Victory for Of Mice and Men in Idaho
Good news: The Coeur d'Alene school board voted to keep John Steinbeck's classic novel in the classroom.
Keeping Steinbeck in the Classroom in Coeur d’Alene
Is John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men too controversial for a classroom of ninth graders? That's what some in an Idaho town are saying.
Asheville: Where Trusting Teachers Isn’t a Novel Idea
Don’t you hate it when one person ruins it for the rest of us? Teachers of Asheville, your school district has your back. So do we.
Parent Attempts to Censor The Kite Runner in Asheville
Can one parent effectively get a book banned from an entire classroom? That's exactly what's happening in one North Carolina town.
Challenge to Absolutely True Diary Shut Down in Brunswick, NC
A grandparent tries--yet again--to remove Sherman Alexie's award-winning novel from a school in North Carolina.
Waterloo Schools Violate District Policy To Pull Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie's award-winning young adult novel is challenged yet again-- but this time the school district violated its own policy by pulling the book without a formal review.
Long Live the Uncensored William Shakespeare
Views on censoring the bard 451 years later from a Shakespeare-lover and free speech fighter. Happiest of birthdays to my favorite Elizabethan fellow and bawdiest of bards, William Shakespeare. It’s no secret that this famed playwright has taken heat over the years for his spicy language. His plays boast of themes of sexuality, anti-Semitism, violence, and homosexuality; but do these [...]
Whose Books Are Banned?
The ALA's list of the top 10 challenged and banned books includes plenty of familiar names, and teaches some larger lessons about diversity in literature.
Palomar Stays on Shelves in Rio Rancho
After one parent complained that an acclaimed graphic novel was child pornography. After a letter from NCAC, the district's review committee voted to keep the book in the school library.
Connecticut District Removes Perks of Being A Wallflower From Curriculum
A review committee in Wallingford, Ct. decided to keep a popular young adult novel in the English curriculum. But the superintendent overruled that decision. Does his decision make legal or educational sense?
An Acclaimed Graphic Novel…Or Child Porn? Palomar Under Scrutiny In New Mexico
A parent complains that an acclaimed graphic novel on the shelves at a New Mexico high school library is really child pornography. How will the school respond?
Charlotte County History Textbook Challenge Fails
Local Tea Party activists fail in their efforts to remove world history textbooks they see as 'Islamic indoctrination.'
Seuss Won’t Shush: Celebrating the 111th Birthday of the Insuppressible Dr. Seuss
The censorship of... Dr. Seuss? Indeed, the beloved author's children's books have been banned, censored and challenged numerous times over the years.
Colorado Battle Over ‘Reviewing’ AP History Ends–But Others Just Starting
A Colorado school district has dropped a plan to 'review' an AP History framework that conservatives claim is "sharply left-leaning." But this fight over how to teach history isn't over by a long shot.
How Chicago Public Schools Dumped Persepolis
Newly released documents show that the 2013 decision by Chicago Public Schools to remove Marjane Satrapi's popular graphic novel from the district's schools was just as dubious and censorious as it first appeared.
Top 5 Forbidden Affairs of the Heart
In honor of Valentine's Day, NCAC has compiled a list of 5 scandalous couples that rattled more than just the bedpost. In fact, their romances sparked debate about the role of free expression, censorship, and First Amendment rights—some even thousands of years later. NCAC hopes that your Valentine's Day is as passionate and romantic—though maybe not as dramatic—as these forbidden affairs of [...]
Censors Never Sleep: On Judy Blume’s Compassionate Legacy
To advocate on behalf of those who cannot speak, sometimes it's necessary to understand what it feels like to be silenced. Judy Blume is a living testament to this very truth, and, for that, we salute her today, on her birthday.
“Community Standards” in Highland Park: An Invitation to Censorship Controversies
Should "community standards" play a part in what is taught in the classroom? This is the question we asked Highland Park, Tx. school officials in a February 6 letter about new proposals to deal with controversies over certain reading materials.
Defying Intolerance, Children’s Book About Dress-Wearing Boy Kept in Classroom
Last December, a guidance counselor in rural Pennsylvania read a children’s book about a dress-wearing boy to a kindergarten class without advance notice to the parents, upsetting some residents in the district.
Top 10 Banned Books that Changed the Face of Black History
Black History Month is as good a time as any to remember that some of the most frequently banned, censored or challenged books were written by African-American authors.
Effort to Ban Toni Morrison Classic Fails in Arizona
Gilbert, Arizona was a censorship flashpoint last year, when the school board tried to remove pages from a biology textbook. This year they beat back an effort to remove the classic novel Beloved from an AP reading list.
First Amendment, Civil Liberties Groups Condemn Proposed Policy Changes in Virginia
Hanover School District’s Fix Could Actually Make Things Worse NEW YORK, January 13, 2015 — The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is cautioning school officials in Hanover County, VA that policy changes intended to reduce complaints about instructional materials could actually do the opposite. At a school board meeting tonight, three changes to board policies are being mulled over in response to controversies surrounding the use [...]
NCAC Writes to Hanover, VA: School District’s Fix Could Actually Make Things Worse
School officials resisted a challenge to a documentary film. But their new policies on instructional materials, while intended to reduce complaints, could actually do the opposite--giving would-be censors more power over what is taught in class.
