GRADE: C+
Books – always a hot button issue in the censorship debate. This year, similar to previous years, some curriculum classics got challenged. Here’s a few of the fights we saw over books being taught in middle- and high-school classes.
- In December, the Coeur d’Alene School Board voted unanimously to return 26 titles (among them Brave New World, Tom Sawyer, and Alice in Wonderland) to district middle and high school classrooms. A committee of educators had reviewed them and recommended that they be approved by the board for classroom use.
- In February, the school board in Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District voted to ban Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya from English classes at Orestimba High School. The 4-1 vote in favor of censorship upheld the superintendent’s decision to pull the book.
- In May, the Superintendent in Shelby, Michigan ordered a teacher to remove Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison from AP English classes. After a school board meeting to review the book, the board decided the book could be taught in AP English classes.