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…
Tag: united states
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…
Rio Rancho Public Schools to Observe Challenge Policy for Palomar
Good news out of Rio Rancho, New Mexico: Despite a school district official’s initial assessment last month that Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar was “clearly inappropriate” for a high school library collection, it has been confirmed that the district will follow its…
Four Decades Later, Anarchist Cookbook Still Haunts Author
In a recent article for Harper’s Magazine, Gabriel Thompson took an in-depth look at the fascinating history of one of the most controversial books in recent memory: The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell. The 1971 how-to manual for everything from…
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…
CBLDF Joins Coalition Warning Against Highland Park’s Policy Changes
Despite last week’s welcome news that a challenge to David K. Shipler’s book The Working Poor had been withdrawn in the Dallas-area Highland Park Independent School District, that was only one facet of a months-long dispute over what sort of…
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…
Long Beach Library Reverses Course on Police Shooting Artwork
Citing a “misunderstanding,” the Long Beach, California public library yesterday invited local artist Lethia Cobbs to return a doll that a library employee had told her to remove from her artwork earlier this month. The piece includes a white police…