In a letter sent last week to the Annandale Board of Education, NCAC affirmed that the right of students to read pedagogically valuable literature must be prioritized over the subjective concerns of select parents
David Levithan, an award-winning author and editor of dozens of books, will be honored along with former NCAC Executive Director Joan Bertin, at the NCAC Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders on Nov. 6 in New York.
If you are embroiled in a censorship controversy, this is the resource for you. NCAC's action kit offers practical advise for understanding, addressing and fighting censorship incidents.
The board met on Monday night to review their literature policy in light of the controversy but voted unanimously to keep it unchanged.
NCAC is praising the grassroots efforts of Chicagoans who have set an example for the rest of the country.
The trial will decide whether the cancellation of the Mexican-American studies curriculum in 2010 in Tucson Arizona was done with discriminatory intent.
In the face of discord and subjective morality-based arguments, the board stood up for the rights of all of its students to learn in a safe and respectful environment.
The groups emphasize that the mere presence of explicit language and violence in a book provides no justification for its removal.
The award will be presented at the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference during its Opening General Session on Friday, June 24, in Chicago.
The groups underline that the First Amendment protects a student’s right to receive and possess literature, as long as the books in question do not cause disruption to the educational process.
NCAC is in the process of writing to the elementary school underlining that students have a First Amendment right to receive and possess literature, provided the books in question do not cause disruption to school activities.
The groups’ letter underlines that the hasty removal of the book, after a single complaint, sets a harmful precedent that could leave an entire curriculum in tatters.
As an organization committed to defending authors’ free expression and the right to read, NCAC was selected by HarperCollins employees to receive a donation as part of its #WhyIRead campaign, which pledges to donate $200,000 to charities supporting causes that are important to HarperCollins.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and Lambda Legal are calling on a Tennessee high school to apologize for removing a displayed student artwork featuring the word “GAYDOM” and a rainbow motif. The groups demand the drawing be immediately restored, arguing that the school’s justification for the removal-- that some students were offended by the artwork-- violates the student artist’s First Amendment rights.
The notion that the mere presence of inappropriate language and allegedly suggestive images is justification for a book’s removal sets a harmful precedent that, for example, a classic work of literature that contains adult language, or an art history textbook that includes a nude, should also be kept away from teens.
The letter argues that choosing to remove a book citing "community standards" sets a dangerous precedent for future book challenges.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and 6 other organizations committed to defending the right to read are urging a North Carolina school district to reinstate a children’s book in a 1st grade anti-bullying lesson plan after it was removed following pressure from local Republican lawmakers concerned about its gender-nonconforming themes.
The book, Jacob’s New Dress, was pulled after Republican lawmakers complained. For several month a group called Values Coalition has charged the district of using "indoctrinating" materials.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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 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.
In a follow up letter, NCAC stresses the district that banned TKAM/ Huck Finn needs an innocent-until-proven-guilty approach to book challenges.
Censorpedia currently contains over 1200 individual incidents collected over the years and contributed by students, NCAC staff and volunteers, artists and, potentially, YOU!
In his statement, the author of 'Bad Little Children’s Books' has asked ABRAMS not to print another edition of the book, because it has been so widely misunderstood and misconstrued.
The incident is particularly egregious because Accomack County Public Schools has already temporarily removed these universally acclaimed works.
NCAC has written in defense of Chbosky's oft-challenged novel, which Iowa parents claimed was 'obscene.'
NCAC's letter expresses concern that the "frightening images" stipulation is over broad and may end up excluding valuable literature.
A review committee has been convened to discuss the future of the book in the Dubuque Community school curriculum.
NCAC's letter underlines the mistake of conflating religious education with religious indoctrination.
The proposed regulation is the latest of several similar efforts NCAC has opposed in Virginia.
A post-election letter from NCAC’s Executive Director.
According to the Sullivan County Parents Against Islamic Indoctrination, their children's ignorance of Islam is preferred.
"Young readers need challenging books to help them become empathetic, caring, knowledgeable, thoughtful, and mature adults," Bertin and Davis state. "They’ll tell you that themselves, if you just ask them."
Oklahoma LGBT activists are calling into question a local library policy that limits the placement of LGBT-themed books to sections that hold books on sensitive topics such as drug use, incarceration and sexual abuse.
A daycare requirement to prevent young student's access to "frightening" materials may come at the cost of librarian's literary expertise in choosing student reading.
