Celebrate Banned Books Week!

Every year, bookstores and libraries across the nation celebrate the freedom to read books that have been banned and challenged. Celebrate Banned Books Week this September 25 - October 2! There are many ways to celebrate – read on for ideas!

For more information on Banned Books Week, click here.

How to Censor a Book

There are many ways that people try to ban or challenge books:

Taking a Book off a Reading List

Books are often removed from a school reading list. You may not even know about it because you will only see the list after the book has been removed. Recently, in The Village, Oklahoma, Montana 1948 by Larry Watson was removed from a summer reading list because it contained profanity and descriptions of nudity and sex crimes. To read more, click here. To see a great video about the case, click here.

Pulling a Book from School or Library Shelves

Making a book unavailable or very difficult to find is a clear form of censorship that often occurs in schools and libraries. Just this month, the book One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte was removed from library shelves in Ansonia, Connecticut, after parents complained about one sexual scene in the book. To read more, click here.

Book Burning

Book burning and other destructive acts towards books are extreme forms of censorship. Recently, a church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, collected books, music and other items and, after they were prevented from burning them, threw them away. To read more, click here.

Read a Banned Book!

One of the best ways you can get involved in Banned Books Week is to read a banned or challenged book. These books are often great reads, and you can decide what you think about them on your own.

If you have any questions or thoughts on a banned or challenged book you've read, write and tell us here at kidSPEAK! about it! We love to hear from you. For a list of frequently challenged books, click here.

Get Creative!

You can also use your artistic talents to celebrate the freedom to read. Draw a picture of your favorite characters from a banned book and hang it in your room. Make a poster announcing Banned Books Week and ask your favorite bookstore or library to put it up.

There are so many ways to celebrate Banned Books Week. Do you have any ideas? Send them to kidSPEAK! We will include the winning ideas in our next kidSPEAK! update!

Harry Potter Products on Sale!

J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter books are some of the most frequently banned and challenged in the nation. Support Harry Potter and the freedom to read by ordering a special edition Harry Potter T-shirt or button today!  To read more, click here.

If you've had trouble in the past ordering stuff from the store, try again today. We've had some technical difficulties, but it's all fixed up and ready for your orders! Click here to order.  

Valedictorian Stands Up for Free Speech

Tiffany Schley, valedictorian of her class at the High School of Legal Studies in Brooklyn, New York, used her graduation speech to express her concerns about her under funded school, the overcrowded classes and an administration that ignored the students' complaints. After cutting off her microphone in the middle of her speech, the administration of her school refused to give her her diploma, claiming her speech disrupted the graduation ceremony. To read more, click here.

Teen Poet Wrongfully Imprisoned for Dark Poetry, Supreme Court Says

A 15-year-old Santa Clara County student was imprisoned for writing a disturbing poem and distributing it at his school. His felony conviction was unanimously overturned by the California Supreme Court. This was a big victory for students' First Amendment rights. To read more, click here.  To read the student's poem, click here.


Big Increase in Montgomery County Book Challenges

The Montgomery County Library System in Texas received sixteen book challenges this summer. This is a drastic increase from the past three years, when there were no challenges. The majority of these books were interrogated for their gay-positive themes. So far, no changes have been made to the library shelves. To read more, click here.

ABFFE Introduces New Harry Potter Merchandise

Harry Potter will help raise funds for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE). Warner Brothers, the producer of the movies based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which opened June 4, has authorized ABFFE to issue a limited edition T-shirt and button that urge people to "Fight for Harry Potter and Free Speech for Kids!" Proceeds will support ABFFE's anti-censorship activities, which have included two successful efforts to overturn bans on Harry Potter books in school libraries.  To read more, click here. To order Harry Potter Products, visit the ABFFE Store.

Student Group Forms to Oppose Censorship

Students in Rapid City don't take a break from fighting for free speech during the summer.  After discovering that their public library was banning access to a teen information site because of references to dating and sex, a group of local students responded by forming Students Against Censorship.  Loy Maierhauser is the Co-Founder of Students Against Censorship, "It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm doing something with worth while with my time. There's no better way to spend my summer break."  To read more, click here.

