WTTW’s Chicago Tonight on PERSEPOLIS Ban March 19, 2013By Betsy Gomez Last night, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight aired a 15-minute segment trying to get to the real story about the reported Persepolis ban. Barbara Jones, Executive Director of ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, joined anchor Carol Marin, Kristine Mayle with the Chicago Teachers Union, and Lane Tech students Katie McDermott and Alexa Repp for a roundtable discussion about the circumstances surrounding the Persepolis ban. Tellingly, Chicago Public School declined to send a representative to the discussion.
Confusion over the specific circumstances that led to the reported ban continues to dominate the discussion. Mayle reports that CTU is uncertain about how many schools received the order to remove the book, but that CTU believes the order appears to have come from high up at CPS. Jones spoke to ALA’s attempts to get more information about the ban through avenues provided by FOIA. McDermott and Repp talked about the protest they organized against the book’s removal, their doubts regarding CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s statement that the book was not banned, and the importance of making sure their voices are heard.
Click here to see video: http://video.wttw.com/video/2349716101
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Missing the Point on PERSEPOLIS March 20, 2013By Betsy Gomez The attempt to ban Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis from Chicago schools awoke immediate protest among students, teachers, parents, and free speech advocates such as CBLDF. The circumstances behind the ban are still unclear, but a recent opinion article in The Atlantic gives a teacher’s perspective to the situation and takes Chicago Public Schools to task for a bureaucracy that interferes with learning.
In his article for The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky — an educational writer and curriculum developer who has more than 20 years of experience — discusses the various times that his own work has been proscribed by school administrations:
On one project, a colleague of mine working on a world history course was told not to include the fact that gay people were targeted during the Holocaust. In another instance, I was told that I could not, for sensitivity reasons, include a test passage about storms at sea. Passages about rats, or alcohol, or love, or death were similarly proscribed. So were passages that depicted, or even mentioned, slavery — and this was for an American history exam. Again, there were sensitivity concerns, though whether we were worried about offending black people or white people, I don’t know. Probably both.
CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has claimed that Persepolis was not banned outright, but that it has been deemed inappropriate for 7th grade students and is currently under review for use in grades 8-10. It has been approved for use by 11th and 12th grade students, but CPS has now mandated special training for the teachers using the book in class. Throughout the muddled message that CPS has delivered in response to the protest over the removal is the contention that violent imagery and graphic language in the book are inappropriate for 7th grade students. Berlatsky expresses no surprise that an attempt was made to ban Persepolis, and he eviscerates the justification for the removal and how keeping children safe from “dangerous” knowledge has an adverse effect on education:
The truth is, outside of arithmetic, it’s hard to teach anything worth learning that someone won’t find offensive or upsetting or frightening or off-putting. If it’s interesting, if it’s something people care about, then people are going to have opinions about it. That means somebody, somewhere, isn’t going to like it. The drive to keep our children perfectly safe from dangerous knowledge just ends up reducing their education to a bland, boring, irrelevant slog.
Berlatsky then addresses the decision we must ultimately make to balance the desire to protect children with the need to let them learn:
So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all.
Chicago is a city that has been marked by violence recently, garnering the attention of national and international media outlets. In such an atmosphere, the argument that the content of Persepolis is too violent and too profane for 13-year-olds (and possibly for 14- to 16-year-olds) carries little weight. These students have experienced violence and profanity in the real world, and many of them have been primary witnesses to violence. Berlatsky closes his essay by pointing out that the fear of Persepolis may not actually be about the content but that students may relate too closely to the author’s experiences:
The worry, then, seems to be not so much that the material will be too much for them (like horror films in first grade), but that it might fit too well — that the students might feel like the story has something to do with their lives. Perhaps they might even see, in the senseless, narrow-minded institutions of Iran, an analogy to narrow-minded institutions closer to home.
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~ Plymouth-Canton Parents, Teachers State Cases in Book Challenge Panel's recommendation on book could come to superintendent by next week.
Beloved, along with Graham Swift's Waterland, both have been challenged by the parents of an AP English Literature student. Superintendent Jeremy Hughes initially removed Waterland from the class curriculum upon the parents' complaint, but that book will be subject to its own review at a later date.
The two-hour public review was the first formal hearing on the book and it will be followed by a subsequent closed meeting sometime next week — district officials say a date has not yet been determined — where a vote will be expected. Based on that vote, a recommendation will be handed up to superintendent Jeremy Hughes, who then will make a decision.
The parties met at the E.J. McClendon Educational Center in Plymouth for the review, which was attended by more than 60 parents and students. Matt and Barb Dame, the parents who challenged the books, first spoke to a panel assembled by the district, which included high school teachers, a school media specialist, a community library director, parents from the district's parent council, a college professor and administrators.
Just one day earlier, more than 100 parents and students filed into the same room to speak about the issue.
Barb Dame argued that Beloved was a fictitious account set upon its real-life backdrop of slavery, and contained gratuituous language, violence and sex acts that provide no historical context for the reader.
She also argued the book was given an 870 Lexile rating, which rates the complexity of the language within a work. A Lexile score of 870 equates to about a fifth-grade reading level. She compared its Lexile rating to Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach.
"Mature, right?" Barb Dame said.
Matt Dame addressed what he characterized as gratuitous sex and violence in the book.
"In the first two chapters, there are five references to sex with cows and other sex," he said.
Additionally, Matt Dame said, the book contains passages containing sex with ghosts, forced oral sex and infanticide.
"I don't see the value of this novel in the school curriculum," Barb Dame said. "I just don't see it."
Matt Dame also criticized repeated instances throughout the novel where he said God's name was used in vain.
"If any of this was offensive to Allah or Hindus it would never be in our school district," he said.
As an alternative, the Dames said their daughter was assigned William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying — which also scored an 870 on the Lexile chart and was banned by a school board in Kentucky in 1986 — by her teacher. They said she has to read it in the library and there are no class-wide discussions about her assigned reading.
Brian Read, an AP English teacher who teaches both Beloved and Waterland, admitted he did not have alternative reading material set aside.
"I've taught Beloved for 10 years, never had it challenged," he said.
Still, he said, he understands the parents' position.
"I believe they are looking out for the best interests of their child," he said. "As a parent myself, I understand that."
He said there was a process to vet the book a decade ago when he first introduced it to his syllabus.
"I proposed it to my administrator," he said. "She read that and Waterland. We read them, discussed the content and theme and how it fit in with the course."
He said during that process it was acknowledged that there was some mature content in the books, "but we decided the themes and the way it fit into the course was justified."
He said a list of reading material went out to parents in the spring, before the summer reading program began.
He also countered the Dames' argument that a nonfiction text about slavery or survival should have been assigned.
"AP English Literature, it's about fiction," he said. "Poetry and fiction."
Another course — AP English Language — is about nonfiction, he said.
He said the themes in Beloved, which tells the story of the ghost of a deceased child apparently coming back to visit her mother, feature "magical realism," where the very fantastical can be mundane, and the book has several instances of symbolism.
Gretchen Miller, another AP English teacher, said the book meets the standards of the community the school is serving.
"We teach this book to a self-selected group of people who — with parents — determine they're old enough," she said.
After each side spoke, the panel retreated into a closed meeting to discuss the arguments. A decision on Beloved could come as early as next week, MacGregor said, after the panel convenes again.
http://plymouth-mi.patch.com/articles/parents-teachers-state-case-in-book-challenge
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They're Burning Books Again
Harry Potter Book Burning and Other Cases of Book Burning
By Elizabeth Kennedy, About.com Guide
Who Burns Books and Why?
Before the introduction of the printing press, burning books was an effective form of censorship. Since each book was handmade, there were few books, and it was possible to limit the spread of ideas and information by burning books. In recent times, it has had other purposes. Foreign governments have used book burning and other destruction to intimidate and illustrate their power. In the early 2000s, there were a number of instances of Harry Potter book burning. In the United States, most of the book burnings of various books that I've read about have been motivated by religious views.
