Yet another school district, in Delaware this time, has removed a book from a summer reading list without following its own procedure for reviewing challenged materials. The Cape-Gazette newspaper reported today that the Cape Henlopen school board voted on June…
Tag: classroom
Oregon School Board Overrules Pre-emptive Ban on Absolutely True Diary
Here’s some good news to start the week: The school board in Grants Pass, Oregon has approved Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian for use in 10th-grade English classes after it was initially rejected by the district’s…
Florida School District Removes Paper Towns From Reading List
Florida seems to be the place for unilateral book bans this summer. A few weeks after a Pensacola high school principal cancelled an entire summer reading program rather than let students read Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, now a Tampa-area school…
ALA Report Shows Internet Filtering Curtails Free Speech
In a few days we will mark the 11th anniversary since the Supreme Court decided in United States v. American Library Association that filtering of Internet access on school and library computers does not infringe on free speech rights. The…
The Curious Incident of the Wilson County School Board
When books are challenged in libraries and schools, one of the most important things for governing boards and administrators to do is have a clear and complete challenge policy already in place–and to actually follow it. Since last month the…
Pensacola Principal Cancels Little Brother Summer Reading Program
In a move reminiscent of South Carolina’s months-long battle over Fun Home at the College of Charleston, a high school principal in Pensacola, Florida last week cancelled a One School/One Book summer reading program because he thought Cory Doctorow’s Little…
North Carolina Woman May Not Pursue Challenge to Absolutely True Diary
Earlier this week, news broke of yet another challenge brewing for Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Frankie Wood of Brunswick County, North Carolina, who has no children in the local school district, was nevertheless circulating…
CBLDF Joins Defense of Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Following this week’s news of yet another challenge to Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, CBLDF has once again joined with the other coalition members of the Kids’ Right to Read Project to defend the book.…
North Carolina Woman Challenges “Disgusting” Absolutely True Diary
We have nearly lost count of how many times Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been challenged in schools across the United States, but it’s happening again in Brunswick County, North Carolina. Frankie Wood, a…
IRONY ALERT: Would-be Censor Arrested at School Board Meeting, Claims Violation of His First Amendment Rights
At a meeting this past Monday, the school board in Gilford, New Hampshire addressed what was expected to be a routine complaint from parent William Baer about the content of a book that was assigned in his daughter’s high school…