The
American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri is
joining the fight to oppose the organization determined to get 14 books
stricken from the curriculum in the Blue Valley school district.
Advertisement
The Citizens for Literary Standards in
Schools (referred to as ClassKC) submitted a petition to the school
board last month with 500 signatures asking for the removal of the
books primarily because of vulgar language and sexual explicitness.
The ACLU held a meeting Monday night to get a sense of public opinion
regarding the issue and to lay out battle strategies to oppose
ClassKC's initiative.
The Olathe branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People as well as the
Prairie Village-based MAINstream Coalition, which brings with it a host
of other organizations, are also joining the fight, it was announced at
the meeting.
Students, parents, teachers, concerned citizens
and representatives from the ACLU and the NAACP conversed and
brainstormed for nearly two hours at the meeting held at the Antioch
Library.
Chekasha Ramsey, legal coordinator for the ACLU, said
the petition submitted to the school board by ClassKC was denied, but
that it was only because they did not follow the correct procedures.
Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the ACLU said, "It is certainly
not over. It is nice to have a school board that is committed to its
policy and is committed to the judgment of its teachers in assigning
curriculum materials."
Jason Miller said that in speaking with
school board president, John Fuller, he got the impression the school
board is intimidated by this issue.
"They are a little bit concerned about the impact this could have as far as future elections," Miller said.
Three board seats, positions 4, 5 and 6, in the Blue Valley school
district will be up for grabs in the April 5 general election, and
candidates for the position 6 seat will face off in the March 1 primary
election.
However, Fuller said reproduction of his comments
may have been a fabrication, saying, "I did say that there is not one
board member who wants to remove the books in question unless there is
an educational reason to do so, but if one of those books does not
comply with our approved curriculum or our revised policy 4600, I'll
support the book's removal since that is the way the system should
work. We must let the educators select the books based on our
curriculum and policy 4600."
Fuller added it is important for
everyone to remember the policy in place, and that books may or may not
be removed after being filtered through policy 4600, which requires
learning resources to meet certain criteria. The relatively new policy,
implemented last September, has not been used to filter all the books
currently included in the curriculum, as Fuller noted in the January
board meeting.
Norm Ledgin, a Blue Valley parent, said while
he has not always been on the side of the school board, public support
of the board regarding this issue should be generated.
Mention was made of organizing a forum in an attempt to enlighten the public of school board candidates' opinions.
The MAINstream Coalition's previously planned Sense or Censorship forum was pinpointed as the perfect opportunity.
Caroline McKnight, executive director of the MAINstream Coalition,
said, "We feel like there are concerns on both sides of this issue that
need to be expressed in a forum outside of the constraints of a school
board meeting."
Sense or Censorship will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Jewish Community Center, 5801 W. 115th St., Overland Park.
Endorsing candidates is not a possibility for most of the organizations
involved in this opposition because they are non-profit organizations
confined by IRS regulations, but the MAINstream Coalition's Political
Action Committee is attempting to compile profiles of candidates for
the Blue Valley school board and to give endorsements. To learn
information about the PAC's endorsements, visit
www.mainstreamcoalition.org.
Blue Valley North High School
student Matt Novaria voiced his sense of student opposition to
ClassKC's efforts. He mentioned the Web site initiated by Blue Valley
North student Kerry McGuire, www.freewebs.com/studentsspeakout. Novaria
said students have circulated a petition at school, and individuals can
sign a petition via McGuire's Web site.
"I am aware of close
to 150 to 200 signatures, but that is just within the Blue Valley North
community, and I think if we spread the word, then a lot more people
would sign it," Novaria said of the petition circulating the school.
While various points of view salted the group of attendees, consensus
seemed to be that in order to be effective, voices of opposition needed
to band together.
The name United Front for Intellectual
Freedom was tossed out and met with positive response. The group also
decided that the first step of opposition should be compiling a
counter-petition.
Multiple attendees suggested giving students a large responsibility within the organization.
Henry E. Lyons, president of the Olathe branch of the NAACP, said, "I
would really like to work with the kids who are against this censorship
also because they are the ones ultimately who will be reading or not
reading the books."
Ledgin agreed, saying, "We should support the student efforts as much as possible."
Later in the meeting Kurtenbach suggested initiating ACLU chapters within the Blue Valley high schools.
One attendee was less concerned with reasoning and more concerned with impacting.
Stephen Booser said, "I am mostly interested in how to stop (ClassKC).
I am not interested in how to talk to them or to explain this stuff to
them. I want to find out how to stop them particularly if they become
successful in petitioning to get books removed from the curriculum."
"We have never been shy to file lawsuits in cases of censorship,"
Kurtenbach said. "We wouldn't hesitate for a second if this talk
somehow becomes part of the school's policy."
Kurtenbach
emphasized that legal action is by no means the first step in this
battle. Generating awareness and having a presence of opposition were
the efforts agreed on to start.
The voices of opposition plan
to have a presence at the upcoming Blue Valley board meeting at 7 p.m.
Monday at the Blue Valley district office, 15020 Metcalf Ave., Overland
Park.
Visit www.bluevalleyk12.org for information about policy
4600, which denotes the process for selection of learning resources,
and policy 4610, regarding challenges to and reconsideration of
learning materials.
Once
again the decision to decide what is appropriate reading material for a
public schools curriculum does not reside with a radical right minority
that wishes to impose their values on others.
The children whose
parents objected to the assigned material were given alternative
reading material for equal class credit. They declined... and have
instead tried to force their views on the entire district. Clearly
there is nothing that would indicate a “one size must fit all” policy.
Our
system is one which is democratic...not Libertarian. Fortunately
democracy tends to work while allowing for an exchange of ideas...the
Libertarian model has never succeeded anywhere in the world at any time
in history.
The Libertarian view that ‘States Rights’ should be
implemented regarding educational standards is absurd as well. So
called ‘States Rights’ were used as a tool by George Wallace among
others during the 1960’s in an attempt to prevent ‘busing’ and force
schools to remain segregated.
Government plays a very
important and necessary role in bringing about equality and diversity
to all students. It also applies standards which are not so easy to
censor and remove.
Kristin Lade
Feb, 15 2005
I'm very proud and encouraged by the students of Blue Valley who are
taking interest, ownership, and initiative in this issue. The website
looks great and very professional and direct. I hope you get the
signatures that you need. Even though I can't sign (not a Blue Valley
resident) I know there are plenty of us rooting for you! Good Luck
Send
us your community news, events, letters to the editor and other
suggestions. Now, you can submit birth, wedding and engagement
announcements online too!
