THE NEWS GUARD
Jeremy C. Ruark | May 22, 2013

A parent’s concern about a library book at Taft High 7-12 has sparked concerns about age-appropriate materials in Lincoln County schools and has opened discussion on what parents can do if they object to such materials.

Lincoln City resident Bridget O’Donnell said she was horrified when she found out her daughter had brought the book, “The Little Black Book For Girlz” home from school.

“A classmate of my daughter checked the book out of the Taft High library and gave it to her,’ said O’Donnell. “All her friends had been talking about the book and when she brought it home she was kind of hiding it.”

O’Donnell described the book as “very graphic.”

“It is simply too graphic for a seventh grader and for my daughter,” said O’Donnell.

Read on…

CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund)
Carol Tilley | April 19, 2013

Last month a Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) directive seemed to require that copies of Marjane Satrapi’s memoir Persepolis be removed from classrooms and school libraries. A later memo clarified that the book was allowed to remain in libraries; the concerns about its content — specifically, visual depictions of acts of torture — were limited to its instructional use in seventh grade.

How CPS handled this particular situation is beyond the scope of my comments. Similarly I don’t intend to address whether seventh graders are equipped to handle a couple of pages of visually stylized barbarism. Instead, as a librarian, I want to touch on the issue of what belongs in a school library’s collection.

Read on…

Original NDLA IF post

Related article:
“Sex, violence, and Radical Islam: Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools“
(The Atlantic | Noah Berlatsky | March 19, 2013)

SALEM NEWS ONLINE
ACLU | March 6, 2013

In a consent judgment signed Tuesday, a federal district court-ordered the Salem Public Library to stop blocking patrons’ access to websites related to minority religions that the library’s web filters classified as “occult” or “criminal.” Blocking access to material based solely on viewpoint is a violation of the First Amendment.

Judge E. Richard Webber entered the judgment in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri on behalf of a Salem resident who was blocked from researching websites discussing minority religions’ ideas about death or death rituals.

“Even libraries that are required by federal law to install filtering software to block certain sexually explicit content should never use software to prevent patrons from learning about different cultures,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU-EM.

The resident had originally protested to library director Glenda Wofford about not being able to access websites about Native American religions and the Wiccan faith.

Read on…

Original NDLA posting.

RELATED ARTICLES:
“Judge rules Salem Public Library can’t block website content”
(5 KDSK | March 6, 2013)

“Missouri library agrees not to block witch websites”
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Robert Patrick | March 6, 2013)

“‘Access Denied’: Net Filtering in Rhode Island Schools”
(Bookshelves of Doom | March 14, 2013)

5 NBC CHICAGO
March 15, 2013

Some Chicago Public Schools students are up in arms over a perceived book ban, but officials are calling it a misunderstanding.

The book in question is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a graphic memoir of a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution that features descriptions and images of torture.

Some CPS schools starting receiving directives this week to remove the book from the library, prompting some students and teachers to plan a free speech demonstration at Lane Tech High School Friday.

“We believe that removing books from kids is chilling and an act of censorship,” said Barbara Jones, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. “It reflects a totalitarian society that this book is all about … the Iranian revolution.”

But CPS Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett issued a letter Friday denying that the book was not being banned, but was being removed from the curriculum for seventh graders where it was deemed not appropriate.

Bennett says the book is only appropriate for junior and senior students and those in Advance Placement classes, and a determination is being made whether it can be added to the curriculum for eighth through tenth grades.

However, Jones says CPS officials have not explained why the book initially being removed from high schools when it’s an issue for seventh graders.

UPDATES:
“Persepolis removed from Chicago Public Schools for “graphic illustrations and language”; OIF & FTRF respond”
(ALA OIF & FTRF BLOG | March 15, 2013)

“Chicago School District Under Fire for Restricting Access to ‘Persepolis’”
(Publishers Weekly | Claire Kirch | March 15, 2013)

“CPS students were driving force in protest against book ban”
(Chicago Tribune | Lolly Bowean & Kim Geiger | March 15, 2013)

“Lane Tech Students Hold Morning Sit-In To Protest Persepolis Book Ban”
(Progress Illinois | Ellyn Fortino | March 18, 2013)

“Kids Right to Read Project Responds to Chicago Public Schools Demand to Remove ‘Persepolis’”
(National Coalition Against Censorship | March 18, 2013)

Follow @oif and @ ftrf on Twitter for more updates on this continuing situation.