Hits! Hits! Hits!

Survey Project of Missouri Challenged Books

Lots more mail in this afternoon, including a good six or eight hits, including a handful in more than one district. I continue to be torn: am I happy because there is some "there" there, or saddened by what I am reading?

Davis

UNC students protest Alabama book ban

For those interested, here's a followup to my earlier post about the proposed Alabama book ban. Apparently the students at my alma mater are so up in arms about this, they're protesting—even though this is happening in another state. I will admit to feeling a slight twinge of pride at the fact that Tar Heels take freedom of speech so seriously.


http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/display.v?TARGET=printable&article_id=421c30b43885d

UNC students protest Ala. gay book bill


Allen says bill deters "unhealthy lifestyle"

by Nick Beadle
Metro/State Editor

February 23, 2005

A bill by state Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, that would prohibit state funds from purchasing literature that acknowledges homosexuality or written by gay authors has already drawn the ire of some of Alabama's college students.

But students and faculty members at the University of North Carolina expressed their opposition to the legislation Monday and Tuesday by reading the texts that would be barred under the bill outside the Chapel Hill campus' student union.

UNC students wrapped up 24 hours of reading works that would be prohibited by the bill from authors Plutarch and Oscar Wilde on Tuesday at noon, said McKay Coble, a UNC dramatic arts professor who helped organize the event. Allen's bill was read at the beginning of each hour.

Coble said she was moved to act after being forwarded an e-mail from a Wellesley College student trying to set up protests around the country.

She said she was impassioned because she said she could not stand the possibility of Alabama students not being able check out works such as William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" or Alice Walker's "The Color Purple."

"I don't have any illusion that a protest in North Carolina will have much effect in Alabama, but you do what you do and you do what you feel," Coble said.

Olivia Henderson, a UNC senior majoring in dramatic arts, said she was influenced by her recent part in a production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" at the school.

"Tony [Kushner] is my favorite writer," she said. "The thought of other people not being able to experience him is just terribly sad to me."

Henderson said she was worried that Allen's bill could lead other states to adopt similar measures.

"We spent 24 hours saying, 'Watch out,' " she said. "This may be Alabama, but Alabama's not that far from North Carolina."

Allen said on Tuesday he knew of the UNC protests and similar ones across the country. He said he thinks protestors misunderstand the bill, which he said would only prohibit state funds from going toward books and programs that promote "unhealthy lifestyles" such as homosexuality.

"We're just looking at future spending," Allen said. "We're not going to take any books off of anybody's shelves -- today."

He said governmental moral reforms, such as constitutional amendments barring gay marriage, would be pointless if state funds were going toward school materials that push the agenda of the "liberal left."

He said if such action weren't taken to limit children's exposure to materials acknowledging homosexuality, they would accept the lifestyle and states' new gay marriage bans would eventually be repealed.

"If you keep on indoctrinating the children's minds and their hearts, that's what they're going to become and believe," Allen said.

Allen said such indoctrination could also lead to a lifestyle that is unhealthy because of diseases like AIDS. He compared his bill to efforts by schools to warn students of the dangers of smoking and drug abuse.

That assertion is "pretty stupid," said Howard Bayless, a board member for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group Equality Alabama. He said Allen's bill promotes intolerance toward the state's homosexuals.

Bayless said homosexuality and other lifestyles can't be eradicated by cracking down on books.

"People are born this way," he said. "[Allen] might need to read a few more books so he can find out the truth."

Allen noted that the bill remains in the House Crimes and Offenses committee and could be altered. He said the bill could be limited to elementary or K-12 students, but said he would not offer up such an amendment.

pay for play

I had an e-mail response from a custodian of records who wanted to charge for researching fees. After consultation with Davis and some back and forth, she sent me this e-mail:

Our mission statement is to provide comprehensive educational
experiences that will empower all students to become lifelong learners
and productive, informed, responsible citizens who are able to meet the
challenges of a rapidly changing society. Our staff, teachers and
administrators focus on the needs of the students ahead of any other
requests. We will comply with any request for public records, but
believe it should be at the cost of those requesting the records and not
at the cost of our local taxpayers or at the cost of the State of
Missouri. We have complied with several requests for records, but every
time we use our faculty and staff for that purpose, we believe our
students lose valuable instruction time. Therefore, our district does
not waive the fees. Please advise. Thanks.

