In the coming weeks we will be featuring posts from our smart and savvy summer interns. This post is by programs intern Eli Siems. Eli is a recent graduate of SUNY New Paltz with a degree in English. He is passionate about literature in all forms, particularly poetry, and his love of letters has led him to join the fight to protect [...]
Over a month ago now, the Glen Ellyn school board voted 4-2 to ban the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower from middle schools in District 41. The district's ad hoc committee of teachers, parents and administrators read and assessed the book, after the parents of a student filed a formal complaint about the its content. They advised the [...]
We know you're gearing up for the June 7 release of Tiger Eyes, the first-ever Judy Blume film adaptation. In the meantime, we'd like to share this charming reading of Deenie featuring Rachel Dratch, Martha Plimpton, Junot Diaz, Amy Sohn, and Elna Baker. The video was taken at NCAC's 35th Anniversary Benefit in 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Y0gmClmY_0
Maybe it was Forever. Perhaps it was Are you there God, it's Me, Margaret? It could have been Deenie or even Tiger Eyes. Chances are that if you went through puberty since the 1970s, you learned something from one of Judy Blume's real, relatable and enduring books. And now, for the first time ever, one of those works is being made into a feature film...and [...]
A reconsideration committee in Northville, Michigan, voted to retain Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl after it was challenged by a mother of a middle schooler who called the book "pornographic." In a letter to the community, Assistant Superintendent Bob Behnke wrote that “the committee felt strongly that a decision to remove the use of ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a [...]
Children's book author, Free Speech Defender, and NCAC Board member Robie Harris is the very first recipient of the Mills Tannenbaum Award for Children's Literacy, presented by Reach Out and Read of Greater New York!
Librotraficantes and their allies are dancing over the legislative grave of Texas HB1938, which sought to limit which courses university students could take to fulfill state history requirements. After impressive advocacy efforts on the part of Tony Diaz and Los Librotraficantes, the bill is indefinitely stalled in the Calendars committee. HB1938 and its Senate counterpart, SB1128, were the more subtle [...]
In honor of National Teachers Appreciation Day, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has honored Matt Beck, a school counselor in Erie, Illinois, with its 2013 Educator of the Year Award. Matt showed impressive courage and resolve in the face of censorship of LGBTQ materials, including Todd Parr's The Family Book, in his school in Erie in the [...]
For the last few months, the West Palm Beach Library Foundation in Florida has been hosting the travelling exhibition Banned and Burned: Literary Censorship and the Loss of Freedom from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In addition, the Library asked students in the area to make their voices heard in their first-ever essay contest. The theme? Literary censorship. The Library Foundation recently [...]
Edward de Grazia, a lawyer, professor, playwright and staunch defender of free speech died on April 11 at the age of 86. de Grazia represented famed banned writers Arthur Miller, William S. Burroughs, and Normal Mailer among others and served as counsel on important cases which ultimately led the Supreme Court to loosen restrictions on obscenity. The obscene, Mr. de Grazia [...]
Right now the Texas state legislature is considering a bill that would require college students to take the equivalent of two semesters of "courses providing a comprehensive survey in American History" in order to graduate. One of the two semesters could be Texan History. The new bill is evidently a "reinforcement" of a 1971 law mandating students take six hours of [...]
Logan Middle School student Jared Marcum took a trip to the courthouse after a confrontation over his t-shirt last week. The t-shirt boasted the National Rifle Association's logo and the words "Know Your Rights" over an image of a hunting rifle. The student was approached by a teacher in the middle of the school day who apparently asked him to [...]
"Art is a way to speak our minds!!!" one hand-drawn sign reads. "IB Art Matters!" reads another. These signs hang on the art display boards where art, done by Palmer High School's IB Art students, once hung. In response to recent censorship by the High School, students have made their voice heard in defense of their work and in support [...]
We can help with that! NCAC is concerned with censorship in all its forms, even those instances where private enterprises are within their legal rights to marginalize or ban content based on a point of view. Users engage with the Internet as a democratizing public square but, in reality, most of the online channels we rely on are controlled by [...]
Khury Petersen-Smith of SocialistWorker.org caught up with Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi to talk about the shady restrictions being placed on the teaching of her book in Chicago. Again, Satrapi showed her insight and savvy and aptly expressed the utter confusion and dismay we are all feeling: What is so horrible in my book that you need guidance? Am I inviting people to [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Michael O’Neil / Communications Director 212.807.6222 x 107 / [email protected] NEW YORK, April 8 2013-The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), the nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and opposing censorship in all its forms, recently elected Jon Anderson, President and Publisher of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division, to its board [...]
Did you know that in some states, localities have health and safety ordinances prohibiting tattoos and tattooing? You may be surprised to know that even New York City, birthplace of the modern tattoo -- had a ban for 36 years. Now that practically anyone--from our own mothers to elementary school teachers--is likely to have one, bans like these seem like [...]
This morning's news feeds boasted two stories that grabbed our attention, in particular because they dovetail so perfectly with the recent controversy in Chicago Public Schools surrounding Persepolis. One is about drama that has ensued after the California DOE decided to include more gay-themed books in its school curricula. This brings up vital curricular and cultural issues, but for the purposes [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTEOkc2kZx0
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 [...]
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on a mother's attempt to have Toni Morrison's Beloved banned from AP English classes in Fairfax County. When we heard about the challenge, we immediately contacted board members to take the temperature of the situation. In Fairfax County -- a huge public school system with beefed up district operations serving 180,000 studentss -- there's a [...]