Book Burning: 2001-2005
However, until the Harry Potter books, it was not that common to find a children's book series as the main stimulus for a book burning event. In 2001, several such book burnings were held. In early January 2002, Christ Community Church of Alamogordo, New Mexico, became the topic of international media attention for its book burning after the pastor, Jack D. Brock, preached a sermon on the topic "The Baby Jesus Or Harry Potter?". Brock stated he considered the Harry Potter books to be "an example of our society's growing preoccupation with the occult. The Potter books present witchcraft as a generally positive practice, while the Bible expressly condemns all occult practices." After the burning of the Harry Potter books and some others on on December 30, 2001, the pastor's sermon and the book burning event became the topic of news features in both the United States and England. CNN.com reported, "As hundreds protested nearby, a church group burned Harry Potter and other books." The BBC News (British Broadcasting Company) reported that, "Pastor Brock said he had never read any of the four Potter novels - but had researched their contents."
In August 2003, the Jesus Non-denominational Church in Greenville, Michigan, burned Harry Potter books, according to a report from WZZM13.com. According to the report, "He [The pastor]says stories like Harry Potter that glorify wizardry and sorcery will lead people to accept and believe in Satan."
According to the the American Library Association, there were several book burning events in 2001 related to the Harry Potter series, and there were also reports of book burnings or slashings for other books in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.
More Recent Book Burnings
Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina reports on its Web site about its 2009 Halloween book burning that was rained out, although the targeted books were destroyed, and on plans for the church's 2010 book burning. The book burnings are not open to the public, but are by invitation only. In the church's case, members target what they call "Satan's bibles," those that are not the King James version, as well as other books and music.
In August 2010, a Gainesville, Florida church announced it would burn copies of the Quran on September 11, despite being denied a burn permit by the city. (Gaineville.com, August 19, 2010) While slashing and tearing books have become accepted ways of destroying targeted books for groups that don't want to break the law in cases where it is unlawful to burn them, the congregation planned to defy the law. However, after an outpouring of international protest, the church canceled the burning, but not in time to prevent riots and deaths in protests against the Quran (Koran) burning. (Reuters, September 11, 2010)
I was surprised to find that book burning continues to this day. It is an extreme form of censorship, one that most people, even those who support challenging and censoring books, do not support.
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/burningbooks.htm
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Banning of Books Signals Revolution in Tucson
Banned book includes Leslie Marmon Silko, Buffy Sainte Marie and Winona LaDuke
By Brenda Norrell
UPDATE Jan. 18, 2012:
'Custer Huppenthal's Last Big Lie about Seized Books, by Censored News:
TUCSON -- Outrage was the response on Saturday to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including "Rethinking Columbus," with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.
All books and materials of the now forbidden Mexican American Studies classes were seized from the classrooms. This follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.
Students said the books were seized from the classrooms and out of their hands after the vote banning Mexican American Studies, including a book of photos of Mexico. Crying, students said it was like Nazi Germany and they have been unable to sleep since it happened.
The banned book, "Rethinking Columbus," includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reeseof Nambe Pueblo reports. The book includes:
Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate"
Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"
Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians"
Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas"
N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"
Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving"
Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony"
Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song"
Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"
All books in the Mexican American Studies classrooms were seized. The reading list includes two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda.
Jeff Biggers writes in Salon:
The list of removed books includes the 20-year-old textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” which features an essay by Tucson author Leslie Silko. Recipient of a Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, Silko has been an outspoken supporter of the ethnic studies program.
Biggers said Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest," was also banned during the meeting this week. Administrators told Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any class units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes."
Other banned books include “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by famed Brazilian educator Paolo Freire and “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña, two books often singled out by Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned in 2010 on the promise to “stop la raza.” Huppenthal, who once lectured state educators that he based his own school principles for children on corporate management schemes of the Fortune 500, compared Mexican-American studies to Hitler Jugend indoctrination last fall.
Bill Bigelow, co-author of Rethinking Columbus, writes:
Imagine our surprise.
Rethinking Schools learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona ...
As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.
Roberto Rodriguez, professor at University of Arizona, is also among the nation's top Chicano and Latino authors on the Mexican American Studies reading list. Rodriguez' column about this week's school board decision, posted at Censored News, is titled: "Tucson school officials caught on tape 'urinating' on Mexican students."
Rodriguez responded to Censored News on Sunday about the banning of his books at Tucson schools.
"The attacks in Arizona are mind-boggling. To ban the teaching of a discipline is draconian in and of itself. However, there is also now a banned books list that accompanies the ban. I believe 2 of my books are on the list, which includes: Justice: A Question of Race and The X in La Raza. Two others may also be on the list," Rodriguez said.
"That in itself is jarring, but we need to remember the proper context. This is not simply a book-banning; according to Tom Horne, the former state schools' superintendent who designed HB 2281, this is part of a civilizational war. He determined that Mexican American Studies is not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and thus, lies outside of Western Civilization.
"In a sense, he is correct. The philosophical foundation for MAS is a maiz-based philosophy that is both, thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. What has just happened is akin to an Auto de Fe -- akin to the 1562 book-burning of Maya books in 1562 at Mani, Yucatan. At TUSD, the list of banned books will total perhaps 50 books, including artwork and posters.
"For us here in Tucson, this is not over. If anything, the banning of books will let the world know precisely what kind of mindset is operating here; in that previous era, this would be referred to as a reduccion (cultural genocide) of all things Indigenous. In this era, it can too also be see as a reduccion."
The reading list includes world acclaimed Chicano and Latino authors, along with Native American authors. The list includes books by Corky Gonzales, along with Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street;” Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Black Mesa Poems,“ and L.A. Urreas’ “The Devil’s Highway.“ The authors include Henry David Thoreau and the popular book “Like Water for Chocolate.”
On the reading list are Native American author Sherman Alexie's books, “Ten Little Indians,“ and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.“ O’odham poet and professor Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power, Poems from the Desert” is also on the list.
DA Morales writes in Three Sonorans, at Tucson Citizen, about the role of state schools chief John Huppenthal. "Big Brother Huppenthal has taken his TEA Party vows to take back Arizona… take it back a few centuries with official book bans that include Shakespeare!"
BANNED MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES READING LIST
Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department, Tucson Unified School District, May 2, 2011.
High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire
United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn
Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna
The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya
The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez
De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez
500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez
Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8
Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie
The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin
Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb
At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara
Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Martinez
Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.
Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte
Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz
The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki
The Devil's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea
Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen
Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6
Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie
Zorro (2005), by I. Allende
Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua
A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca
Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca
Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca
Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca
Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca
The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo
Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist
Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada
Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel
When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia
La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.
The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales
Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" (2004) by Goodman, et al.
Feminism if for Everybody (2000), by b hooks
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991), by J. Kozol
Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz
Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero
...y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera
Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez
Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie
Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan
Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla
Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum
New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum
Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau
By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea
Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea
Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez
Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/banning-of-books-signals-revolution-in.html
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Tuesday, Mar 20, 2012 04:30 PM EDT
Rochester’s ridiculous banned book controversy
A book about same-sex parenting creates an uproar when it gets banned from a Minnesota library VIDEO
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
One of the American Library Association’s most challenged books of the last decade has disappeared from yet another library. It’s a tome that topped the ALA’s list last year, and has made waves ever since its publication. Yet the book that so concerned a Rochester-area parent that the public school system there yanked it earlier this month wasn’t Lauren Myracle’s gritty, haunting “Shine.” It wasn’t Suzanne Collins’ intense, violent Mockingjay series. It was a picture book about a penguin family. Hide your kids!
“And Tango Makes Three” is the gentle tale of Roy and Silo, two penguins from the Central Park Zoo who “built a nest of stones” and “every night they slept there together, just like the other penguin couples.” Soon, the narrative finds Roy and Silo taking turns sitting on an egg provided by a helpful zookeeper, and hatching and raising their baby Tango. It’s a story of love and family and adoption. Oh, and there’s just one other thing. As authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell explain it, those “two penguins in the penguin house were a little bit different. Roy and Silo were both boys.”
