When a seven-year-old student from Terre Haute, Indiana opted to sit silently during his school’s daily Pledge of Allegiance, the First Amendment stood up for his decision. But his teacher didn’t.
The state of Florida did not appeal the ruling against the “Firearms Owners' Privacy Act,” which prevented doctors from asking patients about their gun ownership.
NCAC has issued a statement signed by several national and international organizations, opposing the Walker's decision to dismantle and destroy the controversial sculpture.
Student journalists who contribute to their high school and college outlets do not enjoy the same level of protections as their professional counterparts. New Voices bills are looking to change that.
Mintcheva's essay examines and argues for the value of free expression in light of recent controversies over art and racially sensitive content, as well as over cultural appropriation, which have left people to question the usefulness of an absolutist defense of free speech.
While critiquing or protesting artworks is a vital part of a healthy democratic society, cultural institutions who bow to demands to remove or destroy works that engage with contentious political or social issues endanger our ability to maintain a public sphere where ideas and societal problems can be freely identified and discussed.
NCAC speaks with Miranda Taylor, a student at Richmond Early College in North Carolina, whose school canceled this year's yearbook, in part, because of her senior quote: "Build That Wall."
The groups underline that the First Amendment protects a student’s right to receive and possess literature, as long as the books in question do not cause disruption to the educational process.
NCAC is in the process of writing to the elementary school underlining that students have a First Amendment right to receive and possess literature, provided the books in question do not cause disruption to school activities.
The objecting New London parents say that the book features “gratuitous and unnecessary” profanity and sexual references.
A public school, the letter argues, has a responsibility to prepare young adults “to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship by promoting democratic values such as free expression, tolerance, and diversity—including diversity of opinion.”
NCAC's letter will underline that a primary goal of the school system "is to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship by promoting democratic values such as free expression, tolerance, and diversity." This includes diversity of opinion.
The petition focuses on the legal rights of whistle blowers, demanding adequate protections to ensure they receive a fair trial in any subsequent court action taken against them.
NCAC argues that keeping children from viewing artistic representations of nudes does not ‘protect’ them; rather, it imposes the religion-based view that the nude human body is shameful.
The groups’ letter underlines that the hasty removal of the book, after a single complaint, sets a harmful precedent that could leave an entire curriculum in tatters.
The letter demands a public apology from the City of Burnsville and urges the City to develop a formal policy governing artistic programming at the Ames Center to ensure it is in compliance with First Amendment requirements.
Even when not enforced or non-binding, anti-BDS bills potentially chill protected expression by singling out the expression of unpopular or controversial views. Such bills seriously and impermissibly undermine core First Amendment rights.
As an organization committed to defending authors’ free expression and the right to read, NCAC was selected by HarperCollins employees to receive a donation as part of its #WhyIRead campaign, which pledges to donate $200,000 to charities supporting causes that are important to HarperCollins.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and Lambda Legal are calling on a Tennessee high school to apologize for removing a displayed student artwork featuring the word “GAYDOM” and a rainbow motif. The groups demand the drawing be immediately restored, arguing that the school’s justification for the removal-- that some students were offended by the artwork-- violates the student artist’s First Amendment rights.
The notion that the mere presence of inappropriate language and allegedly suggestive images is justification for a book’s removal sets a harmful precedent that, for example, a classic work of literature that contains adult language, or an art history textbook that includes a nude, should also be kept away from teens.
The message government is communicating appears to be that young people's opinions concerning such issues are not respected and don't matter.
The groups maintain that although the school should and must aim to create a positive learning environment free from racism and hostility, the decision to cancel the play fails to further this objective
The online petition has been launched in response to the news DHS Secretary Kelly is likely to implement the proposal.
NCAC is delighted to announce our three winners for our 2016 Youth Free Expression Film Contest.
Our colleagues at the American Library Association (ALA) this week released their annual list of the ten most challenged books for the year of 2016. What's NCAC's relationship with the book's on the list.
The bill is vague, allowing challenges and changes to curricular selections made by ideological actors.
The letter argues that choosing to remove a book citing "community standards" sets a dangerous precedent for future book challenges.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and 7 other organizations committed to defending the freedom to read are urging a Arizona school district to reinstate Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner in its English curriculum after the book was removed without explanation or prior review. The groups argue the district’s decision is unwarranted and does an educational disservice to its students by depriving them of access to a novel that explores salient and timely themes.
A profile of muralist Mike Alewitz describes how his radical politics infuses his work and left him open to many incidents of censorship.
The play offers a perspective on the experience of growing up biracial -- or "mulatto," a dated term used to describe a person with one black and one white parent.
The Arizona school district removed Khaled Hosseini's novel after 5 years on the English curriculum, raising questions about the motivations behind the decision.
Joan Bertin, the longtime executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), announced today that she is stepping down from her role in June.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and 6 other organizations committed to defending the right to read are urging a North Carolina school district to reinstate a children’s book in a 1st grade anti-bullying lesson plan after it was removed following pressure from local Republican lawmakers concerned about its gender-nonconforming themes.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and 6 other organizations committed to defending the right to read are urging a North Carolina school district to reinstate a children’s book in a 1st grade anti-bullying lesson plan after it was removed following pressure from local Republican lawmakers concerned about its gender-nonconforming themes. The groups express concern that political and ideological motivations were behind the district’s decision to remove the book.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other organizations committed to defending the freedom to read are urging New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu to veto a bill requiring schools to notify parents prior to the teaching of materials with information about human sexuality. The groups argue the bill will stigmatize the teaching of educationally valuable materials and undermine the quality of education in New Hampshire.
The parents claim that the school taught solely Islamic religious practices in a World Culture and Geography curriculum, ignoring education in other world religions.
In the aftermath of the Whitney Biennial controversy, NCAC has aggregated the best commentary and opinions on the fraught but necessary incident.
NCAC has joined the Student Press Law Center, the Cato Institute and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in urging the Supreme Court to take the case of Craig Keefe who was expelled from a nursing program for 'unprofessional' remarks.
The decision to cancel the play was understandable, given the controversy around the photo, but was it the best decision that could have been made?
The book, Jacob’s New Dress, was pulled after Republican lawmakers complained. For several month a group called Values Coalition has charged the district of using "indoctrinating" materials.
