NCAC's Kids' Right to Read Project has sent a letter to the Murray Independent Schools district in Kentucky regarding the decision to remove the novel UnWholly from 7th grade reading at Murray Middle School, and the ongoing conversation about book challenge policies and how they are implemented in the district. The parent of a student complained that the book’s content [...]
In a letter sent today, NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project expressed concerns over the cancellation of Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother, as the assigned text for Booker T. Washington High School's school-wide summer reading program. The letter points out that "the book was selected after an extensive process by the professional staff", yet the program was cancelled despite "no formal [...]
No lie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian will likely face another challenge, this time in Brunswick County, North Carolina, where the The Color Purple was challenged earlier this year. NCAC sent a letter in the Color Purple case and the book was ultimately kept. A formal challenge has yet to be filed regarding Absolutely True Diary, though NCAC sent the below [...]
NCAC's Youth Free Expression Project sent a letter to the Newfound Area School District warning of the "constitutionally suspect" dissolution of a high school student film club. The official reason for disbanding the club was its supposed failure to advance "student performance in core academic subjects like reading and mathematics” or “complement their regular academic program.” But in conversation with [...]
District 196, serving the Rosemount – Apple Valley – Eagan regions near the Twin Cities, has announced that the committee convened to decide whether the book Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You should be retained in the district's libraries has voted 10-0 to keep the work. A parent challenged the book for the use of the word "retarded" in the story. The review process [...]
Update: The book as been retained. Click here for details on the decision. Barthe DeClements' award-winning Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You has been challenged for a school library removal in Rosemount - Apple Valley - Eagan Public Schools (District 196) near the Twin Cities in Minnesota. A parent filed a complaint over the use of the word "retarded" in the [...]
According to Fauquier.com, a Fauquier County Public Schools review committee has unanimously rejected a book challenge that would have removed David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing from the high school library. NCAC's Kids' Right To Read Project sent a letter to the school board prior to the meeting, warning that removing the book based on objections to the content was a disservice [...]
NCAC's Kids' Right to Read Project has sent a letter to the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware to warn against labeling Aldous Huxley's 20th Century classic Brave New World as potentially "inappropriate" for some Advanced Placement English students, as has been proposed by school board members. Though no one on the board has yet proposed that the book be removed [...]
Though no student was required to read it and a committee of educators and citizens voted it should stay, the Board of Trustees of Meridian Public School District in Idaho still suspended the use of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Instead of giving books a scarlet letter, school boards should encourage teachers to explain to parents how and why they select certain materials and what educational purposes these materials serve for their children. F
In public comments on Virginia's State Department of Education website and in a letter to board members, NCAC's Kids' Right to Read Project asked the Board of Education to reject a proposed amendment that would force schools to notify parents any time "sensitive" materials are used in the classroom.
A student-led petition sounded the alarm: no new books could enter Muhlenberg classroom libraries without being "rated" for mature, sexual, violent or religiously offensive content. A letter from NCAC's Kids' Right to Read Project sheds light on concerns over such ratings.
The Brunswick County School Board voted 3-2 not to remove The Color Purple after a formal complaint about its content by a member of the county government. In a letter, NCAC and partner organizations argued that removing the book would have an adverse effect on students' education.
On Monday, NCAC joined with other organizations on an friend of the court brief (.pdf) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Barnes v. Zaccari, an important case involving the speech rights of college students. The case began in 2007, when Hayden Barnes was expelled from Valdosta State University in Georgia over his vocal criticism of [...]
In remarks at last night's school board meeting, Teton School District Superintendent Monte Woolstenhulme called for the immediate reinstatement of Bless Me, Ultima. The book was suspended from classroom use with no process or review.
Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel Neverwhere has been returned to classrooms in Alamogordo, New Mexico, after the approval of a review committee and worldwide protest that included a letter signed by CBLDF! District spokesperson Doyle Styling talked to Karyn M. Peterson with the School Library Journal: “[Neverwhere] did go through a review process and it was found to be educationally suitable, balanced, and age-appropriate for high school students.” The book has been on district required reading lists since 2004, but it had not been challenged until parent Nancy Wilmott recently complained over content she deemed inappropriate for her 15-year-old daughter. Wilmott took exception to language and what she called “sexual innuendo” in the book, claiming that “This is rated R material, and she cannot get into a rated R movie.” The book was removed from classrooms during the review period, but it remained available in the library, a move that was openly supported by AHS principal Darian Jaramillo. Wilmott cited one passage in her complaint, which appears on p. 86 of the paperback edition of the book and reads as follows: A late-night couple, who had been slowly walking along the Embankment toward them, holding hands, sat down in the middle of [...]