Making matters even more shocking, “And Tango Makes Three” isn’t just some fanciful, gay-agenda fairy tale cooked up to indoctrinate our children. It’s based on the real story of Central Park penguins Roy and Silo, who made headlines in 2004 with their same-sex-oriented love affair and eventual hatching of another penguin couple’s egg. Gay penguins, in fact, are pairing off in zoos all over North America lately. Probably just to spite Rick Santorum.
This latest banning began last fall, when a Gibbs elementary school parent got wind of the book about those two flightless birds and their ability to nurture a chick, deemed it “inappropriate for elementary school students,” and asked to have it removed from the school library. The district’s Committee for Reconsideration of Resources deemed the book suitable to remain on the shelves and rejected the request.
But then the parent made the request again, and this time School board Chairwoman Julie Workman, Vice Chairman Gary Smith and Superintendent Michael Muñoz took it upon themselves to pull the book from the Gibbs school. Perhaps they were all just outraged that “And Tango Makes Three” failed to mention that Roy and Silo broke up six years ago, when Silo took up with a penguin named Scrappy. A female penguin. It’s all so selective. Like a Mike Daisey show.
Yet here’s where the tale takes a turn. On Monday, Muñoz admitted that he and his cohorts did not follow district protocol when they pulled the book, and district spokeswoman Jennifer Pozanc announced that “If it has not [been restored to the library shelf], it will be soon.” Meanwhile, the Rochester Public Library can’t lend it fast enough. “Our hold list went from two to 15 in the last two days,” librarian Kimberly Edson told the local ABC news affiliate.
The district will hold a full public hearing on whether the book should stay or go on April 10. But it’s an encouraging sign that locals are now interested enough in the book – and the subject matter it addresses with tenderness and sensitivity – to get it wait-listed at the public library. And the fact that for now, schoolchildren in Gibbs can continue to get the message that “two daddies” can feed and snuggle and play with their baby, “just like all the other penguin families,” makes for a very happy ending.
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/20/rochesters_ridiculous_banned_book_controversy/singleton/
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The Tribune Democrat, Johnstown, PA
April 2, 2012
Book ban nixed: ‘The Glass Castle’ to remain part of school’s curriculum
Bernie Hornick
[email protected]
CAIRNBROOK — The Shade-Central City school board allowed a cuss-word-laced book to remain part of the 10th-grade English curriculum Monday after a motion to ban “The Glass Castle” died for lack of a second.
Board member Dr. Beth Lambert introduced a motion to remove the book from classrooms. Chairman Steve Sesack said school policy allows a book to be removed with a two-thirds board vote.
Lambert complained vigorously that no discussion was held after she introduced her motion.
“I didn’t think I deserved that as a board member,” she told her cohorts.
“I don’t know who decided to railroad that.”
None of the other eight board members spoke to the relative merits of the coming-of-age memoir. And – after not banning the book – the board didn’t muzzle Lambert either: She got her say.
“In my opinion, it’s unhealthy,” Lambert said, reading from a prepared statement. She noted that as a pediatrician, it’s her job to understand the social and developmental welfare of children up to age 18.
The book is a 2005 best-selling memoir by Jeannette Walls.
In it, Walls describes her hardscrabble upbringing. It includes being subjected to sexual assault, casual profanity, drunkenness, seeing the family cat pitched from a moving car and having to drink ditch water. Even critics of the graphic book praise its theme – overcoming adversity.
And Lambert said it would be appropriate for 10th-graders, as well – if an edited copy without the profanity were available, which it isn’t.
The book is assigned reading for English classes, though the students must have a parent sign a permission slip to read it. Teachers find another book for students whose parents forbid “The Glass Castle.”
The Rev. Randy Reynolds of the Central City Christian Church read a letter from Lambert’s husband, Gary, also seeking to have the book pulled. “No schools in the county use it as a textbook,” Reynolds read from the letter.
Caught leaving the meeting after the motion failed, Reynolds said, “It’s just disappointing no one else was willing to stand up against that. It doesn’t stop us as parents from taking a stand.”
While noting parents still will have an option for an alternate book, he said teaching two books at once will be harder on teachers.
http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1437247127/Book-ban-nixed-The-Glass-Castle-to-remain-part-of-school-s-curriculum
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July 29, 2011 11:04 AM
Mo. high school bans "Slaughterhouse-Five"
(CBS/AP)
REPUBLIC, Mo. — Two books have been banned from the libraries and curriculum at Republic High School after a parent complained that their content taught principles contrary to the Bible.
The district's school board voted Monday to remove Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Sarah Ockler's "Twenty Boy Summer," but to allow Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak" to be used in the district's high school, The Springfield News-Leader reported.
Superintendent Vern Minor said the board based its decision on whether the books were age-appropriate.
"We very clearly stayed out of discussion about moral issues," Minor said. "Our discussions from the get-go were age-appropriateness."
Wesley Scroggins of Republic, who had challenged the books and lesson plans last year, said he was mostly pleased with the decision.
"I congratulate them for doing what's right and removing the two books," said Scroggins. "It's unfortunate they chose to keep the other book."
It took a year to reach a decision because the complaint prompted the 4,500-student district to form a task force to develop book standards for all its schools, Minor said.
The panel considered existing policies and public rating systems that already exist for music, TV and video games before adopting new standards in April. Those standards were applied to the three books, Minor said.
Several people read the books and provided feedback.
"It was really good for us to have this discussion," Minor said. "Most schools stay away from this and they get on this rampage, the whole book-banning thing, and that's not the issue here. We're looking at it from a curriculum point of view."
Minor said most people supported keeping "Speak," which is taught in English I and II courses, because although it had one short description of a rape, it had a strong message at the end.
But he said those who read "Twenty Boy Summer," available in the library, thought it sensationalized sexual promiscuity and included questionable language, drunkenness, lying to parents and a lack of remorse. And he said "Slaughterhouse Five" contained crude language and adult themes that are more appropriate for college-age students.
Minor said students will be allowed to use those two books for extra class material if they have their parents' permission.
The Springfield News-Leader writes that Superintendent Minor will next propose a policy that blocks R-rated movies from being shown to high school students.
"That's on my list of other board policies," he told the school board earlier this week.
Minor's description of his proposal to the News-Leader - setting maximum MPAA rating levels for movies shown to elementary, middle and high school students - would prevent teachers from using such films as "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," "Glory" and Roman Polanski's "Macbeth" in their curriculum.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-20085453.html
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March 20, 2011
Book-Banning Controversy
Originally Published By: Women’s eNews on December 13, 2010
A book-banning effort against “Speak,” a young-adult novel about date rape, is creating an uproar. A campus group is making a documentary, a Twitter feed is discussing censorship and a library group expects the controversy to attract teen readers.
(WOMENSENEWS)–A Missouri State University professor’s bid to ban a young-adult novel about date rape, among other “filthy books,” from the school district’s English courses is spurring young-adult authors and teachers to speak out against censorship in a country where more than 10,676 books have been challenged in libraries and schools since 1990.
“Teens don’t live in a vacuum,” Andrea Cremer, author of the young-adult novel “Nightshade,” wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. “They inhabit the same brutal world as adults without the knowledge and tools of adulthood. For those teens whose lives have already been affected by drugs, violence, suicide or any number of traumatic experiences–what children as well as adults struggle with–books can provide comfort, healing or simply the realization that one isn’t alone.”
One in six women will be a victim of sexual assault during her life, according to data published by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington, D.C. Young women between 16 and 19 are four times more likely to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
“Speak,” a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson about a teen who was raped at a party, is on the New York Times bestseller list, was a National Book Award finalist and has received many honors, including the Michael L. Printz and Golden Kite awards.
However, Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of business management at Missouri State University in Springfield and a fundamentalist Christian, is demanding that “Speak” and two other books be banned from public high school English coursework in Republic, Mo.
Scroggins filed his complaint in June to the Missouri public school board and wrote an opinion piece on Sept. 18, arguing that the two rape scenes in the novel should be classified as “soft pornography.”