No challenges recorded in five different districts. Columbia Public Schools will respond Monday.

Records Requests so Far

We got a hit. I heard back from Hallsville School District today. They had a request to remove a selection of short stories called "Young Monsters" about a year ago. The district decided to deny the request because the book because it wasn't offensive to community standards. I'm not sure on what grounds it was challenged, and am in the process of obtaining the actual documents.

I also had a few districts with no challenges:
Franklin County
Glenwood
Greenville
Hale

Copy of Request Letter

Re: Public Records Request


Dear ______________:


This is a request under the Missouri Sunshine Law, Chapter 610, Revised Statutes of Missouri, for public records maintained by your district.

I request that a copy of the following documents or that documents containing the following information be provided to me:

From the 2000–2001 academic year to the present academic year (2004-05), any and all materials pertaining to challenges of library or textbook materials, including copies of all Requests for Reconsideration of Materials. In addition, I seek copies of records related to any committees formed to review challenges and records of the outcome of such challenges.

In order to help to determine my status to assess fees, you should know that I am a representative of the news media affiliated with the Columbia Missourian, and this request is made as part of newsgathering and not for a commercial use. Thus, I request that all fees for locating and copying the records be waived. The information I obtain through this request will be used to inform the public about textbook and library book challenges in the state of Missouri.

Should any of the information contained in the records be exempt under Missouri Law, please redact that information, include a statutory reason for denial, and provide me with the rest of the records.

Should you wish to discuss this request further, please don’t hesitate to contact me at

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

An Interesting Tidbit from Iron Co. R-4

I spoke to a man at the Iron Co. C-4 district. He said they haven't had any challenges. But he also mentioned that there two sets of policies that districts usually derive their challenged-book policy from ....

Missouri School Board Association (which he said is fairly difficult to understand) and the Missouri Consultants for Education which is a private company and produces an easier-to-understand document. The Iron Co. R-4 district has adopted the latter. We might want to do some research on these two to see if we can tell any differences in the way challenges are handled.

Four Answers Today

The following school districts have had no challenges:
Higbee R-VIII
Howell Valley
Hillsboro, R-III
Hollister, R-V

However, Hillsboro did mention:
"We can recall a few parents calling to ask about the district's position on allowing the Harry Potter books to be read; there was a question about a book that a High School English teacher was using, but that, too, was resolved without any formal complaint or appeal. Consequently, we have nothing to gather to send to you."

In addition, HIllsboro said: "Neither the librarians nor the principals are aware of any official challenges to any library or textbook materials since the 2000-2001 school year. The only unofficial inquiries about any books were resolved between the prinicpal and the parent before any challenges were made. We have not censored any textbooks, library books, or curricula from 2000 through this date."

No challenges in St. Elizabeth School District

The first response to my batch of requests rolled in today:

In response to your request for all materials pertaining to challenges of library or textbook materials since the 2000-2001 school year, the St. Elizabeth R-IV School District has had no such challenges of any type of school related material during that time period.

Thank you for your interest in this matter,

Sid Doerhoff, Superintendent
St. Elizabeth R-IV School District

Alabama book ban

Here's an example of an Alabama state legislator trying to institute a statewide ban on certain kinds of books. Apparently he's afraid the kids might catch the gayness. Once again, I am ashamed to be a Southerner.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2920970

February 8, 11:00 p.m.
Alabama Lawmaker Proposes Gay Book Ban

If you're a fan of Alice Walker, now might be a good time to check out one her books from the library. One Alabama lawmaker has proposed a bill that may yank "The Color Purple," and many other classic works, from public bookshelves.

District 62 Representative, Gerald Allen, says he wants to ban books that, "...sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of the state."  Allen says it falls right in line with the proposed ban on gay marriage. "A society cannot sustain itself through activities such as this," says Allen, "and for us to promote it with public dollars just doesn't make sense."  For many, the proposed law itself doesn't make sense.


