An invitation to young adult novelist Ellen Hopkins to speak about her experiences as a writer was rescinded by the Superintendent of the Humble (Texas) Independent School District after some parents complained about the content of her books. NCAC coordinated a letter of protest with five other national organizations. After Hopkins was disinvited to Teen Lit Fest 2011, five other [...]
An invitation to young adult novelist Ellen Hopkins to speak about her experiences as a writer was rescinded by the Superintendent of the Humble (Texas) Independent School District after some parents complained about the content of her books. NCAC coordinated a letter of protest with five other national organizations.
After a long and drawn-out challenge process, this week Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon finally prevailed in Franklin Township! The denouement to this extended drama came down to a special convening of the Franklin Township school board set for this past Monday evening (July 6th). No one knew how it would turn out. New members of the school board, whose [...]
After a couple months of debate, the Franklin Township School Board in Indiana has ruled to retain Song of Solomon in its AP English classes!
As we reported in our latest edition of Censorship News, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was recently removed from an Indiana high school’s AP English class on April 28 after a parent and school board members complained about its content. Two days later, the book was returned to the class when a committee of educators and parents [...]
As we reported in our latest edition of Censorship News, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon was recently removed from an Indiana high school’s AP English class on April 28 after a parent and school board members complained about its content. Two days later, the book was returned to the class when a committee of educators and parents ruled in favor of keeping the book. On June 21, the Franklin Township school board will hear an appeal of the committee’s decision.
Two teachers at Norview High School in Norfolk, VA were recently put on administrative leave by the school after a parent complained about a video that she saw in Government class. The video informed its audience on how to assert their constitutional rights during various encounters with police, such as during a car or house search. It was accompanied by [...]
The Rancocas Valley School Board in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, chose to remove one of the three challenged books at its meeting on May 4. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and two other books were challenged because they appear on a list of books on GLBTQ themes created by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The objectors [...]
Scott Southworth, the district attorney of Juneau County, Wisconsin, is threatening to prosecute teachers who comply with a new state law that requires sex education courses to include “medically accurate, age-appropriate” information, including information on contraceptives. Southworth claims the law “promotes the sexual assault of children,” “[u]ndermines parental authority,” “requires school districts to condone controversial sexual behavior,” and “provides access [...]
Last Friday the Texas Board of Education voted along party lines to approve a new school curriculum that will, in effect, rewrite history. The new social studies curriculum will address what one board member referred to as a “skewed” history with a “liberal bias.” Although the proposed changes may individually seem relatively minor, they are not innocuous. For example, the [...]
The Culpeper County, VA school system received national media attention three weeks ago when school officials said that The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank would no longer be taught in middle school classrooms. A parent had contacted the school board because the uncensored version of the diary, used in an eighth grade English class, [...]
NCAC, with a little help from our friends, sent a letter urging Sugarloaf School in Summerland Key, FL, to retain Judy Blume's Forever in the school library after the parents of one student objected to the book's sexual content. The parents have requested its removal from the library claiming that Forever contains “a distorted view of sex, promiscuity, and is [...]
Robert Frost Elementary in Washington State canceled the touring theatre-troupe Studio East's production of the Emperor's New Clothes and demanded several edits to Snow White and the Black Forest due to fears that students would imitate the bad behavior of some of the characters. The plays, according to the school, violate its Human Dignity Policy. NCAC, in collaboration with several [...]
Robert Frost Elementary in Washington State canceled the touring theatre-troupe Studio East's production of the Emperor's New Clothes due to fears that students would imitate the bad behavior of some of the characters.
School officials at Menifee Union School District temporarily removed copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition for containing graphic terms like “oral sex" after a parent complained. (But as it turns out, the dictionary did not even contain this term...) Nonetheless, NCAC executive director Joan Bertin explains, Removing a book should be based solely on its educational value, not on [...]
Great week for high school theatre! RENT and the Laramie project are two of the most challenged plays in high schools around the country, but both shows will go on thanks to the Green Valley High School administration and Clark County's District Court in Henderson, NV despite parents who objected to the plays' "mature content". In an attempt to stop [...]