Call to Ban Two Other Books
One of the other books Scroggins wants struck from high school reading lists is “Slaughterhouse Five,” the 1969 antiwar novel by Kurt Vonnegut, which Scroggins complains has too much profane language and sex for high school students.
The other is “Twenty Boy Summer,” by Sarah Ockler, published in 2009. Scroggins said the book “glorifies drunken teen parties” and sex on the beach with condoms.
He is opposed by those who argue rape is a violent act of assault–not porn–and that removing the book would infringe on students’ First Amendment rights.
“Teen readers lose their First Amendment rights as well as access to information that may help them grow intellectually or emotionally if a book is unjustly removed from their local school or public library, or if the library unjustly restricts access to it in some way,” Beth Yoke, executive director of the Chicago-based Young Adult Library Services Association, said in an interview with Women’s eNews.
Since 1990, the association has documented the removal of at least 10 books from the schools and public libraries in Missouri. However, the information provided to the group is voluntary, said Bryan Campbell, an administrative assistant for the Chicago-based Office for Intellectual Freedom, in an email interview.
He also said the group is working on a system for larger data collection that may provide a more reliable picture of book banning statistics in the future.
Each year the American Library Association, based in Chicago, recommends a variety of books to libraries, including “contemporary realistic fiction that reflects the diversity of the teen experience.”
Hundreds of books, including some recommended by the organization, are also challenged or banned from schools and libraries each year.
Between 1990 and 2009 the most common reason listed for challenging a book was “sexually explicit,” at 3,046 complaints. Complaints of “violence” numbered 1,258, according to data provided by the American Library Association.
Thousands Say Thank
“When ‘Speak’ was published, there was some whispering that this was not an appropriate topic for teens,” Halse Anderson said in an interview with the Springfield, Mo., News-Leader four days after Scroggins attacked the book on the newspaper’s opinion page.
She added that thousands of readers had written to thank her for the book: “They said it made them feel less alone and gave them the strength to speak up about being sexually assaulted and other painful secrets.”
The highly popular young-adult author, Judy Blume, a frequent target of book banning herself, has written to the National Council Against Censorship, based in New York City, on behalf of Halse Anderson.
Ockler, author of “Twenty Boy Summer,” one of the three books condemned by Scroggins, blogged on her Web site in September and October about the dangers of censorship. She also emphasized the importance of healthy discussions among parents and their children: “Truly asking for parental involvement would mean encouraging parents to read the books in question, discuss issues and themes with their kids and come to their own decisions about what’s best for their own families.”
“I’m against book banning in schools,” Daisy Whitney, author of “The Mockingbirds,” a young-adult book published on Nov. 2 that also treats the subject of date rape, said in a phone interview. “‘Speak’ is a novel that has helped so many teenagers understand the emotions surrounding someone who has been through a traumatic experience. The reason some people have suggested banning ‘Speak’ also concerns me because in no way should rape ever be equated with sex.”
Teachers, Librarians, Parents Protest
Paul Hankins, an English teacher from Indiana, started a Twitter feed called SpeakLoudly in response to Scroggins’ complaints. A community of teachers, librarians, parents and publishers also founded SpeakLoudly.org with Hankins soon after, in September.
The controversy has also helped publicize the books under attack for censorship.
“Tell a teen that a book is banned or challenged and they will want to read it to find out why,” said Yoke, of the Young Adult Library Services Association. “So, in one way, book banning actually piques many teens’ interest in the controversial titles.”
Vern Minor, superintendant of the Republic school district where Scroggins’ complaint was received by the school board, told the News-Leader in September that “Slaughterhouse Five” was removed from the English course curriculum.
However, in a Dec. 6 e-mail with Women’s eNews, he said: “We have not made any decisions on the books in question. Our discussions are currently focused on board policy, not the three books per se. We are really trying to look at this matter from a much broader perspective than just three books.”
The school board hopes to set standards for book selection. They do not have a set time frame to implement the revised curriculum policies.
Candice Tucker and Brandon Bond, students at Missouri State, have started filming a documentary about the events, censorship and Scroggins’ “radical views.” Bond has also launched an advocacy group on Facebook called “No More Banned Books,” where he hopes to fight against “the enemies of reason and tolerance.”
http://christawrites.com/2011/03/20/book-banning-controversy/
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Wash. school district votes to ban book
Published: June 20, 2011 at 4:06 PM
KENNEWICK, Wash., June 20 (UPI) -- A book dealing with poverty, racism and death in strong and potentially offensive language has been banned by a Washington school board, officials said.
The Richland School Board voted 3-2 to ban use of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" in classrooms of any grade level, the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., reported Sunday.
The book, a novel by Sherman Alexie, is based on his upbringing on a Spokane reservation and his leaving to go to school in nearby Reardan, a predominantly white farming town.
The strong language used to describe the treatment experienced by the book's main character has come under fire from schools and libraries.
The novel, a National Book Award winner, ended up on last year's Most Challenged list by the American Library Association.
One Richland High School teacher who used the book in his ninth-grade class said its language was balanced by the book's worthy message.
"I especially liked the book because of its realism in describing the high school experience and its overwhelming message of perseverance," Jim Deatherage wrote in a letter to parents.
After the vote banning the use of Absolutely True at any grade level in the Richland district, all five board members conceded they had not read the book.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/20/Wash-school-district-votes-to-ban-book/UPI-35011308600385/print#ixzz1vcB6XIt5
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Books Banned in Texas
During Banned Books Week, which runs Sept. 24 to Oct. 1, the American Library Association brings attention to books that have drawn complaints from parents, teachers, administrators, religious groups, and others.
“We think any instance of censorship is one instance too many,” says Deborah Caldwell Stone, deputy director of the ALA Office For Intellectual Freedom. “We’re talking about a country where we have freedom of speech and yet we still have government entities removing books from libraries.”
When a book is “challenged,” a written complaint is filed with a school or library requesting that it be removed. Reasons include offensive language, sexual explicitness, and more.
When a book is banned it is taken off the shelves or removed from class reading lists.
In Texas, 17 books were reported banned during the 2010-2011 school year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Here they are:
BORGER ISD
Schools: Borger Intermediate & Middle
Book: Tangled, Carolyn Markler
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
BURLESON ISD
School: Kerr Middle School
Book: Book of Bunny Suicides, Andy Riley
Reason Cited: Violence/horror; Politically/racially/socially offensive
COPPERAS COVE ISD
School: Clements/Parsons Elementary School
Book: Creepy Castles, Sarah Parvis
Reason Cited: Violence or horror
CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS ISD
School: Cy Lakes/Cy Springs/Cy Woods High Schools
Books: Drive Me Crazy and Dying for Revenge, Eric Jerome DickeyReason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
EASTLAND ISD
School: Goliad Elementary
Book: Alice on the Outside, Phyllis Reynolds NaylorReason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
GOOSE CREEK CISD
School: Goose Creek Memorial High School
Book: The Great Perhaps, Joe Meno
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; drugs or alcohol
HUNTSVILLE ISD
School: Huntsville High School
Book: Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art, Sean Cliver
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; violence or horror; politically, racially, or socially offensive; drugs or alcohol
MIDWAY ISD
School: Midway Middle School
Book: The Trench, Steve Alten
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
PHARR-SAN JUAN-ALAMO ISD
School: Palmer Elementary
Book: The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln, Mike Reiss
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; illustration and vocabulary offensive
PORT NECHES-GROVES ISD
School: Port Neches Middle School
Book: The Slot Machine, Chris Lynch
Reason Cited: Profanity
QUITMAN ISD
School: Junior & High Schools
Book: Echo, Francesca Lia Block; Vegan, Virgin, Valentine, Carolyn Mackler
Reason Cited: Sexual content or nudity
SEGUIN ISD
School: Rodriguez Elementary
Book: The Terrorist, Caroline Cooney; Into the Cold Fire
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
THE EHRHART SCHOOL (K-8th)
School: Ehrhart Charter School, Beaumont
Book: Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block
Reason Cited: Sexual content; other (homosexual content)
VALLEY MILLS ISD
School: Valley Mills Junior High and High School
Book: Kissing Kate, Lauren Myracle
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2011/09/books-banned-in-texas/
Confusion over the specific circumstances that led to the reported ban continues to dominate the discussion. Mayle reports that CTU is uncertain about how many schools received the order to remove the book, but that CTU believes the order appears to have come from high up at CPS. Jones spoke to ALA’s attempts to get more information about the ban through avenues provided by FOIA. McDermott and Repp talked about the protest they organized against the book’s removal, their doubts regarding CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s statement that the book was not banned, and the importance of making sure their voices are heard.
