Several commentators have cited statistics from the survey to show that kids don't care about free speech.  They have missed the fact that kids support free speech for student journalists and musicians even more strongly than adults! To read an editorial about the issues, click here

KidSPEAK! wants to know what you think about this controversy. Do kids care about free speech? Why do only half support total freedom of the press? Why do they feel differently about free speech for student journalists and musicians? Send us your comments. We will post a selection on KidSPEAK!

Students Fight Back!

Here are three stories about how kids are fighting back against censorship!

Students Fired Up over Book Burning

High school students in Norwood, Colorado, staged an all-day sit-in to protest the removal of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima from a ninth grade English classroom. Bob Conder, superintendent of schools, confiscated two dozen copies of the novel and threw them in trash cans. He later allowed a group of parents who complained about profanity in the novel to retrieve the books and burn them. Conder apologized for destroying the books, admitting he had never read the novel. To read more, click here.

The Tattler Tells on School Administrators

Student editors of The Tattler, the Ithaca High School newspaper in Ithaca, New York, are battling for their First Amendment rights. School administrators removed a Valentine's Day cartoon depicting a sex education class. Rob Ochshorn and Andrew Alexander, two of the paper's editors, are working with the Student Press Law Center and are planning to take the issue to court. To read more, click here.

Students, ACLU and NAACP Join Battle against Book Removals in Kansas

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri is joining forces with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and concerned parents, educators and students of the Blue Valley school district to oppose the removal of fourteen books from the district curriculum. The removal is being called for by a new organization, the Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools (abbreviated ClassKC), who oppose the books primarily due to profanity and sexual explicitness. Students are organizing against these efforts by circulating a counter petition and creating a website to fight for their right to read the challenged books. To visit the students' site, click here. To see ClassKC's site, click here. To read more about the controversy in Blue Valley, click here.

Son of a Gun: Student Fights for Yearbook Photo

Blake Douglass, a high school student in Concord, New Hampshire, took his school to court when the yearbook committee rejected a photo of him holding a shotgun. Blake, an trap- and skeet-shooting enthusiast, said, “I just want to put my hobby in. I don’t see it as a threat." U.S. district judge Steven McAuliffe ruled that the photo could only appear in the “community sports” section of the yearbook, not as Blake’s senior portrait. Though the McAuliffe ruled against Blake, he also praised him, saying, “I'm awful proud of you for bringing the case. You stood up for your First Amendment rights.” To read more, click here.

Recent Banned & Challenged Book Cases

Whale Talk Beached Again

Limestone County School Board in Athens, Alabama, voted to remove Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher from the district-wide reading list and school library shelves due to offensive language. Crutcher, a child therapist who brings the gritty realities of his patients to the page, is an often-banned and -challenged author. Whale Talk was banned from another district reading list in Georgetown, South Carolina. To read Chris Crutcher’s response to the ban, click here.To read about the Limestone County ban, click here.

Lois Lowry's Anastasia Series Challenged in Lakeland

Children's author Lois Lowry has written over 30 books for children since the 1970's. Preteen girls have been enjoying her popular Anastasia series for over 25 years. Lowry was shocked to hear that a parent from Polk County School District in Florida wants to remove six of the Anastasia books from school libraries in the district. Kristi Hardee, the mother of a fourth-grader in the district, objects to references to stuffing and snapping bras in the series. For more information on Lois Lowry, click here. To read more about this story, click here.

Daughters of Eve Challenged in Indiana

Amy and James Hendrick, parents of a 6th grader at Lowell Middle School in Indiana, object to the content of Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan, a book on their daughter's school reading list. Upset over the profanity and sexual content they found in the book, the Hendricks would with like a rating system implemented for books available to students or for the book removed from the sixth grade reading list entirely. To read more, click here.

In other news …

Student Arrested for Zombie Story

William Poole, a high school student in Lexington, Kentucky, was arrested for "making terrorist threats" after his grandparents turned a violent story they found in his journal over to the police. The story, which William wrote for English class, describes a high school overrun by violent zombies. Poole is being held in a detention center. To read more, click here.

