Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``We are witnessing a sophisticated, no-holds-barred assault on the public school, a cornerstone of every American community,'' said Arthur J. Kropp, president of People for the American Way.
Kropp released a report documenting 462 such challenges in 46 states during the 1993-94 school year. A year ago, the group found 347 attempts at censorship in 44 states.
The 1993-94 incidents ranged from trying to remove books from school libraries to pulling stories from student newspapers to firing or harassing educators.
``From school boards to the halls of Congress, the public schools are becoming the focus of political opportunism - particularly by right-wing political leaders,'' Kropp said in a statement.
But Tom Minnery, a vice president of the conservative Focus on the Family, said conservative Christian parents who object to certain school materials are not censors.
``These are simply concerned parents who want what's best for their children,'' Minnery said in a statement.
And the Family Research Council, another conservative organization, accused People for the American Way of trying to scare the public ``with stories of renegade parents `censoring' innocent children,'' said Kristi Hamrick, the group's spokeswoman.
Hamrick said the most-challenged book, according to the report, was ``Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,'' and it was attacked ``only seven times out of 84,000 public schools and never removed.''
People for the American Way found that 375 of the challenges involved direct attempts to remove or restrict educational materials. Of those, 46 percent were aimed at books and other materials in school libraries. ``This year, the library censorship took a particularly insidious turn,'' said Deanna Durby, the group's director of education policy. ``We are seeing a cluster of incidents in which complaints led to the reclassification of books. This is a de facto form of censorship.''
Challenged books included such classics as ``Of Mice and Men,'' ``The Catcher in the Rye,'' ``Brave New World,'' ``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' and ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.''
by CNB