Click here to see video: http://video.wttw.com/video/2349716101
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Missing the Point on PERSEPOLIS March 20, 2013By Betsy Gomez The attempt to ban Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis from Chicago schools awoke immediate protest among students, teachers, parents, and free speech advocates such as CBLDF. The circumstances behind the ban are still unclear, but a recent opinion article in The Atlantic gives a teacher’s perspective to the situation and takes Chicago Public Schools to task for a bureaucracy that interferes with learning.
In his article for The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky — an educational writer and curriculum developer who has more than 20 years of experience — discusses the various times that his own work has been proscribed by school administrations:
On one project, a colleague of mine working on a world history course was told not to include the fact that gay people were targeted during the Holocaust. In another instance, I was told that I could not, for sensitivity reasons, include a test passage about storms at sea. Passages about rats, or alcohol, or love, or death were similarly proscribed. So were passages that depicted, or even mentioned, slavery — and this was for an American history exam. Again, there were sensitivity concerns, though whether we were worried about offending black people or white people, I don’t know. Probably both.
CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has claimed that Persepolis was not banned outright, but that it has been deemed inappropriate for 7th grade students and is currently under review for use in grades 8-10. It has been approved for use by 11th and 12th grade students, but CPS has now mandated special training for the teachers using the book in class. Throughout the muddled message that CPS has delivered in response to the protest over the removal is the contention that violent imagery and graphic language in the book are inappropriate for 7th grade students. Berlatsky expresses no surprise that an attempt was made to ban Persepolis, and he eviscerates the justification for the removal and how keeping children safe from “dangerous” knowledge has an adverse effect on education:
The truth is, outside of arithmetic, it’s hard to teach anything worth learning that someone won’t find offensive or upsetting or frightening or off-putting. If it’s interesting, if it’s something people care about, then people are going to have opinions about it. That means somebody, somewhere, isn’t going to like it. The drive to keep our children perfectly safe from dangerous knowledge just ends up reducing their education to a bland, boring, irrelevant slog.
Berlatsky then addresses the decision we must ultimately make to balance the desire to protect children with the need to let them learn:
So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all.
Chicago is a city that has been marked by violence recently, garnering the attention of national and international media outlets. In such an atmosphere, the argument that the content of Persepolis is too violent and too profane for 13-year-olds (and possibly for 14- to 16-year-olds) carries little weight. These students have experienced violence and profanity in the real world, and many of them have been primary witnesses to violence. Berlatsky closes his essay by pointing out that the fear of Persepolis may not actually be about the content but that students may relate too closely to the author’s experiences:
The worry, then, seems to be not so much that the material will be too much for them (like horror films in first grade), but that it might fit too well — that the students might feel like the story has something to do with their lives. Perhaps they might even see, in the senseless, narrow-minded institutions of Iran, an analogy to narrow-minded institutions closer to home.
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~ Plymouth-Canton Parents, Teachers State Cases in Book Challenge Panel's recommendation on book could come to superintendent by next week.
- By John McKay
- Email the author
- January 12, 2012
Beloved, along with Graham Swift's Waterland, both have been challenged by the parents of an AP English Literature student. Superintendent Jeremy Hughes initially removed Waterland from the class curriculum upon the parents' complaint, but that book will be subject to its own review at a later date.
The two-hour public review was the first formal hearing on the book and it will be followed by a subsequent closed meeting sometime next week — district officials say a date has not yet been determined — where a vote will be expected. Based on that vote, a recommendation will be handed up to superintendent Jeremy Hughes, who then will make a decision.
The parties met at the E.J. McClendon Educational Center in Plymouth for the review, which was attended by more than 60 parents and students. Matt and Barb Dame, the parents who challenged the books, first spoke to a panel assembled by the district, which included high school teachers, a school media specialist, a community library director, parents from the district's parent council, a college professor and administrators.
Just one day earlier, more than 100 parents and students filed into the same room to speak about the issue.
Barb Dame argued that Beloved was a fictitious account set upon its real-life backdrop of slavery, and contained gratuituous language, violence and sex acts that provide no historical context for the reader.
She also argued the book was given an 870 Lexile rating, which rates the complexity of the language within a work. A Lexile score of 870 equates to about a fifth-grade reading level. She compared its Lexile rating to Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach.
"Mature, right?" Barb Dame said.
Matt Dame addressed what he characterized as gratuitous sex and violence in the book.
"In the first two chapters, there are five references to sex with cows and other sex," he said.
Additionally, Matt Dame said, the book contains passages containing sex with ghosts, forced oral sex and infanticide.
"I don't see the value of this novel in the school curriculum," Barb Dame said. "I just don't see it."
Matt Dame also criticized repeated instances throughout the novel where he said God's name was used in vain.
"If any of this was offensive to Allah or Hindus it would never be in our school district," he said.
As an alternative, the Dames said their daughter was assigned William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying — which also scored an 870 on the Lexile chart and was banned by a school board in Kentucky in 1986 — by her teacher. They said she has to read it in the library and there are no class-wide discussions about her assigned reading.
Brian Read, an AP English teacher who teaches both Beloved and Waterland, admitted he did not have alternative reading material set aside.
"I've taught Beloved for 10 years, never had it challenged," he said.
Still, he said, he understands the parents' position.
"I believe they are looking out for the best interests of their child," he said. "As a parent myself, I understand that."
He said there was a process to vet the book a decade ago when he first introduced it to his syllabus.
"I proposed it to my administrator," he said. "She read that and Waterland. We read them, discussed the content and theme and how it fit in with the course."
He said during that process it was acknowledged that there was some mature content in the books, "but we decided the themes and the way it fit into the course was justified."
He said a list of reading material went out to parents in the spring, before the summer reading program began.
He also countered the Dames' argument that a nonfiction text about slavery or survival should have been assigned.
"AP English Literature, it's about fiction," he said. "Poetry and fiction."
Another course — AP English Language — is about nonfiction, he said.
He said the themes in Beloved, which tells the story of the ghost of a deceased child apparently coming back to visit her mother, feature "magical realism," where the very fantastical can be mundane, and the book has several instances of symbolism.
Gretchen Miller, another AP English teacher, said the book meets the standards of the community the school is serving.
"We teach this book to a self-selected group of people who — with parents — determine they're old enough," she said.
After each side spoke, the panel retreated into a closed meeting to discuss the arguments. A decision on Beloved could come as early as next week, MacGregor said, after the panel convenes again.
http://plymouth-mi.patch.com/articles/parents-teachers-state-case-in-book-challenge
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They're Burning Books Again
Harry Potter Book Burning and Other Cases of Book Burning
By Elizabeth Kennedy, About.com Guide
Who Burns Books and Why?
Before the introduction of the printing press, burning books was an effective form of censorship. Since each book was handmade, there were few books, and it was possible to limit the spread of ideas and information by burning books. In recent times, it has had other purposes. Foreign governments have used book burning and other destruction to intimidate and illustrate their power. In the early 2000s, there were a number of instances of Harry Potter book burning. In the United States, most of the book burnings of various books that I've read about have been motivated by religious views.
