THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050590
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 147 lines
It's a story as old as dirt - and what different people consider to be dirt.
Parents, religious leaders and school officials across the United States object to books, classes or procedures they claim are too sexual, too violent, too racial, anti-religion, anti-family, anti-American, or all these things - a record 475 times in the last school year, according to a study released Wednesday.
Proponents of keeping the materials in schools counter that they're appropriate and provide students realistic and varying viewpoints. They decry what they call sectarian or ideological attempts to control what students learn.
People disagree. Battle lines are drawn.
The study by People for the American Way, a Washington-based national organization promoting constitutional liberties and tolerance, was the 14th annual compilation of reported attempts nationwide to censor student materials and programs. Things objected to ranged from classic novels to field trips to Halloween parties.
Forty-one percent of the time, school officials bowed to offended parents and removed or restricted books or materials.
Books were removed or restricted to certain grade levels in different ways: by principals, school administrators and school boards, sometimes with teachers' consent, and sometimes on the recommendation of review committees made up of combinations of parents, teachers, administrators and students.
The 309-page report, ``Attacks on the Freedom to Learn,'' blames conservative Christians - participating in local, state and national political organizations - for direct or indirect involvement in one-third of the incidents. The report cited the Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition.
Virginia was ranked ninth in the country with 16 reported censorship or related incidents, none in South Hampton Roads. North Carolina tied for 10th, with 15. California led the nation with 56, while seven states reported no such incidents.
Carole Shields, president of People for the American Way, noted in written remarks accompanying the report that many of the school material objected to mirrored national debates on sensitive issues, such as racism, poverty, sexuality, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and AIDS.
``We must analyze this report and decide as a nation: Will we bequeath to our children the tools and information they need to address these complex issues as they grow into adulthood?'' Shields asked. ``Or will our gift to them be ever-narrowing horizons of thought and speech?''
A Christian Coalition spokesman vigorously denied that his organization promotes or supports censorship of school materials, and criticized the report as inaccurate, incomplete and one-sided every year.
``We don't pay much attention to it,'' said Mike L. Russell, the spokesman.
Russell added that People for the American Way takes comments or writings of individual parents or ministers and erroneously links them with national religious-political organizations like the Christian Coalition.
``They marginalize and attack people of faith who are doing nothing more than participating in the process we call `democracy,' '' Russell said.
The objections to school materials generally center on common themes: the questioning or criticizing of perceived American values or policies, racial issues, religious issues, and anything having to do with sex, particularly homosexuality.
The book most objected to - ``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,'' by Maya Angelou - was criticized by parents of 11th-grade English students in Florida as endorsing unmarried sex and cohabitation, containing references to homosexuality and being anti-religious.
One objector denied that race was an issue - the author is African-American - but called the work a ``nigger trash book,'' according to the report. Other books containing racial topics were criticized as ``too multicultural'' and ``un-American.''
A 25-person review committee of parents, residents, teachers and school administrators voted to retain the book in classrooms and the school library.
In California, African-American parents succeeded in having ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' removed from San Jose's high-schools' required reading list because of repeated use of the term ``nigger.''
In Virginia, a Prince William County minister objected to the John Steinbeck classic ``Of Mice and Men,'' used in ninth- and 10th-grade English classes, because it contained profanity and violence. The book was retained.
Elsewhere in Virginia, other books were questioned, a vice principal ordered that a library subscription to the skateboarding magazine ``Thrasher'' not be renewed; a school board voted to prohibit classroom displays of contraceptives in a sex-education class; and the state Board of Education voted to have local districts decide whether to require parents' permission for their children to talk to guidance counselors.
While attempted book censorship remained the most common ``attack'' on public education found by People for the American Way, it decreased last year, according to the report. It's quickly being replaced by more broad-based challenges to local schools that potentially could affect more students.
Among these challenges:
``Parental rights'' initiatives that would give parents control over what all children can read or what nurses or child-abuse investigators can discuss with them.
Efforts to have creationism taught in science classes.
Continued use of prayer in school assemblies and proposals to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
State legislature moves, such as to prohibit the discussion in classes of homosexuality and to allow parents to use vouchers to attend schools of their choice.
``This report shows that there are a lot of folks out there trying to severely restrict what our children can read and learn,'' Shields said. ``It shows that many of these people have political or ideological agendas to promote.''
``I have four grandchildren. I want them to learn not what to think, but how to think.''
That can be worked out to most everyone's satisfaction, said Russell of the Christian Coalition.
His group suggests the creation of ``PG'' or parental-guidance shelves in school libraries, where materials that have been questioned could still be used by students who have their parents' permission.
``That is a very common-sense approach to what could be considered objectionable material in high school libraries,'' Russell said.
``And we think that's workable. We think that keeps material in the public view, and keeps parents back in the loop.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
MOST-FREQUENTLY CHALLENGED BOOKS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
For 1995-1996:
``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,'' by Maya Angelou
``The Giver,'' Lois Lowry
``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'' Mark Twain
``Of Mice and Men,'' John Steinbeck
``The Color Purple,'' Alice Walker
``The Chocolate War,'' Robert Cormier
``Go Ask Alice,'' Anonymous
``The Catcher in the Rye,'' J. D. Salinger
``A Day No Pigs Would Die,'' Robert Newton Peck
``Native Son,'' Richard Wright
``My Brother Sam Is Dead,'' Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
``Bridge to Terabithia,'' Katherine Paterson
Source: People for the American Way
HOW THEY RANK
States with most attempts to censor public education materials or
programs, 1995-96:
1. California 56
2. Pennsylvania 30
3. Florida 26
4. Texas 22
5. Ohio 20
6. Georgia, Michigan 18
8. New York 17
9. VIRGINIA 16
10. Colorado, North Carolina 15
Source: People for the American Way
KEYWORDS: CENSORSHIP SCHOOLS BOOKS by CNB