FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 14, 2012
CONTACT: Acacia O’Connor, Coordinator
Kids’ Right to Read Project
[email protected], (212) 807-6222 x. 108
NEW YORK— Restricted access is still censorship, the Kids’ Right to Read Project declared in its call for the return of Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mothers’ House to school library stacks in Davis County, UT. The Kids’ Right to Read Project is a joint effort of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE).
In a letter sent (click for .pdf) to the Superintendent of schools, the Kids’ Right to Read Project criticized the County’s recent moves to restrict access to the book, allowing it to be checked out of the school library only with a signed permission slip.
The letter negates school district claims that the book might violate a state law against “advocating homosexuality,” saying that constitutional demands must prevail over state law.
The letter goes on to say that “parents who object to the book could easily supervise their children’s reading choices,” but restricting access of others “diminishes the education value of the library whose primary role is to allow students to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values.”
The advocacy regarding In Our Mothers’ House follows KRRP and like-minded organizations’ actions to restore Todd Parr’s The Family Book to an Erie, IL school district where it was recently banned. That book was also targeted because it refers to same-sex couples as parents – that some families have “two moms or two dads.”