School district administrators and teachers in Waterloo, Iowa are currently locked in a debate as to whether Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is appropriate for middle school classrooms. The district’s curriculum director sent an email…
Tag: classroom
Minnesota Proposes Classroom Censorship Bills
Three similar bills recently introduced in the Minnesota legislature would require school districts to notify parents or guardians every time a fellow parent, guardian, or an adult student deems instructional material such as books or movies to be “sexually explicit…
Wallingford Superintendent Refuses to Back Down on Perks Ban
The superintendent of schools in Wallingford, Connecticut, is doubling down on his decision to overrule a review committee’s recommendation and remove Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from the district’s curriculum. After receiving local and national criticism for…
CBLDF Joins Growing Opposition to Perks of Being a Wallflower Ban
Following last week’s news that the Superintendent of Schools in Wallingford, CT had removed Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from the curriculum despite a review committee recommendation to keep it, CBLDF has joined with five other members…
Sherman Alexie: Censorship Sends Book Sales Rocketing
Nearly a year after his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was temporarily banned from a supplemental reading list in a Boise-area school district, Sherman Alexie last week spoke before a capacity crowd of 800 at the…
Kansas Senate Passes Bill That Could Jail Teachers for Controversial Material
The Kansas Senate last week passed a bill that could send teachers to jail if they expose students to material deemed “harmful to minors.” While proponents say the intention is to shield children from pornography, critics fear that the overbroad…
Grad Student Uncovers Truth About Persepolis Ban in Chicago Public Schools
A graduate student’s research is throwing new light on Chicago Public Schools officials’ 2013 effort to remove Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis from libraries and classrooms throughout the district. Emails released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and first…
What Went Wrong in Highland Park?
In a disappointing but unsurprising move this week, the Dallas-area Highland Park Independent School District overhauled the process for approving books to be used in the curriculum. Instead of working from a list of pre-approved books, teachers will now be…
Highland Park Parent Withdraws Challenge to The Working Poor
The challenge to David K. Shipler’s nonfiction book The Working Poor in the Dallas-area Highland Park Independent School District ended this week before the review process could begin, as the parent who lodged the complaint abruptly withdrew it. Although she…
Working Poor Challenged in Highland Park ISD
Nearly two months after a review committee in the Dallas-area Highland Park Independent School District decided not to ban Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain from classrooms, a parent has challenged another of the seven books that…