Girl in Tux Banned from Yearbook

The Clay County School Board in Green Cove Springs, Florida, upheld a decision by a high school principal to ban a photograph of a female student wearing a tuxedo from the high school yearbook. The student, Kelli Davis, said she was uncomfortable with the traditional yearbook attire for girls, a gown-like drape and pearls, because the outfit was too revealing. She chose the traditional attire for boys, a tux. "That's me, you know. That represents me. The drape does not. They're not accepting me," said Davis. Kelli's parents bought an ad in the back of the yearbook that will feature the controversial picture. To read more, click here.

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Drop that Crayon!: Two Boys Charged with Felonies for Drawing Violent Stick Figures

Two special education students in Ocala, Florida, ages 9 and 10, were arrested and taken out of their classroom in handcuffs for drawing violent stick figures. The drawings, made with a pencil and a red crayon, showed a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung. The boys' teacher showed the picture to the dean of the school, who called the police. The boys are being charged with making a written threat to kill or harm another person, which is a second-degree felony. To read more, click here and here.


Vermont Teen Defends His Free Speech Rights

Zachary Guiles, a 14-year-old middle school student in Williamstown, Vermont, was suspended for wearing a T-shirt depicting President Bush snorting cocaine. School officials said that Zachary's shirt violated the dress code. Zachary and his parents took the issue to the U.S. District Court, where a judge ruled that censoring the word "cocaine" on Zachary's shirt violated his rights. The one-day suspension was expunged from his record. To read more, click here.

Teen Speaks Out Against Book Challenges

Sasha Mushegian, a 15-year-old student of the Blue Valley School District, spoke out in The Kansas Star against efforts to remove some of her favorite books from her school's curriculum. To read her editorial, click here. To read about the Blue Valley School District's Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools, the group whose efforts Sasha opposes, click here.


Teen Journalist Punished for Story on Gay Students

Ann Long, a high school journalist at Troy High School in Fullerton, California, wrote a profile of three gay students who decided to talk about being gay in the school newspaper. She imagined that the piece would generate some controversy; however, she did not expect to be asked to resign from her position as editor of the school newspaper. School officials took issue with the fact that Ann did not ask for parental permission before publishing the stories on the three students. Ann has vowed not to surrender her position. To read more, click here.


11-Year-Old Boy Faces Police Interrogation for Political Protest

Yishai Asido, an 11-year-old student at Belmont Ridge Middle School in Virginia, was interrogated by local police for a comment he made in protest to a school assignment to write letters to U.S. Marines stationed abroad. Yishai said that the Marines, "might as well die, as much as I care." To read more about the debate surrounding Yishai and his comment, click here.


Debate Rages Over Booklet on Slavery

Ninth grade students at Cary Christian School in North Carolina are reading a controversial booklet entitled "Southern Slavery, As It Was." Members of the local civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, object to the writing, suggesting that it condones slavery. Principal Larry Stevenson defends "Southern Slavery," claiming the booklet provides another perspective on the debate about slavery. To read more, click here.

Students Defend Suspended Journalism Teacher

Students at Franklin Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, have gathered to protest the suspension of Chad Tuley, a journalism teacher at their high school, for an article he approved for publication in their student newspaper. The article detailed a fellow classmate's arrest on murder charges. The students can be seen in the halls wearing T-shirts that read "Free Mr. Tuley." They are also discussing a student walkout in support of their teacher if he is not allowed back at school. To read more, click here and click here.


Catcher In the Rye Kept in Maine School District

Last month, Andrea Minnon, the mother of a 14-year-old at Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, asked her school district to remove J.D. Salinger's classic, Catcher in the Rye from freshman English classrooms. The Berwick school board reviewed Minnon's claim that the book was "trash," full of inappropriate language and behaviors. They decided to keep the book in the freshman curriculum and to provide more information to parents about the educational value of the books their children study. To read more, click here and here.


Dad Challenges Sex God

Pius Ruby, the father of a middle school student at Sacajawea Middle School in Bozeman, Montana, has objected to the title of a book his daughter brought home from the school library. Ruby says that the title On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson could put his daughter at risk if she is seen carrying it. Ruby believes the book could make her daughter more noticeable to sex offenders. The school's Learning Materials Review Committee is currently reviewing Ruby's claim. To read more about the school identification debate, click here.