Kids' Right to Read Protests Efforts to Censor Young Adult Author Ellen Hopkins in Oklahoma
Kids' Right to Read Objects to Censorship in Kentucky High School
Kids' Right to Read Protests Efforts to Remove Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Kids' Right to Read Opposes Censorship at Panther Valley Middle School
North Pocono High School
Temecula Valley Unified School District
Several school districts did not show President Obama’s Back to School Speech on September 8th.
Kids' Right to Read Project Interview with Ellen Hopkins, author of the Banned Book Week Manifesto
In August, 2007, Debbie Almontaser was the interim principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, an Arabic language public high school she had worked with the New York City Department of Education for two years to establish. Though the school was secular (a point Almontaser sought to emphasize by naming the school for the famous Christian Lebanese poet), [...]
Letter to Leesburg City Commission Aug 21, 2009
Voices Against Book Censorship interviews author, blogger Lee Wind
The Kids’ Right To Read Project sent a letter today to the Chair of the Litchfield District’s School Board opposing the removal of several titles from Campbell High School’s upper-class elective “Love/Gender/Family” unit. KRRP also interviewed Andy Towne, a member of the Class of 2007 at Campbell High School after he authored an op-ed for The Nashua Telegraph about the [...]
On June 18, the Litchfield District School Board in New Hampshire decided to remove four short stories from the “Love/Gender/Family” unit of an upper-class elective English class at Campbell High School. The stories, including "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, "Survivor Type" by Stephen King, "The Crack Cocaine Diet" by Laura Lippman, and "I Like Guys" by David Sedaris.
The Kids' Right To Read Project sent a letter today to the Leesburg Public Library Advisory Board applauding their decision to keep two challenged books on the shelves in the Young Adult section without labeling or restricting them in any way. We also urged the Board to uphold its decision during an appeals process. Libraries serve every member of the [...]
The Kids' Right to Read Project opposes the removal of Vibe magazine from Randolph High School's library in Randolph, WI after the school's principal, Tom Erdmann complained about the magazine's“gang violence/activity” and “gang symbols/materials.” Dr. Greg Peyer Superintendent Randolph School District 110 Meadowood Drive Randolph, WI 53956 [...]
NCAC urges Superintendent to reverse his decision to ban student play On February 25, school board members in La Grande, OR voted to uphold Superintendent Larry Glaze’s decision to censor a student production of Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”, ignoring spirited and articulate appeals from the High School principal and drama teacher. It was yet another disturbing [...]
Natalie Jones, a sixth grade student at Mt. Woodson Elementary School, CA was censored earlier this month after her principal and superintendent failed to apply Ramona United School District's policy reasonably and professionally. Natalie was told she would only be allowed to give her independent research project class presentation on Harvey Milk during lunchtime recess and then only to students [...]
6/23/2009 updated 11/5/2010 — In April 2009, students in Knoxville, Tennessee successfully challenged the Internet filtering policy in place at their school which was blocking access to LGBT websites. After the ACLU filed a lawsuit on the students' behalf, the school districts in question consented to change the filter settings that were unconstitutionally blocking the websites.
On Friday, March 26, the Texas Board of Education struck down a bill that required evolution be taught with consideration of the "strengths and weaknesses" of the theory. The new bill, however, is not a striking victory for advocates of depolicized, science-based education. According to the NCSE: ...the revised biology standard (7B) reflects two discredited creationist ideas — that "sudden [...]
The Kids' Right to Read Project opposed a challenge to Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar (Hachette) and The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson (Peguin) in the Leesburg, Florida Public Library in April 2009 after a parent objected to the sexual content and drug references in the books. KRRP sent this letter in response to the challenge.
Following good news of Steve Martin’s bailout, there’s more bad news on the high school drama front. USA Today reports on the firing of a teacher who led a class project on The Laramie Project – a play and film based on responses from Laramie residents after the murder of Matthew Shepherd. The teacher – Debra Taylor – led a [...]
NCAC has been following the case of Picasso at the Lapin Agile in La Grande Oregon for the past month or so. After receiving a call from a concerned parent, we wrote a letter to the Superintendent explaining how and why his decision to cancel the Steve Martin play was, well, wrong. Unfortunately, a little saber rattling from New York [...]