Book Burning: 2001-2005
However, until the Harry Potter books, it was not that common to find a children's book series as the main stimulus for a book burning event. In 2001, several such book burnings were held. In early January 2002, Christ Community Church of Alamogordo, New Mexico, became the topic of international media attention for its book burning after the pastor, Jack D. Brock, preached a sermon on the topic "The Baby Jesus Or Harry Potter?". Brock stated he considered the Harry Potter books to be "an example of our society's growing preoccupation with the occult. The Potter books present witchcraft as a generally positive practice, while the Bible expressly condemns all occult practices." After the burning of the Harry Potter books and some others on on December 30, 2001, the pastor's sermon and the book burning event became the topic of news features in both the United States and England. CNN.com reported, "As hundreds protested nearby, a church group burned Harry Potter and other books." The BBC News (British Broadcasting Company) reported that, "Pastor Brock said he had never read any of the four Potter novels - but had researched their contents."
In August 2003, the Jesus Non-denominational Church in Greenville, Michigan, burned Harry Potter books, according to a report from WZZM13.com. According to the report, "He [The pastor]says stories like Harry Potter that glorify wizardry and sorcery will lead people to accept and believe in Satan."
According to the the American Library Association, there were several book burning events in 2001 related to the Harry Potter series, and there were also reports of book burnings or slashings for other books in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.
More Recent Book Burnings
Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina reports on its Web site about its 2009 Halloween book burning that was rained out, although the targeted books were destroyed, and on plans for the church's 2010 book burning. The book burnings are not open to the public, but are by invitation only. In the church's case, members target what they call "Satan's bibles," those that are not the King James version, as well as other books and music.
In August 2010, a Gainesville, Florida church announced it would burn copies of the Quran on September 11, despite being denied a burn permit by the city. (Gaineville.com, August 19, 2010) While slashing and tearing books have become accepted ways of destroying targeted books for groups that don't want to break the law in cases where it is unlawful to burn them, the congregation planned to defy the law. However, after an outpouring of international protest, the church canceled the burning, but not in time to prevent riots and deaths in protests against the Quran (Koran) burning. (Reuters, September 11, 2010)
I was surprised to find that book burning continues to this day. It is an extreme form of censorship, one that most people, even those who support challenging and censoring books, do not support.
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/burningbooks.htm
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Banning of Books Signals Revolution in Tucson
Banned book includes Leslie Marmon Silko, Buffy Sainte Marie and Winona LaDuke
By Brenda Norrell
UPDATE Jan. 18, 2012:
'Custer Huppenthal's Last Big Lie about Seized Books, by Censored News:
TUCSON -- Outrage was the response on Saturday to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including "Rethinking Columbus," with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.
All books and materials of the now forbidden Mexican American Studies classes were seized from the classrooms. This follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.
Students said the books were seized from the classrooms and out of their hands after the vote banning Mexican American Studies, including a book of photos of Mexico. Crying, students said it was like Nazi Germany and they have been unable to sleep since it happened.
The banned book, "Rethinking Columbus," includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reeseof Nambe Pueblo reports. The book includes:
Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate"
Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"
Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians"
Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas"
N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"
Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving"
Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony"
Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song"
Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"
All books in the Mexican American Studies classrooms were seized. The reading list includes two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda.
Jeff Biggers writes in Salon:
The list of removed books includes the 20-year-old textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” which features an essay by Tucson author Leslie Silko. Recipient of a Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, Silko has been an outspoken supporter of the ethnic studies program.
Biggers said Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest," was also banned during the meeting this week. Administrators told Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any class units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes."
Other banned books include “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by famed Brazilian educator Paolo Freire and “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña, two books often singled out by Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned in 2010 on the promise to “stop la raza.” Huppenthal, who once lectured state educators that he based his own school principles for children on corporate management schemes of the Fortune 500, compared Mexican-American studies to Hitler Jugend indoctrination last fall.
Bill Bigelow, co-author of Rethinking Columbus, writes:
Imagine our surprise.
Rethinking Schools learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona ...
As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.
Roberto Rodriguez, professor at University of Arizona, is also among the nation's top Chicano and Latino authors on the Mexican American Studies reading list. Rodriguez' column about this week's school board decision, posted at Censored News, is titled: "Tucson school officials caught on tape 'urinating' on Mexican students."
Rodriguez responded to Censored News on Sunday about the banning of his books at Tucson schools.
"The attacks in Arizona are mind-boggling. To ban the teaching of a discipline is draconian in and of itself. However, there is also now a banned books list that accompanies the ban. I believe 2 of my books are on the list, which includes: Justice: A Question of Race and The X in La Raza. Two others may also be on the list," Rodriguez said.
"That in itself is jarring, but we need to remember the proper context. This is not simply a book-banning; according to Tom Horne, the former state schools' superintendent who designed HB 2281, this is part of a civilizational war. He determined that Mexican American Studies is not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and thus, lies outside of Western Civilization.
"In a sense, he is correct. The philosophical foundation for MAS is a maiz-based philosophy that is both, thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. What has just happened is akin to an Auto de Fe -- akin to the 1562 book-burning of Maya books in 1562 at Mani, Yucatan. At TUSD, the list of banned books will total perhaps 50 books, including artwork and posters.
"For us here in Tucson, this is not over. If anything, the banning of books will let the world know precisely what kind of mindset is operating here; in that previous era, this would be referred to as a reduccion (cultural genocide) of all things Indigenous. In this era, it can too also be see as a reduccion."
The reading list includes world acclaimed Chicano and Latino authors, along with Native American authors. The list includes books by Corky Gonzales, along with Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street;” Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Black Mesa Poems,“ and L.A. Urreas’ “The Devil’s Highway.“ The authors include Henry David Thoreau and the popular book “Like Water for Chocolate.”
On the reading list are Native American author Sherman Alexie's books, “Ten Little Indians,“ and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.“ O’odham poet and professor Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power, Poems from the Desert” is also on the list.
DA Morales writes in Three Sonorans, at Tucson Citizen, about the role of state schools chief John Huppenthal. "Big Brother Huppenthal has taken his TEA Party vows to take back Arizona… take it back a few centuries with official book bans that include Shakespeare!"
BANNED MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES READING LIST
Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department, Tucson Unified School District, May 2, 2011.
High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire
United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn
Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna
The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya
The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez
De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez
500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez
Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8
Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie
The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin
Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb
At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara
Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Martinez
Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.
Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte
Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz
The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki
The Devil's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea
Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen
Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6
Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie
Zorro (2005), by I. Allende
Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua
A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca
Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca
Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca
Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca
Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca
The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo
Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez
Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist
Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada
Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel
When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia
La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.
The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb
Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales
Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" (2004) by Goodman, et al.
Feminism if for Everybody (2000), by b hooks
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991), by J. Kozol
Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz
Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero
...y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera
Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez
Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez
The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie
Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan
Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla
Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum
New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum
Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau
By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea
Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea
Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez
Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/banning-of-books-signals-revolution-in.html
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Tuesday, Mar 20, 2012 04:30 PM EDT
Rochester’s ridiculous banned book controversy
A book about same-sex parenting creates an uproar when it gets banned from a Minnesota library VIDEO
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
One of the American Library Association’s most challenged books of the last decade has disappeared from yet another library. It’s a tome that topped the ALA’s list last year, and has made waves ever since its publication. Yet the book that so concerned a Rochester-area parent that the public school system there yanked it earlier this month wasn’t Lauren Myracle’s gritty, haunting “Shine.” It wasn’t Suzanne Collins’ intense, violent Mockingjay series. It was a picture book about a penguin family. Hide your kids!
“And Tango Makes Three” is the gentle tale of Roy and Silo, two penguins from the Central Park Zoo who “built a nest of stones” and “every night they slept there together, just like the other penguin couples.” Soon, the narrative finds Roy and Silo taking turns sitting on an egg provided by a helpful zookeeper, and hatching and raising their baby Tango. It’s a story of love and family and adoption. Oh, and there’s just one other thing. As authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell explain it, those “two penguins in the penguin house were a little bit different. Roy and Silo were both boys.”
Making matters even more shocking, “And Tango Makes Three” isn’t just some fanciful, gay-agenda fairy tale cooked up to indoctrinate our children. It’s based on the real story of Central Park penguins Roy and Silo, who made headlines in 2004 with their same-sex-oriented love affair and eventual hatching of another penguin couple’s egg. Gay penguins, in fact, are pairing off in zoos all over North America lately. Probably just to spite Rick Santorum.
