The U.S. Department of State recently joined the United Nations in suggesting that Japan should restrict certain types of manga and anime, condemning what it calls “unfettered availability of sexually explicit cartoons, comics, and video games, some of which depicted…
Tag: united states
VICTORY in Kentucky: Looking for Alaska Stays in Curriculum
In a victory for the freedom to read, a school district review committee in Marion County, Kentucky voted last night to keep John Green’s Looking for Alaska in the high school curriculum. The book had been challenged by a parent…
Substitute Teacher Fired for O’Keeffe Lesson
A substitute teacher in Battle Creek, Michigan is out of a job after her lesson on the art of Georgia O’Keeffe unexpectedly fell afoul of a school district sex education policy last week. Allison Wint is not contesting her dismissal,…
Dramatists Legal Defense Fund Asks Users to Report Theater Challenges
Our colleagues over at the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund are building a new database of dramatic works challenged or censored in the United States, and they need your help! DLDF describes the new initiative at their website: The Dramatists Legal…
Dapier Receives Intellectual Freedom Award for Persepolis Research
Jarrett Dapier, the library science scholar whose Freedom of Information Act Request helped to uncover the truth about Chicago Public Schools administrators’ 2013 effort to ban Persepolis from classrooms and libraries, is receiving some well-earned recognition from the American Library…
Oregon School Bans Sex Ed Book, Disciplines Librarian Who Bought It
The classic — and frequently challenged — sex ed book It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris has reportedly been removed from an elementary school library in Rainier, Oregon, and the librarian who included it in the collection has been disciplined…
VICTORY in Michigan: The Bluest Eye Remains in Northville AP Class
In a victory for the freedom to read, the school board in Northville, Michigan voted unanimously last night to keep Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in the curriculum for AP English Literature and Composition. To accommodate parents who had expressed…
CBLDF Joins Defense of The Bluest Eye in Michigan School District
Toni Morrison’s classic novel The Bluest Eye is under fire in yet another school district, with parents in Northville, Michigan saying the book might inspire “deviant behavior” and contains “negative references…against the Christian faith,” among many other complaints. In advance…
Colorado School District Restricts Atheist Pamphlets Due To Cover Images
Another school district has painted itself into a corner regarding distribution of religious materials in schools. This time, it’s Colorado’s Delta County School District, which recently allowed passive distribution of Bibles in both middle and high schools, but restricted two…
CBLDF Signs On to Support Transparency in West Allegheny Curriculum Planning
CBLDF today signed on to a letter from the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Kids’ Right to Read Project urging the West Allegheny, Pennsylvania school board to implement a clear policy regarding selection of curricular materials. Concerns arose after Jeanette Walls’…