NCAC and partners sent a letter to the Billings School District on Monday defending Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The book is taught in 10th grade classrooms. At a well-attended school board meeting this week, many supporters of the book spoke out in its defense.
The superintendent at Bordentown Regional School District [in New Jersey] made a public statement that “religious music should not be part of the elementary program[s]” and decided to ban religious Christmas music during winter concert performances at elementary schools within the district [...]
If you’re like us, the recent removal of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere from Alamogordo Public School classrooms has caused you to feel anything from confusion to just-plain-no-way-you-can’t-be-serious anger. Now you can take action: A parent in Alamogordo has started a petition on Change.org … Continue reading →
In the middle of a unit on Harper Lee’s classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, students at Belle Chasse High School in Lousiana were informed they wouldn’t be finishing the book. Apparently, their teachers told them, the book is banned. … Continue reading →
The news that Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere had been challenged in classrooms in Alamogordo, NM, caused local and national outcry. This week, the district announced that the book is 'educationally suitable, balanced and age-appropriate' and that it would continue to be used.
TXBBQ&A will be an interactive roundtable discussion about the real, relevant state of censorship in Texas. The conversation will center on Texas schools and values, books in prison, freedom of the press and the right to read. 9/26, free and open to the public. Part of Banned Books Week 2013!
Ten days after the Randolph County School board voted to have the book removed, Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' is back on library shelves and in classrooms following a second vote.
Popular YA novel Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell will remain on school library shelves in Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools, after a committee unanimously voted to retain the book. The book came under fire in July 2013 when it was selected as the county's "Rock the Read" book for summer reading.
The Cumberland County school district cancelled a talk about bullying by author Meg Medina because of the title of her most recent book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. The book's title are the first words the main character hears her first day of school, kicking off bullying that will plague her throughout the year.
The Currituck County School Board voted 4-1 on October 14 to keep Tanya Lee Stone's "A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl" in the high school library. We urged the district to follow the recommendation of its review committee and keep the book in a letter last month.
The Adams 12 School Board voted to settle a challenge to Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' in Advanced Placement literature classes. The board voted in support of the superintendent's decision, not outright banning the book but approving such great restrictions as to make the book impossible to teach.
School's out for the summer, but there's no vacation from book challenges. The Kids' Right to Read Project is battling a handful of censorship cases, including a push to remove The Bluest Eye from Advanced Placement courses in Adams County, Colorado. Find out more about the latest battles...
Steven Pico in 1981 Steven Pico may not be a household name. But for those who champion the freedom to read, he’s a big deal. Back in 1976, Pico and four other teens sued their school district in Long Island, NY, for banning 11 books from their classrooms and school libraries. The six-year battle to defend the constitutional rights [...]
Thirty-one years ago today, the Supreme Court upheld students rights to read in the Island Trees School district in Long Island. The 5-4 decision of Board of Education vs. Pico found that the school board violated the First Amendment when they removed certain books from junior high and high school libraries after parents complained they were “objectionable.” Check out some [...]
If you love libraries, you might know that today marks the anniversary of an important decision upholding the First Amendment in schools. In Board of Ed. v. Pico (1982), the plurality opinion stated that school libraries have “special characteristics” as providers of free access to information, and should be especially vigilant of upholding students’ First Amendment rights. Pico began when [...]
Following a second letter from the Kids' Right to Read Project and a little help from Judy Blume, the school board of Glen Ellyn School District 41 in Illinios voted to restore access to The Perks of Being a Wallflower in middle school classroom libraries.
The Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP) celebrated the return of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Simon & Schuster) to middle school classroom libraries in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. District 41 school board members voted 6-1 to reverse a ban on the book at their meeting yesterday. Perks was effectively banned on April 29 by the outgoing Glen [...]
--UPDATE-- Last night the board voted 6-1 to keep the book. They will be instating new policies that will hopefully balance parental concerns with students rights and the professional judgments of teachers. --------------------------------------------- The students, teachers, parents and citizens on the ground in Glen Ellyn have been working hard to spread the word about tonight's board vote there to (hopefully) [...]
NCAC's Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP) and its allies sent a letter to Glen Ellyn District 41 school board members today, urging them to reverse the district’s ban on Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Simon & Schuster) in middle school classroom libraries. The board is set to reconsider the ban at a June 10 meeting. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