This latest banning began last fall, when a Gibbs elementary school parent got wind of the book about those two flightless birds and their ability to nurture a chick, deemed it “inappropriate for elementary school students,” and asked to have it removed from the school library. The district’s Committee for Reconsideration of Resources deemed the book suitable to remain on the shelves and rejected the request.
But then the parent made the request again, and this time School board Chairwoman Julie Workman, Vice Chairman Gary Smith and Superintendent Michael Muñoz took it upon themselves to pull the book from the Gibbs school. Perhaps they were all just outraged that “And Tango Makes Three” failed to mention that Roy and Silo broke up six years ago, when Silo took up with a penguin named Scrappy. A female penguin. It’s all so selective. Like a Mike Daisey show.
Yet here’s where the tale takes a turn. On Monday, Muñoz admitted that he and his cohorts did not follow district protocol when they pulled the book, and district spokeswoman Jennifer Pozanc announced that “If it has not [been restored to the library shelf], it will be soon.” Meanwhile, the Rochester Public Library can’t lend it fast enough. “Our hold list went from two to 15 in the last two days,” librarian Kimberly Edson told the local ABC news affiliate.
The district will hold a full public hearing on whether the book should stay or go on April 10. But it’s an encouraging sign that locals are now interested enough in the book – and the subject matter it addresses with tenderness and sensitivity – to get it wait-listed at the public library. And the fact that for now, schoolchildren in Gibbs can continue to get the message that “two daddies” can feed and snuggle and play with their baby, “just like all the other penguin families,” makes for a very happy ending.
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/20/rochesters_ridiculous_banned_book_controversy/singleton/
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The Tribune Democrat, Johnstown, PA
April 2, 2012
Book ban nixed: ‘The Glass Castle’ to remain part of school’s curriculum
Bernie Hornick
[email protected]
CAIRNBROOK — The Shade-Central City school board allowed a cuss-word-laced book to remain part of the 10th-grade English curriculum Monday after a motion to ban “The Glass Castle” died for lack of a second.
Board member Dr. Beth Lambert introduced a motion to remove the book from classrooms. Chairman Steve Sesack said school policy allows a book to be removed with a two-thirds board vote.
Lambert complained vigorously that no discussion was held after she introduced her motion.
“I didn’t think I deserved that as a board member,” she told her cohorts.
“I don’t know who decided to railroad that.”
None of the other eight board members spoke to the relative merits of the coming-of-age memoir. And – after not banning the book – the board didn’t muzzle Lambert either: She got her say.
“In my opinion, it’s unhealthy,” Lambert said, reading from a prepared statement. She noted that as a pediatrician, it’s her job to understand the social and developmental welfare of children up to age 18.
The book is a 2005 best-selling memoir by Jeannette Walls.
In it, Walls describes her hardscrabble upbringing. It includes being subjected to sexual assault, casual profanity, drunkenness, seeing the family cat pitched from a moving car and having to drink ditch water. Even critics of the graphic book praise its theme – overcoming adversity.
And Lambert said it would be appropriate for 10th-graders, as well – if an edited copy without the profanity were available, which it isn’t.
The book is assigned reading for English classes, though the students must have a parent sign a permission slip to read it. Teachers find another book for students whose parents forbid “The Glass Castle.”
The Rev. Randy Reynolds of the Central City Christian Church read a letter from Lambert’s husband, Gary, also seeking to have the book pulled. “No schools in the county use it as a textbook,” Reynolds read from the letter.
Caught leaving the meeting after the motion failed, Reynolds said, “It’s just disappointing no one else was willing to stand up against that. It doesn’t stop us as parents from taking a stand.”
While noting parents still will have an option for an alternate book, he said teaching two books at once will be harder on teachers.
http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1437247127/Book-ban-nixed-The-Glass-Castle-to-remain-part-of-school-s-curriculum
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July 29, 2011 11:04 AM
Mo. high school bans "Slaughterhouse-Five"
(CBS/AP)
REPUBLIC, Mo. — Two books have been banned from the libraries and curriculum at Republic High School after a parent complained that their content taught principles contrary to the Bible.
The district's school board voted Monday to remove Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Sarah Ockler's "Twenty Boy Summer," but to allow Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak" to be used in the district's high school, The Springfield News-Leader reported.
Superintendent Vern Minor said the board based its decision on whether the books were age-appropriate.
"We very clearly stayed out of discussion about moral issues," Minor said. "Our discussions from the get-go were age-appropriateness."
Wesley Scroggins of Republic, who had challenged the books and lesson plans last year, said he was mostly pleased with the decision.
"I congratulate them for doing what's right and removing the two books," said Scroggins. "It's unfortunate they chose to keep the other book."
It took a year to reach a decision because the complaint prompted the 4,500-student district to form a task force to develop book standards for all its schools, Minor said.
The panel considered existing policies and public rating systems that already exist for music, TV and video games before adopting new standards in April. Those standards were applied to the three books, Minor said.
Several people read the books and provided feedback.
"It was really good for us to have this discussion," Minor said. "Most schools stay away from this and they get on this rampage, the whole book-banning thing, and that's not the issue here. We're looking at it from a curriculum point of view."
Minor said most people supported keeping "Speak," which is taught in English I and II courses, because although it had one short description of a rape, it had a strong message at the end.
But he said those who read "Twenty Boy Summer," available in the library, thought it sensationalized sexual promiscuity and included questionable language, drunkenness, lying to parents and a lack of remorse. And he said "Slaughterhouse Five" contained crude language and adult themes that are more appropriate for college-age students.
Minor said students will be allowed to use those two books for extra class material if they have their parents' permission.
The Springfield News-Leader writes that Superintendent Minor will next propose a policy that blocks R-rated movies from being shown to high school students.
"That's on my list of other board policies," he told the school board earlier this week.
Minor's description of his proposal to the News-Leader - setting maximum MPAA rating levels for movies shown to elementary, middle and high school students - would prevent teachers from using such films as "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," "Glory" and Roman Polanski's "Macbeth" in their curriculum.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-20085453.html
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March 20, 2011
Book-Banning Controversy
Originally Published By: Women’s eNews on December 13, 2010
A book-banning effort against “Speak,” a young-adult novel about date rape, is creating an uproar. A campus group is making a documentary, a Twitter feed is discussing censorship and a library group expects the controversy to attract teen readers.
(WOMENSENEWS)–A Missouri State University professor’s bid to ban a young-adult novel about date rape, among other “filthy books,” from the school district’s English courses is spurring young-adult authors and teachers to speak out against censorship in a country where more than 10,676 books have been challenged in libraries and schools since 1990.
“Teens don’t live in a vacuum,” Andrea Cremer, author of the young-adult novel “Nightshade,” wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. “They inhabit the same brutal world as adults without the knowledge and tools of adulthood. For those teens whose lives have already been affected by drugs, violence, suicide or any number of traumatic experiences–what children as well as adults struggle with–books can provide comfort, healing or simply the realization that one isn’t alone.”
One in six women will be a victim of sexual assault during her life, according to data published by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington, D.C. Young women between 16 and 19 are four times more likely to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
“Speak,” a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson about a teen who was raped at a party, is on the New York Times bestseller list, was a National Book Award finalist and has received many honors, including the Michael L. Printz and Golden Kite awards.
However, Wesley Scroggins, an associate professor of business management at Missouri State University in Springfield and a fundamentalist Christian, is demanding that “Speak” and two other books be banned from public high school English coursework in Republic, Mo.
Scroggins filed his complaint in June to the Missouri public school board and wrote an opinion piece on Sept. 18, arguing that the two rape scenes in the novel should be classified as “soft pornography.”
Call to Ban Two Other Books
One of the other books Scroggins wants struck from high school reading lists is “Slaughterhouse Five,” the 1969 antiwar novel by Kurt Vonnegut, which Scroggins complains has too much profane language and sex for high school students.
