Last week, the best-selling graphic novel "Persepolis" was removed from Chicago's middle and high school reading lists. This week, a spokeswoman for the school system has claimed that the word "censorship" was inappropriate, as teachers could still assign the book so long as they were willing to sit through a class on how to teach such "sensitive material". These extra classes appear designed [...]
New York Times columnist and Pulitzer-prize winning writer Anthony Lewis passed away this weekend. Lewis was a leading expert on constitutional law whose work in defense of free speech earned him the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001. We honored Lewis' lifetime commitment to freedom of expression in 2008 at our annual benefit. In his 2007 book Freedom for the Thought That [...]
In an interview with PBS station WTTW Chicago last night, Barbara Jones, Executive Director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, of the Chicago Teachers Union and two Lane Tech Seniors spoke about the removal of Persepolis from classrooms in Chicago Public Schools. You can watch the interview here, but this particular moment stood out as a perfect response to anyone who might [...]
Photo by Chris Walker/ Chicago Tribune Teachers and students gathered outside Lane Tech College Prep in the freezing rain Friday for a spirited protest. "Honk if you love free speech," and "Closing Schools. Banning Books. What's next?" students' signs read. The protest was organized in response to the revelation that the Chicago Public School Board had evidently mandated [...]
The Chicago Public Schools may be hoping their sudden removal of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (Pantheon) last month will be soon forgotten, but the Kids’ Right to Read Project, an initiative of the National Coalition Against Censorship, continues to seek answers.
The first page of CN issue 116.
The first page of CN issue 116.
One part the internet, one part kids... mix and the result is a recipe for parental anxiety, mixed opinions from professionals and politicians, and overreaching attempts to control access to information. (See: Harlem Shake meme) This week the ACLU of Rhode Island released a report, "Access Denied," showing that the use of internet filtering software is pervasive in R.I. schools and [...]
Organized by Reporters Without Borders, World Day Against Cyber Censorship pays tribute to the fight for internet freedom and to the citizens who have been arrested, harassed or affected in some way by government attempts to control information. Learn more about internet censorship and which countries are doing the most damage here.
Arizona state officials rejoiced yesterday as a U.S. Circuit Judge upheld state law HB 2281, which prohibits any class that "advocates ethnic solidarity." The law was written to advance the dissolution of the popular and effective Mexican-American Studies (MAS) Program in Tucson in January 2012. Though Judge A. Wallace Tashima did not believe objections to the law met "the high [...]
Over a hundred students and a handful of teachers have been suspended for making and participating in the 'Harlem Shake' video meme. (Read more about that here, and here, and here, oh and here) Do you agree with the disciplinary action? Take our survey! Join the fight against censorship today!
Congratulations to the 2012 semifinalists of the YFEP Film Contest! You can check out their videos below or on YouTube. "Banned" by Matthew Dunbar "Wickedly Scholastic" by April Jackson "Textbook Censorship - a Modern Day Book Banning" by Nathan Waters "You're Reading What?!?!" by Daniel Boyle and Grace VanKan "You're Reading What?!? Controversial Books" by [...]
So far hundreds of students have been punished for their involvement in the making of one of thousands of videos in this most recent and pervasive Internet trend. • The Mound-Westonka community in Minnesota was angered and disappointed when students –including six hockey players– were suspended hours before a critical and ultimately season-ending game. • At least 30 students were [...]
The recent rather heavy-handed treatment of Marc Bradley Johnson’s MFA thesis project at New York’s School of Visual Art (SVA) raises some interesting concerns—especially for an institution that aims to play a leadership role in the bio-art movement. Johnson’s project consists of a refrigerator containing 68 vials of his sperm arranged on a grid. The artist originally intended to give [...]
This is a new one: apparently eating a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun (or a mountain, it was open to interpretation...) is "using food to make an inappropriate gesture" and a reason for suspension. Dear parents, make sure to talk to your child about imaginary pastry violence.
Early in February, we wrote a letter in response to reports that the public library in Paterson, NJ had banned the playing of video games on their public computers. While the policy was conceived with children in mind, it ostensibly applied to anyone. Despite reports to the contrary, as soon as we sent them a stern letter, the library back-pedaled, claiming [...]
FREE. Saturday, March 30th
1pm-4pm. Doors open at 12:45pm.
New York Film Academy Screening Room
100 East 17th Street in Manhattan
N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6, L Trains to Union Square
A reconsideration committee voted unanimously to keep Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Intensely Alice in school libraries in Buffalo, Missouri after NCAC joined its letter in defense of the book with those from the ALA and ACLU.
Steve McQueen's biography, "Tales of a Lurid Life" was apparently too much so for some patron of the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Library in Arizona. Reports don't specify why the challenge was lodged, but a library committee ultimately decided to keep the book on its shelves. In honor of this narrow evasion, we give you: an epic 6 minute-long motorcycle escape scene [...]
Apparently the attitudes of Beaufort weren't reserved to the fictional realm of "Footloose." Pretty hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTEOkc2kZx0
Hundreds of students have been suspended from school for making Harlem Shake videos. Well, you know what this reminds us of? Footloose.
In case you blinked and missed it – the Harlem Shake video meme has been sweeping the internet for the past month. Tens of thousands of versions of the Harlem Shake video have been made and millions of viewers have watched them on YouTube and beyond. Everyone appears to have jumped on the meme wagon, firefighters, people in offices, division [...]
