HUFF POST
Roque Planas | March 11, 2013

A court upheld most provisions of an Arizona state law used to prohibit a controversial Mexican-American Studies curriculum in Tucson on Friday.

The ruling dealt a blow to supporters of the suspended classes, who had hoped the courts would overturn a 2010 law championed by Arizona conservatives determined to shut down the unconventional courses.

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See original NDLA postings.

TOLEDO NEWS NOW
Crystal Clark | February 12, 2013

A group of parents at Danbury Middle School wants a controversial book banned from their children’s classroom.

“Fallen Angels,” by Walter Dean Myers, is on the reading list for middle schoolers this year. The book depicts the reality of the Vietnam War, with sometimes gruesome descriptions of combat and frequent foul language from soldiers.

“”We were just appalled to think that our 13-year-old daughter was having to read this out loud,” said Greg Dziak, whose stepdaughter is in the eighth grade. “She was coming home from school complaining to us about the language of the book.”

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MCPHERSON SENTINEL
Janae Pauls | February 8, 2013

A committee recently determined a book taught in a McPherson High School freshman class is indeed appropriate.

“The Glass Castle,” a memoir by Jeanette Walls, was being taught to 95 students in Cindy Marion’s pre-AP English course. It is an account of Walls’ years growing up in poverty with a dysfunctional family. This is the second year Marion has used the book in her course.

Parents spoke to the USD 418 Board of Education in early December with concerns the book might be inappropriate for 14- and 15-yeard-old students, due to foul language and implicit and explicit sexual references. Anti-religious statements also were listed as a concern.

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Related articles/opinions:
“Parents ask book be removed from classroom“
(McPherson Sentinel | Janae Pauls | December 11, 2012)

“On parents who shield their children [opinion]“
(McPherson Sentinel | December 27, 2012)

“Poll results: ‘The Glass Castle’ [opinion]”
(McPherson Sentinel | February 11, 2013)

WASHINGTON POST
T. Rees Shapiro | February 7, 2013

The book Laura Murphy wants removed from Fairfax County classrooms is considered a modern American classic. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a masterpiece of fiction whose author’s 1993 Nobel Prize in literature citation said that she, “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”

But Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Murphy said, depicts scenes of bestiality, gang rape and an infant’s gruesome murder, content she believes could be too intense for teenage readers.

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