By Dan Simmons
Chicago Tribune | November 20, 2009

Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire spiked Friday’s edition of the school’s award-winning newspaper because of concerns about stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting, the editor said.

Advocates of press freedom bashed the decision to halt publication.

“It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted,” said Frank LoMante, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center.

The paper’s faculty advisers, Matt Lockowitz and Lisa Lukens, as well as the school’s spokesman, Jim Conrey, did not return phone messages Thursday.

The ban is the latest rift between administrators and student journalists for the Statesman, regarded as one of the premier student newspapers in Illinois and the nation. Concerns about content last year led to the resignation of the paper’s faculty adviser, Barbara Thill.

In the most recent incident, administrators on the paper’s review board warned editor Pam Selman, a senior, not to submit a front-page story by senior managing editor Evan Ribot about students in the National Honor Society and freshmen mentors program.

In it, two students, quoted anonymously, admitted to drinking and smoking, which are prohibited under the society’s no-use contract.

The administrators warned that they would ask for the students’ names and potentially take disciplinary action against them, Selman said.

Rather than revealing their sources, the paper’s staff decided to submit a blank front page to the board on Tuesday, she said, with a note to readers about why the story wasn’t there.

On Wednesday, the paper’s advisers told staff the administrative review board had problems with the blank front page — plus the pregnancy and shoplifting stories — and would spike the issue. Administrators said the teen pregnancy story lacked balance, Selman said.

The story by Selman quoted a boy and girl at the school who are expecting a child together, she said. The school has seen an increase in student pregnancies this year, Selman said.

LoMante is advising the paper on its legal options and was given copies of all three stories the administration deemed unfit for print.

“They are balanced, responsible and mild,” he said. “They carry positive messages: Don’t shoplift, and get counseling if you get pregnant.”

The paper’s staffers on Friday will greet students by the entrances, as they usually do when the paper comes out every third or fourth week, Ribot said.

But instead of saying “Take a Statesman,” they will be saying, “Sorry, no paper today” and explaining why.

KAUZ News | November 10, 2009

The book called The Egypt Game is part of a reading list in a fourth-grade class at Southern Hills Elementary. Some parents have a problem with the reading selection. The book has been an optional part of the Wichita Falls School District’s curriculum for years. However, the Turnbow family said they won’t stop until the book is banned.

It’s a Newbery Award-winning story about a group of children who invent a game involving Egyptian gods, but the Turnbows said its not a game they want their child knowing about.

Dandi Turnbow, the student’s mother, said her fourth grade son was given the book to read in his class at Southern Hills Elementary. Their son read a few chapters of the book when they discovered some passages that disturbed them: including scenes depicting Egyptian worship rituals.

“I let him know this is not what we believe at all and this is not anything he needs to be subjected to,” Dandi Turnbow said.

School District Officials said curriculum specialists have reviewed the book and find it appropriate, but the school honored the parents wishes and allowed the student to select a different book.

The Turnbows said, giving their son a new book isn’t enough for them. They want the book banned altogether.

“The school understands that the parent objected. There were four students who chose the book. He was the only student that had an objection that came forward,” said Renae Murphy, the school district’s information officer.

“I’m not going to stop until its banned from the school district. I will not quiet down. I will not back down,” said Jeff Turnbow, the student’s father.

District officials tell us they try to honor parents’ wishes, but there is a formal process to request a district-wide book ban.

“As far as the situation with this child.. It has been resolved. We do have a formal approval process in place if that parent wishes to ban it from all children but the request the request is for their own child,” Murphy said.

“I also hope that it gets banned because I don’t believe any student should be subjected to anything that has to do with evil gods or black magic,” Dandi Turnbow said.

By Nathan Hansen | The Farmington Independent (MN)
November 12, 2009

Twenty years after the band Nirvana released its first album a District 192 review panel has decided a book about the band’s lead singer is inappropriate for elementary and middle school students.

The panel reviewed the book, “Kurt Cobain,” Nov. 4 after the parent of a Riverview Elementary School third grader filed a complaint. The book is from publisher Edge Books’ Rock Music Library series of books. According to administrative services director Rosalyn Pautzke, a member of the review panel, it is geared toward students from ages 12 to 15.

