Linden Board of Education has developed policy changes to address parents’ concerns that the teaching materials being used were inappropriate. Six months ago, parents complained because they were unaware that R-rated movies were shown in classrooms and reading assignments contained…
Tag: Michigan
Petition Against Part-Time Indian In Michigan
Parents of high school students in Midland, Michigan have opted to pass around a petition requesting the school ban Alexie Sherman’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, despite administrators clear instructions that they will only respond to a…
Grand Rapids Public Library Celebrates Local Cartoonist Celebrity Gert Van Houten
Grand Rapids Public Library in Michigan celebrates working women this coming month with a series of discussions about notable female figures — including the maverick cartoonist Gertrude “Gert” Van Houten — who helped shape the political and editorial scene of…
Michigan Dad Wants Book About Dress-Wearing Boy Banned from School
Michigan’s Forest Hills Public School District is standing by a book about a boy who likes to wear dresses, despite one parent’s complaint that it does not present a “normal way” of life. A teacher read Morris Micklewhite and the…
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,…
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…
Censorship Battles Take a Toll on Educators
Virtually every public school district across the country has a policy on how challenges to materials should be handled. One of the many benefits of observing these policies is that they help to shield the districts’ own employees — teachers…
Michigan Parents Worry Picture Book Will Indoctrinate Students to Islam
Some parents in Eau Claire, Michigan, are accusing the local school district of preaching Islam to students via the picture book Nasreen’s Secret School, which was also challenged earlier this year in Florida. The increased focus on the book is…
UPDATED: Michigan Superintendent Notifies Parents of Gay Character in Captain Underpants Book
A few weeks after the Parent-Teacher Organization at an elementary school in Monroe, Michigan banned the latest Captain Underpants book from a school book fair because it reveals that one of the main characters is gay, a school district on…