Mark Potok, spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, says, "Let's strip out half the classics of Western Civilization out of our libraries because otherwise our children are going to be kidnapped and converted to gay sex.  It's the most ridiculous set of ideas ever strung together in a row."

Jaunita Owes is the director of Montgomery's City County Public Library. She feels that pulling books off the shelf due to unfavorable content adds up to one thing... censorship. "I don't think it's the role of the state of Alabama to, in essence, dictate to me as a parent what I can and cannot read, and that's what we're moving towards when we do this.

Now even if this law passes on the state level, Gerald Allen and his supporters still have challenges ahead.  As of today, there's still no plan on how to enforce the law.  Allen hasn't concluded who would compile an ongoing list of banned books, nor has he determined whether exceptions should be made for some writers over others.  However, Allen does feel supporters of the Marriage Protection Act will agree with him.  Many others say they will challenge Allen every step of

Deepthroat?

From Josh, via e-mail, came this intriguing e-mail...

I can't remember how to get onto the blog, but I thought this was interesting enough to pass along. My friend tells me there's going to be a story in Sunday's LA Times, but we'll see what actually happens. Interesting, though.



http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000789447

Author Now Suspects 'Deep Throat' Was -- Drumroll, Please -- George H.W. Bush

By E&P Staff

Published: February 04, 2005 3:05 PM ET

NEW YORK The author of the 1993 biography of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, “Deep Truth,” today named George H.W. Bush the new chief suspect as famed Watergate source Deep Throat.

The “outing” was timed to the opening of the two reporters’ Watergate archives at the University of Texas.

The author of several books for major publishers, Adrian Havill says his claim is based on recent events and his own research at the the National Archives. He announced the “finding” in a letter posted at the Romenesko site at the Poynter Institute.

Havill, author of a book about FBI double agent Robert Hanssen, “The Spy who Stayed Out of the Cold,” formerly believed that the Deep Throat character was a composite of several sources.

Among the suggestive evidence he cited for his new theory:

“Did Bush have motivation? You bet,” Havill wrote. “It was Richard Nixon who urged Bush to leave a safe seat in Congress, hinting there would be a position as assistant Secretary of the Treasury waiting for him if he failed to win a Senate seat held by Ralph Yarborough. When Bush lost, Nixon reneged and asked him to take the U.N. slot instead but teased him by hinting he would be the replacement for Spiro Agnew in 1972. Instead, he was given the thankless task of heading the Republican National Committee in 1973. The elder Bush got his revenge in the end, by standing up at a cabinet meeting in August of 1974 and becoming the first person in Nixon's inner circle to ask the President to resign.

Havill also pointed out that, like Woodward, Bush was a Yalie and a Navy man. And he recalled that Woodward in his 1998 book, “Shadow,” boasted that Bush had aides drop off “classified documents to his home which became the basis of a Washington Post front page story.”

Furthermore, George W. Bush, to the surprise of many, gave Woodward seven hours of interviews and urged his cabinet to cooperate with Woodward on book projects.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E&P Staff

Where the form lives (and doesn't)

It looks like it's not a simple matter of a single request in order to find the final resting place of each form. It really depends on the process. Because the Request for Reconsideration begins at the school level, the initial form lives with the principal and/or the school librarian, and will require at least a request to the school.

If the problem can't be resolved at the school-level, however, then an assistant superintendent forms a second committee of parents, teachers, and other concerned folks. So we might want to make an additional request to the Superintendent's office for each District. If that committee also can't resolve the problem, then the issue is brought before the School Board. This is the final step before outright legal warfare.

So we might need to do requests at three levels: the school, superintendent, and school board.

There is another complication. In addition to the formal requests for consideration, the schools have paper-less policies for handling frequently challenged classroom books at the student-level. This could include books that are challenged on religious grounds -- such as the Odyssey, because it's pagan -- and other classics of American Literature. The Springfield School District, for example, will replace Of Mice and Men with The Moon is Down if a parent challenges the first book on grounds of sexuality. They'll also replace Huck Finn if a parent requests it. These substitutions only affect the student. The rest of the class reads the original book.