A summary at online bookseller bn.com describes the book as high-interest material “coupled with a reading level for middle elementary grades.”

But Pautzke said most on the review panel found the book’s material too dark for the elementary-age audience it was presented to. The first image inside the book’s cover is a glossy, full-color image of Cobain’s body being wheeled out of his home following his suicide in 1994.

That might have come as a surprise to the third grader who had reportedly picked out the book because he was looking for something about guitars.

“This book … was very dark and violent and made reference to the use of Ritalin as being a precursor to the use of illicit drugs,” Pautzke said.

It also covered topics such as mental illness and suicide.

“It was just very graphic and gave a feeling of doom and despair,” Pautzke said. “It was really a downer.”

Pautzke said even the book’s glossary was depressing.

“It really wasn’t about guitars and it wasn’t about music,” Pautzke said. “It was almost a bait-and-switch.”

The panel discussed the book for about an hour before making its decision. The only panel member who voted against removing it from the Riverview Library was a last-minute fill-in, Pautzke said.

There was an unanimous vote after the complaint was upheld to apply the removal to all elementary and middle school libraries. Pautzke said there was concern the book might be more dangerous for older students, who would better understand its references to drug abuse and suicide.

This is just the fifth challenge to a library book in the 14 years Pautzke has been in the district, and it is the first to be upheld. The first three complaints were withdrawn during the panel’s discussion, Pautzke said. The fourth, which came in March of this year, was about the book “And Tango Makes Three,” about a same-sex penguin couple at the Central Park Zoo that hatched an egg and raised the baby penguin. That challenge was rejected.

By James Haug | Las Vegas Review-Journal

November 11, 2009

A District Court judge on Tuesday refused to drop the curtain on high school productions of “Rent” and “The Laramie Project.”

Henderson’s Green Valley High School can proceed with both plays, including a Thursday night performance of “The Laramie Project,” which deals with the murder of a gay college student in Wyoming.

Sarah Balogh, 17, who has a role in “Rent,” said the legal ruling was a victory for the plays’ themes. “I think it’s a start toward what they’re all about: compassion and tolerance.”

“The Laramie Project” will be performed at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The high school is at 460 Arroyo Grande Blvd., west of Stephanie Street.

“Rent,” about starving artists coping with AIDS and drug addiction, will be performed early next year.

Some parents who object to the plays’ “mature content” had sought a preliminary injunction to stop both productions.

But lawyers for the Clark County School District said the parents’ lawyer failed to prove one of the basic criteria for a preliminary injunction, that it would cause “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs.

Participation in the plays is voluntary and requires parental permission. Students are not required to attend the plays, which are extracurricular activities.

When the district’s general counsel, Bill Hoffman, contended that the plaintiffs had failed to “provide any evidence,” Cory Hilton, the plaintiff’s attorney, responded that his clients’ children would not be able to participate in the school’s one musical of the year, “Rent,” or cite participation in the plays on their college admission applications as proof of their extracurricular activities.

“There’s your irreparable harm,” Hilton said. “It’s exclusionary.”

The children could not participate because of their parents’ objections to the material, Hilton argued.

The judge was not persuaded by his arguments.

“It’s a matter of choice,” Judge David Wall said.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed a court brief supporting the district with constitutional arguments for free speech.

Hilton had also argued that Green Valley failed to follow district regulations in presenting controversial curriculum, emphasizing that Musical Theatre International, the publisher of “Rent,” had given the high school edition of the musical an “R” rating. The district does not allow R and PG-13 movies to be shown in the classroom.

Lawyers for the district responded that movie ratings and parents’ right to “reconsideration and review” of curriculum materials do not apply to extracurricular theatrical plays, which have been edited for high school audiences.

Rick Magness, whose children are Green Valley graduates, said the parents who objected to the plays will meet soon to decide what to do next. He said he did not regret taking legal action.

“In our opinion, it was the right thing to do,” Magness said.

Hoffman did not think the parents had any legal options left to stop the productions.

“As a practical matter, the case is over,” he said after the hearing.

Students were relieved at the outcome.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Amanda Smith, 16, who has a lead role in “Rent.”

Green Valley drama student Anthony Bell, 17, felt the same way. “Now, we can concentrate on doing the show.”

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@ reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.