COMPUTERWORLD
Jaikumar Vijayan | January 4, 2013

Employers in Illinois and California cannot ask for usernames and passwords to the personal social media accounts of employees and job seekers under laws that took effect on Jan. 1.

Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn in August signed legislation amending the State’s ‘Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act.’

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation adding the prohibitions to the State’s Labor Code in September.

The two states join Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Delaware in implementing such privacy laws.

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GAZETTE NET
Margarita Raycheva | August 15, 2012

Despite complaints from some parents, the Frederick County Board of Education has upheld the decision by county Schools Superintendent Theresa Alban to continue using the controversial Social Studies Alive! third-grade textbook until 2014-15.

The school board announced its decision on Wednesday, nine days after board members allowed a group of parents to appeal the superintendent’s recommendation in a closed session.

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Previous NDLA IF blog postings from July 18, 2011, August 30, 2011, and July 17, 2012.

THE GAZETTE
Margarita Raycheva | July 16, 2012

While Frederick County Public Schools plans to remove a social studies textbook that critics say promotes liberal viewpoints, the parents who advocated against the text say the process is moving too slowly.

Parents have appealed the proposed timeline, which calls for the book to be removed in the 2014-15 school year. Parents also say they want the process for their appeal to be open to the public.

“We are trying to get them to open the process,” said Cindy Rose of Knoxville, who has been fighting against the textbook since last year. “I think the people have the right to witness this.”

The appeal has been scheduled for Aug. 6, and school board members have decided to conduct the process behind closed doors.

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BALTIMORE SUN
Anne A. Baker | June 7, 2012

Letter to the Editor…
As an educator, certified Maryland public librarian and member of the Harford County community, I am disappointed and embarrassed by the Harford County Public Library’s decision to censor the “50 Shades of Grey” series by E. L. James (“Too hot for Harford, librarian concludes,” May 31).

County library director Mary Hastler has denied censoring the book. However, by the American Library Association’s own definition, censorship is “the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons — individuals, groups or government officials — find objectionable or dangerous. … The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.”

I understand selection policy. But Ms. Hastler also states that “a lot of the reviews that came out very publicly and quickly identified these books as ‘mommy porn.’ Since our policy is that we don’t buy porn, we made the decision not to purchase the series.”

This is a clear admission that she decided to censor these books because of their sexual content, an act that is both unprofessional and unethical.

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