THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230028
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
People for the American Way, the liberal lobbying organization founded by television producer Norman Lear, has just released its annual report on challenges to library books, classroom materials and school policies around the nation. PAW calls this ``censorship.'' Others call it democracy and parental involvement.
PAW lists 462 acts of what it called censorship during the 1993-94 school year, up 8 percent over last year. In less than half the cases, however, did the challengers succeed in getting the offending materials removed or restricted. Virginia was 21st in the number of challenges.
Some examples of ``censorship'' included: A parent in Manassas who thought Alfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives ``too frightening'' for an elementary-school library. A review committee decided to retain the book, but chose to require parental permission to check the book out. In Lynchburg, a parent objected to the book Molly By Any Other Name for allegedly strong language. The superintendent of schools decided to retain the book.
None of this is ``censorship'' in the way that term is usually understood, of course, with government sweeping bookshops and homes as well as libraries in order to weed out material deemed offensive by the authorities. Since there is only one Library of Congress, which supposedly has a copy of just about everything, decisions have to be made as to how libraries will allocate resources. Library and school boards exercise judgement - or ``censorship'' - every day.
Nor are Christian conservatives alone in seeking restrictions on certain books or materials. In Fairfax County, some liberals have sought to ban Jump Ship to Freedom, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, for presenting a ``derogatory, degrading, and humiliating image for African-American schoolchildren.'' Some others have sought to ban Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn for the same politically correct reasons.
By branding all challenges to books and curricula as ``censorship,'' PAW is seeking to equate its own standards with the First Amendment and stigmatize all other points of view, particularly those of dissenting parents. But the public, which pays the bills, has a right to make its voice heard and hold school and library boards accountable for their decisions. Protecting the latter from public scrutiny is hardly the American way. by CNB