...and this was a problem for the mother of a student in Pennsylvania, who recently lodged a challenge against Adele Geras' Troy (Scholastic). The book was housed in the Northwestern Lehigh Middle School library and will stay there: the school board voted 5-4 to keep the book, in spite of the challenge. Two things caught my attention about this story. First of [...]
Despite receiving accolades ranging from the National Book Award to the Pulitzer, these five notorious novels have been banned by schools across the United States. Their Eyes Were Watching God —Zora Neal Hurston, 1937 "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a bildungsroman about a young Black woman growing up in the Deep South. In 1997 parents in Brentsville, Virgina attempted to [...]
Photo: Rob Casey Sherman Alexie tells the Write Stuff about how it feels to be challenged, why he’s determined to keep writing controversial books for teens, and the upcoming sequel to his oft-banned, award-winning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown). I'm sure you hear about the impact True Diary has on kids all [...]
ATLANTA, February 1, 2013-A federal jury today found former Valdosta State University (VSU) President Ronald M. Zaccari personally liable for $50,000 for violating the due process rights of former student Hayden Barnes in the case of Barnes v. Zaccari. In May 2007, Zaccari expelled Barnes for peacefully protesting Zaccari's plan to construct two parking garages on campus, calling a collage posted by Barnes on his personal Facebook page a "threatening document" and labeling Barnes a "clear and present danger" to VSU. Barnes first came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help in October 2007.
"College administrators have been blatantly and willfully violating student rights for decades, but they have far too often dodged personal responsibility. Not so today," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "We hope this serves as a much-needed wake up call to college administrators that it's time to start paying close attention to the basic rights of their students."
"After five years, I finally feel vindicated. This is a victory for me but it's also a victory for students everywhere," said Barnes. "I hope that other college administrators take heed and see that violating students' rights can be costly and that they will be held accountable. I thank my legal team and FIRE for making this victory possible and my friends and family for standing by me through this difficult fight."
Barnes' ordeal began in the spring of 2007, when he protested Zaccari's plan to construct two new parking garages on campus at a cost of $30 million. By posting flyers and sending emails to Zaccari, student and faculty governing bodies, and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Barnes expressed his concerns and proposed what he saw as environmentally friendly alternatives. Barnes also penned a letter to the editor of the VSU student newspaper about the proposed parking garage plans and wrote to Zaccari to ask for an exemption from the mandatory student fee designated for funding the construction.
In response to Barnes' activism, Zaccari personally ordered that he be "administratively withdrawn" from VSU in May of 2007, ignoring the concerns raised by members of his administration. Zaccari absurdly claimed that Barnes presented a "clear and present danger" to both Zaccari and the VSU campus on the basis of a cut-and-paste collage Barnes had posted on his Facebook page that included pictures of Zaccari, a parking deck, and the caption "S.A.V.E.-Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage." Given no notice or opportunity to defend himself, Barnes came to FIRE for help in October 2007.
Today's verdict follows five years of litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels. In January 2008, Barnes filed suit in cooperation with eminent First Amendment attorney and FIRE Legal Network member Robert Corn-Revere of Davis Wright Tremaine in Washington, D.C., and Cary Wiggins of The Wiggins Law Group in Atlanta.
In September of 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia found that because Zaccari expelled Barnes without notice or a hearing, Zaccari violated Barnes' constitutional right to due process. In its opinion (PDF), the district court ruled that because Zaccari ignored "clearly established" law in punishing Barnes, Zaccari could not avail himself of the defense of "qualified immunity," and could be found personally liable for damages.
Zaccari and the Board of Regents appealed the district court's ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in October 2010, and oral arguments in the case were heard in Montgomery, Alabama, in November 2011. The Eleventh Circuit upheld the district court's denial of qualified immunity to Zaccari, finding that Barnes "had a clearly established constitutional right to notice and a hearing before being removed from VSU." Joined by 14 other organizations from across the ideological spectrum concerned about student rights on public campuses, FIRE had authored and filed an amici curiae brief with the Eleventh Circuit in April 2011 urging that result.
Following the Eleventh Circuit's ruling, the case returned to federal district court. The trial began on Monday, January 28, 2013, before the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Valdosta Division, and ended today with a verdict in Barnes' favor. In addition to the $50,000 judgment, attorneys' fees still remain to be assessed against the losing party. Barnes' separate breach of contract claim against the Board of Regents remains pending in state court.
"We are very pleased to have secured a just outcome for Hayden," said Corn-Revere.
FIRE has aided Barnes since learning of his case in October 2007. FIRE wrote repeatedly to Board of Regents officials, urging them to undo VSU's unlawful actions and uphold the Constitution within the university system. Under pressure from FIRE and the federal lawsuit against Zaccari and other VSU administrators, the Board of Regents finally reversed Barnes' expulsion early in 2008, and Zaccari retired months earlier than planned. Under further pressure from FIRE, former VSU President Patrick J. Schloss dismantled VSU's unconstitutional free speech zone in September 2008.
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation's colleges and universities. FIRE's efforts to preserve liberty at Valdosta State University and on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.
CONTACT: Will Creeley, Director of Legal and Public Advocacy, FIRE: 215-717-3473; [email protected]
Chris and Judy at NCAC's annual benefit 2009. Happy Birthday Judy, Don't worry, your fifties will be every bit as good as your forties were. I swear, you are timeless. You have been such a warrior in the fight against censorship, and a mentor simply by your existence and peerless storytelling style. Thank you and may you have [...]
"Black comics are given such strict censorship rules to follow, TV networks might as well hire somebody else," said Black comic Rodney Perry. Check out the two clips below of legendary comic Richard Pryor. The first is his first (heavily-censored) tv debut in 1964, followed by his uncensored special "Live in Concert" filmed 15 years later. Which clip is funnier: [...]
