and urged a return to the library’s prior policy, allowing parents to restrict their own children’s access to material they consider inappropriate. For the full text of our letter to the Police Jury, click here.
- Congressman Dick Armey, the majority house leader, seems to think he needs a little help in his parental role. Acting as a “concerned parent of five,” Armey asked the Dallas Reunion Arena to “take a second look” at a Marilyn Manson show for the “potential negative consequences that this concert could have on our children and our community.” The concert was held as scheduled. It is unknown at this time if any of the Armey children attended.