NCAC is pleased to announce our twelve finalists for our 2016 Youth Free Expression Film Contest: Watch What You #Tweet: How Free Should Social Media Be? Our panel of judges will carefully evaluate these films and announce the first, second, and third-place winners in mid-April.
Throughout March, to celebrate Women's History Month, NCAC will be spotlighting censorship cases involving women and women's issues on its crowdsourced wiki, Censorpedia.
S.B. 393 is the latest in a string of similar “anti-science bills” introduced in states around the country. One such bill was rejected by South Dakota’s House Education Committee last month.
Yesterday, NCAC, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and 6 other free speech and education groups defended Ariel Schrag's acclaimed anthology Stuck in the Middle, which had been challenged in a school library in Oklahoma. NCAC joined CBLDF to ask Schrag for her thoughts on the challenge.
NCAC highlights that Stuck in the Middle is praised for its realistic, un-sanitized depiction of difficult situations that characterize the harder truths of teenage life.
The violent protesters of Charles Murray need to understand a basic principle: the right to speech exists for all, or for none.
NCAC’s letter to the school district reprimands the school for violating its own book challenge review process, and emphasizes the value of Rowell’s novel.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), along with more than 75 other organizations committed to the First Amendment right of freedom of speech and the press, condemn efforts by the Trump administration to demonize the media and undermine its ability to inform the public about official actions and policies. In a joint statement released today, the groups stress that the administration’s attacks on the press pose a threat to American democracy.
Efforts to undermine the legitimacy or independence of the press, the statement reads, “betray the country’s most cherished values and undercut one of its most significant strengths.”
NCAC is urging a Maryland school district to allow its teachers to display a series of posters promoting diversity and inclusion in America after administrators ordered their removal over concerns of political bias.
The posters were deemed to break the school's policy that forbids classroom materials that attempt to sway the political opinions of students.
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian were flagged for "explicit, graphic" content.
A formal complaint was lodged by a local parent who was offended by the presence of profanity in the book, which includes passages that reference sexual assault.
The Yamhill-Carlton School District in Western Oregon pulled the New York Times bestseller from a school lesson plan without following the school's review process for book challenges.
The bill removes the restraints on teachers that prevent them from straying from professionally-developed science standards adopted by state educators.
Santa Rosa Press Gazette, 2/13/2017
A group of parents claim the New Trier High School's Seminar Day does not include a fair balance of perspective.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California are urging a California High School District to immediately redisplay an exhibition of paintings celebrating Black History Month. The exhibition was abruptly terminated after it was deemed to be politically charged. The groups are also asking the school district to put policies in place that prevent future viewpoint discrimination against artworks.
An exhibition of artworks celebrating Black History Month was removed from display in a San Jose School district building after complaints calling the works offensive.
The number of cases registered in 2016 more than doubled the amount registered in 2015, an increase of 119%, which translates to an extra 469 attacks.
Terms such as "inappropriate" are vague and over-inclusive, potentially leading to the exclusion of works of undeniable pedagogical value.
American University Museum in Washington D.C. flubbed its approach to a controversial sculpture after it claimed it did not want the message of the sculpture to be deemed the institution's own.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and close to a dozen other organizations committed to defending free speech and the arts are condemning the decision of the Architect of the Capitol to remove a student painting displayed on Capitol Hill after it sparked controversy for its alleged anti-police message.
According to the bill, “no teacher may be prohibited from helping students understand, analyze, critique, or review in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information.”
“Blanket orders from the Trump Administration preventing the staffs and experts of federal agencies from communicating with the public send a chilling message that every governmental communication, no matter how routine or technical, will now be subject to a political litmus test."
The language, NCAC argues, reflects a historical reality and its inclusion will help to educate students about the ugly reality of racism.
NCAC and other free speech groups write to the VA Board of Education in advance of a January 26th meeting to discuss the proposal.
The University have justified the decision based on the group’s “political goals” and support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which they say are contrary to Fordham’s “mission and values.”
Rep. Clay, in a statement issued by his office in St. Louis, said the painting's removal has “sent a chilling message to young Americans that their voices are not respected, their views are not valued, and their freedom of expression is no longer protected in the U.S. Capitol.”
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other organizations committed to defending the freedom to read are urging New Hampshire legislators to reject a proposed bill that would require schools to notify parents prior to the teaching of materials with information about human sexuality.
The letter questions the bills breadth, which may end up flagging valuable works of literature that include sexual scenes.
The statement reprimands Representative Hunter, who removed the painting from the U.S, Capitol, for his disregard of the First Amendment.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other organizations dedicated to defending free expression are voicing concern over recent calls to boycott the publisher Simon & Schuster because one of its imprints – Threshold Editions – is publishing a book by the controversial conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
The statement argues that “the suppression of noxious ideas does not defeat them; only vigorous disagreement can counter toxic speech effectively.”
Representative Clay has stood in support of artistic free expression in the face of criticisms that the painting contains an anti-police message.
The letter to U.S Department of Justice praises the policy but pushes back against certain justifications for rule exemptions.
NCAC’s letter informs Carmel Clay Schools that the pro-life poster represents non-disruptive political speech that is protected under the First Amendment.
The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania chose to move works with a clear anti-Trump message to a separate gallery nearby.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is urging a Virginia school district revise its policy for responding to challenged books after it initially censored and then decided to reinstate two literary classics-- To Kill A Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn— from classrooms and libraries because a parent complained about the presence of racial slurs.
