Hillsboro High School in Ohio cancelled a production of Qui Nguyen’s play, She Kills Monsters, due to “inappropriate language, profanity, homophobic slurs, sexual innuendos and graphic violence," but likely also because it features a gay character.
In violation of district policy, Wissahickon School District in Pennsylvania censored Gender Queer from library shelves.
Canyons School District in Utah has censored several award-winning books from school libraries in violation of its own district policies.
A New Jersey school district did not include any librarians in its review of several challenged award-winning LGBTQ-themed library books.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools removed several books, including such award-winning books as A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, The Bluest Eye by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, from school libraries.
Katy Independent School District in Texas removed two books by Jerry Craft from school libraries because of a parent complaint about "promoting Critical Race Theory", possibly violating the First Amendment
NCAC has written to officials in Lake Travis Independent School District in Austin, Texas, after reports emerged that a historical novel has been removed from libraries before an official was completed, in violation of district policy.
The National Coalition Against Censorship applauds North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s recent veto of House Bill 324, which would have regulated the teaching of certain concepts commonly (and often mistakenly) associated with Critical Race Theory.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has signed on to a letter by the Student Press Law Center calling on the Superintendent of Arkansas’s Bigelow High School to reprint yearbook pages that were censored after alleged “community backlash.” The letter also asks that the Superintendent apologize to the yearbook staff and former adviser Meghan Walter who resigned due to the censorship. [...]
How does the First Amendment protect the rights of students and teachers? This guide provides background on the legal and practical questions surrounding school censorship controversies.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a student's First Amendment rights for off-campus speech, but the Mahanoy decision left questions unanswered.
Non-partisan coalition statement in a response to attempts to limit teaching related to critical race theory, under a broad umbrella of "divisive concepts," including free speech and First Amendment framework for opposition advocacy.
NCAC is concerned by the treatment of Laurin Mayeno's One of a Kind, Like Me in a North Carolina school district based on the perception that the book addresses gender identity issues.
The National Coalition Against Censorship is concerned about a new policy at Montclair Public Schools that threatens to chill teachers' ability to select instructional material that deals with race, ethnicity, religion or sexuality.
NCAC criticizes Ardmore schools in Oklahoma for banning Black Lives Matter shirts.
A Nebraska school district recently banned all protests on school grounds in violation of students' First Amendment rights.
Seven states are considering legislation to ban the teaching of "divisive concepts," which encompasses certain teaching about social justice and structural inequality.
Across the country, state lawmakers are considering legislation that aims to ban teaching books with LGBTQ themes and punish teachers for exposing students to material that addresses sexuality and gender expression.
An Austin, Texas, school district banned teachers from reading Call Me Max, a picture book about a trans child, to students after parents complained.
Proposed legislation in several states attempts to ban teaching about sexuality and social justice in classrooms.
A school district in Vail, Arizona, is considering removing Slaughterhouse Five from classroom teaching after a parent complained about references to sex.
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Theodore Taylor's The Cay, and Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, challenged in Burbank Unified School District.
New resource guides teachers and school administrators navigating book challenges.
The Free Expression Educators Handbook contains practical tools and advice for managing book challenges and censorship controversies in schools and school libraries. The handbook, created by NCAC in collaboration with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), is intended for teachers, librarians, and school administrators. It offers guidance for educators developing inclusive and viewpoint-neutral instructional material policies, including sample [...]
North Carolina lawsuit demands that public schools protect one religious viewpoint above others by banning Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X.
A California school district removed the novel Ghost Boys, which tells the story of a Black boy shot by police, from its curriculum.
Lauded graphic novel Fun Home was removed from high school classrooms by a principal in Nevada, violating district policy and threatening students' right to read.
NCAC, joined by ten organizations, is protesting a Texas school district’s decision to remove from a school website an editorial cartoon that was part of a class assignment because it criticizes the use of violence against Black people over the course of American history, including violence by police. The assignment was canceled after the National Fraternal Order of Police complained [...]
One of the most common complaints of students who come to NCAC for assistance is that they have been threatened with discipline for something that they said on social media. In an important decision that greatly reduced the power of school officials to “reach into a child’s home and control his/her actions” and speech, a panel of the Third Circuit [...]
When a school board in Alaska voted in April to remove five classic books from a high school reading list, it had no idea that it would outrage many in the community as well as several alumni of the school who are now rock stars. Although the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School Board reversed its decision a month later, the controversy [...]
On August 3 and 4, two students at North Paulding High School in Dallas, GA, posted pictures to social media showing students in crowded hallways where social distancing was clearly impossible. Most students were not wearing masks. Unsurprisingly, the pictures immediately became a topic of discussion in the national media. In response, the school suspended the students on the grounds [...]
NCAC has joined several free speech organizations in supporting Oberlin College’s appeal of a $44 million libel judgment that threatens the free speech rights of its faculty and students. They filed an amicus brief in an Ohio appeals court on June 5. The case grew out of the arrest of three African American students in 2016 for attempted theft [...]
WINDSOR, VT -- The Mt. Ascutney School District Board has removed Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley from her position after she stated on her personal Facebook account that she disapproved of some of the tactics used by some Black Lives Matter activists. In response, NCAC has written to the school board urging them to rescind their decision to remove Ms. [...]
NCAC urges Mat-Su school board to reverse decision to remove five classic texts from high school curriculum.
Banned Books Week 2020 declares Censorship is a Dead End: Find Your Freedom to Read. The annual celebration of banned books will be held from September 23-October 3, 2020.
Arizona considers banning sex ed before seventh grade.
Lawmakers challenging introduction of comprehensive sex ed are calling for ban on popular sexual health guide in schools and libraries.
Author Aida Salazar shares her own experience with school visits for her new book, The Moon Within, and the struggles she faces with teachers.
George Washington High School students, Lía Sánchez, Rowan Francis Taylor and Dava Munyon, share their thoughts on the Victor Arnautoff murals.
This list of our best resources on censorship and the First Amendment in schools will help you get ready for the school year.