The other is “Twenty Boy Summer,” by Sarah Ockler, published in 2009. Scroggins said the book “glorifies drunken teen parties” and sex on the beach with condoms.
He is opposed by those who argue rape is a violent act of assault–not porn–and that removing the book would infringe on students’ First Amendment rights.
“Teen readers lose their First Amendment rights as well as access to information that may help them grow intellectually or emotionally if a book is unjustly removed from their local school or public library, or if the library unjustly restricts access to it in some way,” Beth Yoke, executive director of the Chicago-based Young Adult Library Services Association, said in an interview with Women’s eNews.
Since 1990, the association has documented the removal of at least 10 books from the schools and public libraries in Missouri. However, the information provided to the group is voluntary, said Bryan Campbell, an administrative assistant for the Chicago-based Office for Intellectual Freedom, in an email interview.
He also said the group is working on a system for larger data collection that may provide a more reliable picture of book banning statistics in the future.
Each year the American Library Association, based in Chicago, recommends a variety of books to libraries, including “contemporary realistic fiction that reflects the diversity of the teen experience.”
Hundreds of books, including some recommended by the organization, are also challenged or banned from schools and libraries each year.
Between 1990 and 2009 the most common reason listed for challenging a book was “sexually explicit,” at 3,046 complaints. Complaints of “violence” numbered 1,258, according to data provided by the American Library Association.
Thousands Say Thank
“When ‘Speak’ was published, there was some whispering that this was not an appropriate topic for teens,” Halse Anderson said in an interview with the Springfield, Mo., News-Leader four days after Scroggins attacked the book on the newspaper’s opinion page.
She added that thousands of readers had written to thank her for the book: “They said it made them feel less alone and gave them the strength to speak up about being sexually assaulted and other painful secrets.”
The highly popular young-adult author, Judy Blume, a frequent target of book banning herself, has written to the National Council Against Censorship, based in New York City, on behalf of Halse Anderson.
Ockler, author of “Twenty Boy Summer,” one of the three books condemned by Scroggins, blogged on her Web site in September and October about the dangers of censorship. She also emphasized the importance of healthy discussions among parents and their children: “Truly asking for parental involvement would mean encouraging parents to read the books in question, discuss issues and themes with their kids and come to their own decisions about what’s best for their own families.”
“I’m against book banning in schools,” Daisy Whitney, author of “The Mockingbirds,” a young-adult book published on Nov. 2 that also treats the subject of date rape, said in a phone interview. “‘Speak’ is a novel that has helped so many teenagers understand the emotions surrounding someone who has been through a traumatic experience. The reason some people have suggested banning ‘Speak’ also concerns me because in no way should rape ever be equated with sex.”
Teachers, Librarians, Parents Protest
Paul Hankins, an English teacher from Indiana, started a Twitter feed called SpeakLoudly in response to Scroggins’ complaints. A community of teachers, librarians, parents and publishers also founded SpeakLoudly.org with Hankins soon after, in September.
The controversy has also helped publicize the books under attack for censorship.
“Tell a teen that a book is banned or challenged and they will want to read it to find out why,” said Yoke, of the Young Adult Library Services Association. “So, in one way, book banning actually piques many teens’ interest in the controversial titles.”
Vern Minor, superintendant of the Republic school district where Scroggins’ complaint was received by the school board, told the News-Leader in September that “Slaughterhouse Five” was removed from the English course curriculum.
However, in a Dec. 6 e-mail with Women’s eNews, he said: “We have not made any decisions on the books in question. Our discussions are currently focused on board policy, not the three books per se. We are really trying to look at this matter from a much broader perspective than just three books.”
The school board hopes to set standards for book selection. They do not have a set time frame to implement the revised curriculum policies.
Candice Tucker and Brandon Bond, students at Missouri State, have started filming a documentary about the events, censorship and Scroggins’ “radical views.” Bond has also launched an advocacy group on Facebook called “No More Banned Books,” where he hopes to fight against “the enemies of reason and tolerance.”
http://christawrites.com/2011/03/20/book-banning-controversy/
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Wash. school district votes to ban book
Published: June 20, 2011 at 4:06 PM
KENNEWICK, Wash., June 20 (UPI) -- A book dealing with poverty, racism and death in strong and potentially offensive language has been banned by a Washington school board, officials said.
The Richland School Board voted 3-2 to ban use of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" in classrooms of any grade level, the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., reported Sunday.
The book, a novel by Sherman Alexie, is based on his upbringing on a Spokane reservation and his leaving to go to school in nearby Reardan, a predominantly white farming town.
The strong language used to describe the treatment experienced by the book's main character has come under fire from schools and libraries.
The novel, a National Book Award winner, ended up on last year's Most Challenged list by the American Library Association.
One Richland High School teacher who used the book in his ninth-grade class said its language was balanced by the book's worthy message.
"I especially liked the book because of its realism in describing the high school experience and its overwhelming message of perseverance," Jim Deatherage wrote in a letter to parents.
After the vote banning the use of Absolutely True at any grade level in the Richland district, all five board members conceded they had not read the book.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/20/Wash-school-district-votes-to-ban-book/UPI-35011308600385/print#ixzz1vcB6XIt5
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Books Banned in Texas
During Banned Books Week, which runs Sept. 24 to Oct. 1, the American Library Association brings attention to books that have drawn complaints from parents, teachers, administrators, religious groups, and others.
“We think any instance of censorship is one instance too many,” says Deborah Caldwell Stone, deputy director of the ALA Office For Intellectual Freedom. “We’re talking about a country where we have freedom of speech and yet we still have government entities removing books from libraries.”
When a book is “challenged,” a written complaint is filed with a school or library requesting that it be removed. Reasons include offensive language, sexual explicitness, and more.
When a book is banned it is taken off the shelves or removed from class reading lists.
In Texas, 17 books were reported banned during the 2010-2011 school year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Here they are:
BORGER ISD
Schools: Borger Intermediate & Middle
Book: Tangled, Carolyn Markler
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
BURLESON ISD
School: Kerr Middle School
Book: Book of Bunny Suicides, Andy Riley
Reason Cited: Violence/horror; Politically/racially/socially offensive
COPPERAS COVE ISD
School: Clements/Parsons Elementary School
Book: Creepy Castles, Sarah Parvis
Reason Cited: Violence or horror
CYPRESS-FAIRBANKS ISD
School: Cy Lakes/Cy Springs/Cy Woods High Schools
Books: Drive Me Crazy and Dying for Revenge, Eric Jerome DickeyReason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
EASTLAND ISD
School: Goliad Elementary
Book: Alice on the Outside, Phyllis Reynolds NaylorReason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
GOOSE CREEK CISD
School: Goose Creek Memorial High School
Book: The Great Perhaps, Joe Meno
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; drugs or alcohol
HUNTSVILLE ISD
School: Huntsville High School
Book: Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art, Sean Cliver
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; violence or horror; politically, racially, or socially offensive; drugs or alcohol
MIDWAY ISD
School: Midway Middle School
Book: The Trench, Steve Alten
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
PHARR-SAN JUAN-ALAMO ISD
School: Palmer Elementary
Book: The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln, Mike Reiss
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity; illustration and vocabulary offensive
PORT NECHES-GROVES ISD
School: Port Neches Middle School
Book: The Slot Machine, Chris Lynch
Reason Cited: Profanity
QUITMAN ISD
School: Junior & High Schools
Book: Echo, Francesca Lia Block; Vegan, Virgin, Valentine, Carolyn Mackler
Reason Cited: Sexual content or nudity
SEGUIN ISD
School: Rodriguez Elementary
Book: The Terrorist, Caroline Cooney; Into the Cold Fire
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
THE EHRHART SCHOOL (K-8th)
School: Ehrhart Charter School, Beaumont
Book: Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block
Reason Cited: Sexual content; other (homosexual content)
VALLEY MILLS ISD
School: Valley Mills Junior High and High School
Book: Kissing Kate, Lauren Myracle
Reason Cited: Profanity; sexual content or nudity
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2011/09/books-banned-in-texas/