First Amendment Groups Say No to Proposed Book Rating Policy in Appoquinimink
National Coalition Against Censorship Contact: Peter Hart 212.807.6222 // c: 732.266.4932 // [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: First Amendment Groups Say No to Proposed Book Rating Policy in Appoquinimink NEW YORK, January 12, 2015 — The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is urging Delaware's Appoquinimink School District against adopting potentially restrictive book assignment and checkout policy. The district’s new system proposes to [...]
NCAC to Appoquinimink: Don’t Adopt Restrictive Book Policies!
Update: Victory for KRRP! The Appoquinimink School District has chosen not to implement new rules that would have allowed parents to sign forms barring their children from reading anything deemed too “mature.”
Supplementation, Not Suppression: Officials in Gilbert, AZ Won’t Redact Pages from a Biology Textbook
In October, a few school board members in Gilbert, AZ attracted national attention when they voted 3-2 to yank two pages from an honors Biology textbook. Thankfully, redaction is off the table after the most recent board meeting.
Warring Parents in Highland Park Disagree over Educational Policy; NCAC Intervenes
NCAC is joined by the American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the National Council of Teachers of English, PEN American Center, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators in a follow-up letter sent to the Highland Park Independent School District in TX. In the letter, we urge [...]
Removal First, Review Second? NCAC Questions Handling of Challenge to “Black Swan Green”
Today, NCAC was joined by the American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression (ABFFE), the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (ALA), and PEN America in a letter sent to the Kings Canyon Unified School District in Reedley, CA. In the letter, the signatories expressed [...]
The Top 40 Free Speech Defenders of 2014
"Complacency is ever the enabler of darkest deeds." Robert Fanney recognized, as we do at NCAC, that silence and apathy lead to repression and censorship. In our 40th anniversary year, we celebrate the artists, authors, students, educators, librarians, lawmakers, celebs du jour, and yes, even corporations, who refused to remain silent on the top threats to free speech in 2014. [...]
Proposal to Identify “Potentially Objectionable Content” is Certainly Objectionable
A call to "reject any proposal to restrict the curriculum of students to accommodate the views, values and preferences of some, and instead to rely on the professional judgment of educators."
PULPED!
PULP noun: A soft, wet, shapeless mass of material PULPED verb: To crush into a soft, shapeless mass A week into the international controversy over the removal and planned destruction—PULPING—of three children’s picture books by the National Library of Singapore, I read the headline Singapore halts pulping of 'pro-gay' books. The article reported that two of the books, AND TANGO [...]
Third Time’s the Charm? NCAC Responds to Red-Flagging Policy in WI School District
NCAC and other free speech organizations sent a letter to the Waukesha School District in regard to efforts made to remove Looking for Alaska by John Green, Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in classrooms and libraries, and to reject the idea of "red-flagging books that deal with sex, rape, extreme violence and brutality, and animal cruelty." In a previous [...]
Free Speech Groups Urge School District to Reinstate “The Fault in Our Stars” to Middle School Libraries
NCAC along with seven other other free speech organizations sent a letter to the Riverside Unified School District urging the School Board to reinstate The Fault in Our Stars by John Green to middle school libraries. A reconsideration committee voted to remove the book after a parent of a middle school student raised objections to the novel's language and sexual content. The [...]
Riverside Schools Want Kids to Think They’re Immortal
Author John Green’s work has once again come under the censorship chopping block, this time in Riverside, California. His award-winning love story, The Fault in our Stars, was taken out of middle school libraries because the novel’s subject matter involves two terminally-ill teens who use crude language and have sex. “I just didn't think it was appropriate for an 11-, [...]
“Persepolis” Under Attack at Glenwood High School; School Board to Meet Tonight (Update: Victory!)
Update: The School Board voted unanimously to keep Persepolis in the 12th grade English IV curriculum in Glenwood High School. In a letter sent to the Ball-Chatham Board of Education today, NCAC and other free-speech organizations urged the Board to reinstate Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed Persepolis to the 12th grade English IV curriculum in Glenwood High School. The Board will meet [...]
Jefferson County School Board to Review History Curriculum
UPDATE #1: Good news--the plan to 'review' AP History has been scrapped. *UPDATE #2 : The controversies in JeffCo have still been brewing since NCAC's intervention. The district decided to establish a committee comprised of two board-appointed members, along with students, teachers, and curriculum experts selected by the District. The district hopes that that the issue regarding the curriculum will be [...]
Another School Year Just Started: Welcome Back to the Book Censorship Wars
NCAC joined forces with author Cory Doctorow earlier this year to intervene on a challenge to his book Little Brother in Pensacola, FL. The following article by NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin, featured on Doctorow’s Boing Boing website to kick off Banned Books Week 2014, discusses the book banning epidemic that always seems to sweep the nation as kids go [...]
It’s Perfectly Normal for Books to Go Through Changes Too
Sex-Ed was always and will always be the proverbial Catch-22 of every pre-teenager and teenager’s education. They want to know about their bodies: how it works, what’s in store for the future, and whether what they are going through is normal. But we need to face the facts: it’s an awkward subject that no one wants to discuss. Luckily, author [...]
Sherman Alexie Discusses Book Banning and Censorship
Sherman Alexie is one of the most frequently challenged authors in America. Just this year, NCAC intervened in three separate challenges to Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, most recently in Idaho. In this new video, Alexie discusses book banning, censorship, and the erotic novel to which one would-be book banner compared his young adult novel.