New Book Explores Student's Free Speech Rights

David L. Hudson, an attorney for the First Amendment Center, has just published a book called The Silencing of Student Voices: Preserving Free Speech in America’s Schools.  This book examines the different ways that students have been forbidden or encourage to explore their unique voices.  To order, click here.   To read more, click here.

Judge Fines Mattel $1.8 Million in Suit Against Artist

A judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the toy company Mattel to pay $1.8 million dollars in legal fees to Tom Forsythe, an artists whose art display, depicting the popular doll, Barbie, led Mattel to attempt to seize his art work.   To read more, click here.

First Amendment Schools Project Launched

A new website providing information on First Amendment issues in schools was launched in April.  The website also helps teach students about their own First Amendment rights and provides valuable resources for students, parents and teachers who believe their First Amendment rights are being threatened in the schools.  Check out the First Amendment Schools website here.

King & King Under Lock & Key

In Wilmington, North Carolina, King & King, a children’s book about a prince who ends up marrying another prince, has been moved to the adult section of school libraries.   After discovering the book’s homosexual theme, parents of a first grader who checked the book out from her school library demanded that access to the book be limited.  “My child is not old enough to understand something like that, especially when it is not in our beliefs,” said Wilmington father, Michael Hartsell. “A child of this age shouldn’t have a choice.”  To read more, click here and here.

Freeze!  Drop that Pencil!

In Prosser, Washington, a high school student was interrogated by the Secret Service for a series of anti-war drawings he created for an art class.  One particularly violent depiction of President Bush’s head on a stick caused school officials to call the police, who contacted the Secret Service.  The boy was not arrested, but he was punished by his school.  To read more, click here.  To see a comic about the incident, click here.

Huck Finn Returns to Class

Kids in Renton, Washington are allowed to read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in their classrooms for the first time this school year.  The book was removed from three Renton high schools after a student complained that the novel offended her as an African American.  After reviewing the case, school officials have allowed Huck back on the official reading list.  The Adventures of Huck Finn is on the American Library Association’s list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books.  To read more, click here.

California Lawmakers Attack Video Games

Lawmakers, parents and other groups are supporting two bills which restrict the sale of violent video games to kids.  Cindy Montanez, a co-author of the bills, says, “It’s important for us to ensure that these video games are not causing damaging psychological effects on children.”  Courts have overturned similar ordinances in Indianapolis, which banned violent video games in arcades, and St. Louis, which forbid minors from renting or buying violent video games.  To read more, click here.

GetNetWise Launches Privacy Education for Kids

GetNetWise.com, a website that provides information for parents and kids about how to safely surf the Internet, has launched a new web section teaching kids how to protect their privacy.  To learn more about protecting your online privacy, click here.

Don't You Dare Read This

The Galt Joint Union Elementary School board in California recently decided to ban Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, a novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix that explores the life of a troubled teen.  The novel, which was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, is not allowed in classrooms, and it can be checked out of the library only with parental permission.  To read more, click here.  To read a student's response to the ban, click here.

Newz Crew Debates About Free Speech

Newz Crew, an online youth forum dedicated to developing and promoting media literacy in kids, has created a space for kids to debate free speech issues.  Currently, Newz Crew readers are discussing the constitutionality of flag burning.  Check out the forum here.   Find out what Newz Crew is all about by clicking here.

Truth Banned in Illinois

The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville was recently removed from Highland Community School District in Highland, Illinois, because of its depiction of a homosexual character.  A concerned parent contacted Coville, who is currently helping to address the fact that the school board did not follow a proper process in making this decision.  Coville says, "The banning of a book is a serious act.   To do it in secret undermines the very foundations of a free society."

Does the First Amendment Protect Janet Jackson?

After Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime show, in which she exposed her breast on live television, the Federal Communications Commission has pushed members of Congress for stricter regulations of what can be shown on television.  To read more about this, click here.

Debates Rage Over Violent Video Games

Florida, California, and Washington, as well as the United States Congress, are considering passing laws that would prohibit kids from buying or renting video games that are considered "violent."  Supporters of the restrictions argue that the games are harmful and incite kids to violence.  Opponents argue that the laws violate First Amendment rights.  To read more about the specific cases, click here and here.   To read an editorial debunking the effects of violent video games on their players, click here.

Parents Demand Roll of Thunder Be Removed from County Schools

Debra Drake, a parent of a seventh grader at Chiles Middle School in Oviedo, Florida, is demanding not only that Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry not be required reading for her son, but that it be banned from schools in all of Seminole County.  Taylor's novel ranks 9th on the ALA's list of most frequently challenged books.  It is often challenged for its treatment of racism, deemed inappropriate for kids.  To read more, click here.

Georgia v. Darwin

The superintendent of Georgia's schools, Kathy Cox, recently decided to remove the word "evolution" from school curriculums, replacing it with "biological changes over time."  Dismissing "evolution" as "a buzz word that causes a lot of negative reaction" that people often associate with "that monkeys-to-man sort of thing," Cox censored from Georgia schools prevailing ideas about human life.  To read more, click here.

Zero Tolerance Leaves Kids Out

Since the shootings at Columbine and other schools, many schools have adopted  "zero tolerance" policies that call for immediate suspension or expulsion of students found in possession of drugs or weapons or using violent language.   Students, however, are suffering for minor infractions, such as the student who was expelled for lending his inhaler to his asthmatic friend, the 13-year-old suspended for bringing Midol to school, and the boy who was was expelled, arrested, chained to the wall of a police station by his ankles for drawing a violent picture.  To read more, click here.

"I Will Never Use the Word 'Gay' in School Again"

Marcus McLaurin, a second-grader at Earnest Gallet Elementary school in Layfayette, Louisiana, was punished and sent to a school behavioral clinic for explaining to a classmate that his mother was a lesbian. When Marcus' teacher overheard him telling another student that "gay" means "when a girl likes a girl," he was removed from recess and forced to write repeatedly, "I will never use the word "gay" in school again." Sharon Huff, Marcus' mother, said, "I was concerned when the assistant principal called and told me my son had said a word so bad that he didn't want to repeat it over the phone. But that was nothing compared to the shock I felt when my little boy came home and told me that his teacher had told him his family is a dirty word. No child should ever hear that, especially not from a teacher he trusted and respected."
To read more, click here and here.
To read Marcus' behavioral contract, click here
(This document is a .pdf file that requires Adobe Acrobat to read.  To download the reader for free, click here.)

Christian Student Wins Free Speech Case

In December, Betsy Hansen, a student at Ann Arbor High School in Michigan, won a case defending her free speech rights. Ann Arbor School District told Hansen she could not present a panel on homosexuality at her school's Diversity Week. Hansen, who is a member of Pioneers for Christ, wanted to express her believe that homosexuality is a sin. School officials forbid her from presenting the panel. U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen declared that the school district had acted improperly. He wrote in his decision that the case was "about tolerance of different, perhaps 'politically incorrect' viewpoints in public schools."
To read more, click here.

Schools Prohibit Use of RateMyTeachers.Com

RateMyTeachers.com is an online forum where students can rate their teachers and submit comments about them for other students to read. Though each school's site is monitored by student web administrators to guard against foul language and comments about physical appearance, some schools, such as Guilderland High School in New York, disapprove of this public forum for evaluating their teachers and have banned the use of it on school grounds. Michael Williams, a student at Guilderland High, and regular poster on the site says that RateMyTeacher.com is a valuable tool. He said, "The site allows teachers, students and school administrators to understand the way teachers work."
To read more, click here.

Deenie Removed from School Library Prior to Review

Judy Blume's coming-of-age novel Deenie has been removed from Florida's Hernando County School District students while it is under consideration by the review committee despite the fact that the district's review policy states that any material under review should remain available. Though the novel was first challenged at the beginning of the school year, the review committee has not yet met. The board does not expect to make a decision until January at the earliest.
To read more, click here.

Novel Pulled from Library Shelves for Brief Mention of Gay Fathers

Martha Freeman's young adult novel, The Trouble with Babies, has been removed from the shelves of several public libraries because of a brief mention of an adopted child's two gay fathers. In one incident, a Pittsburgh-area mother demanded the book be removed from the library because of its "homosexual agenda." Her protests succeeded. The author has been asked to re-issue the novel without this mention of gay men. Freeman says, "I should be able to write what I want, without fear of censorship. That's my version of America, for me and other writers."
To read more, click here.

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