WHAT CAN A TEACHER DO TO PREVENT AND RESIST CENSORSHIP?
Gloria Pipkin Over the last decade or so I've been involved in a host of school censorship cases, as a teacher, consultant, and First Amendment activist. This file is an attempt to share some of the things I've learned and some valuable resources for resisting censorship attempts.
PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION
1. Find out if your district has a policy on the selection and review of instructional materials. Most districts do. Get a copy and familiarize yourself with its provisions. What steps must be followed in getting a new book into the system? What happens when a parent complains about a book already in use?
If your district doesn't have a policy, consider promoting one, through the teachers' union, curriculum council, school advisory council, etc. You can obtain models from the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and the National Council of Teachers of English. (Contact information below). I have some reservations about these policies and their implications, but the experts say that districts that have them are more often successful in protecting books and other material.
2. Even if your school, department, or district doesn't require it, I strongly recommend developing written rationales for any long work that is used for whole-class reading and study. Models are available in NCTE publications, but you can also devise your own, covering essential items such as intended audience; relation of material to the program; potential problems with theme, tone, language, etc. and how they will be addressed; reviews or other professional selection aids used; alternative selections. Your rationale needn't be lofty or fancy; just tell clearly why you chose the book, how you will use it, and how you will deal with controversial elements.
3. In the absence of a district-wide policy, adopt an alternative selection policy for yourself and promote it within your department. Many potential objectors are satisfied with the right to control their own children's reading and will not file formal protests if their complaints are taken seriously and they are given real choices.
4. Develop units around the theme of "Freedom to Read" or other aspects of the First Amendment. Educate yourself and your students about their rights and responsibilities. Encourage students to consider censorship-related topics for research papers and other projects. In doing all of these, you are developing a cadre of informed citizens who will be much more likely to help defend the right to read when the occasion arises.
Teaching resources on the First Amendment are available from the organizations below:
First Amendment Congress
University of Colorado at Denver
Graduate School of Public Affairs
1445 Market St., Ste. 320
Denver, CO 80202
303-871-4359; FAX 303-871-4514
THESE MATERIALS ARE CURRENTLY BEING REVISED AND WILL BE OFFERED AT FREEDOM FORUM LATER THIS YEAR.The Freedom Forum
1101 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22209
703-528-0800
http://www.freedomforum.orgAt the Freedom Forum website, you'll find the Youth Guide to the First Amendment which includes background information about the First Amendment, summaries of key U.S. Supreme Court rulings, discussions of current controversial issues (including newspaper censorship, dress codes, school prayer, book banning, hate speech, "gangsta" rap, warning labels, and flag burning), suggestions for papers and projects, and pertinent quotes related to the First Amendment.
A wide variety of information about school censorship is available from the following organizations and websites:
National Council of Teachers of English
1111 Kenyon Road
Urbana, IL 61801-1096
800-369-6283; 217-328-9645 FAX
http://www.ncte.org
Among the materials and services available from NCTE are the following: The Students' Right to Read -- includes information on developing policies for material selection and review #48174-1351 (free; available online at http://www.ncte.org/positions/right.htmGuidelines for Dealing with Censorship of Nonprint Materials -- Addresses TV, film, software, etc.
#19611-1351 $.75; available online at http://ncte.org/positions/nonprint.html Guidelines for Selection of Materials in English Language Arts #19778-1390 (free)Selection and Retention of Instructional Material -- What the Courts Have Said #98619-95 ($2 per set)
Common Ground -- Joint NCTE/IRA statement on intellectual freedom. #07524-1351 Free; available online at http://ncte.org/positions/common.html
[For one or two free items, include a business SASE; for more than two a 9" x 12" SASE.]
NCTE also offers Preserving Intellectual Freedom: Fighting Censorship in Our Schools, by Jean Brown, for $14.95 to members, $19.95 to nonmembers.
American Library Association
Office for Intellectual Freedom
50 E. Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
800-545-2433, ext. 4223
312-280-4227 FAX
http://www.ala.org/oif.htmlALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom has the following materials available:
Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools
0-8389-0620-6 ($18)Censorship in the Schools -- brochure
$8/100 copiesNewsletter on Intellectual Freedom -- bimonthly
0028-9485 ($40/yr.)Workbook for Selection Policy Writing
8389-6445-1 ($2)First Amendment Cyber-Tribune
is maintained by Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Casper, Wyoming, Star Tribune and longtime First Amendment advocate. In addition to Supreme Court decisions and links to many First Amendment organizations, the many valuable features at this site include the following:First Amendment Alert -- Issues as they appear in state legislatures, courts, and Congress Censorship Alert -- Recent attempts at censorship by state agencies, organized groups, and individuals First Amendment Op-Ed Service -- Commentary written by First Amendment experts and authors who have had books banned or burned.
National Coalition Against Censorship
275 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212-807-6222; 212-807-6245 FAX
ncac@netcom.com
http://www.ncac.org/NCAC, an umbrella organization of more than 40 national groups, provides organizing advice, moral support, and technical assistance to those resisting censorship.
American Civil Liberties Union
ACLU Freedom Network:
In addition to free speech, the ACLU website addresses students' rights, church and state issues, lesbian and gay rights, and much more. An online library provides complete text of many relevant articles. See also a section http://www.aclu.org/court/clients/whoclient.html featuring first-person accounts of people, including students, who have taken stands on First Amendment issues.The national office of the ACLU doesn't deal with individual cases of censorship; those must be reported through state ACLU offices. Contact information for each state organization is available at the website.
People for the American Way
200 M Street, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
202-467-2388; 202-293-2672 FAX
pfaw@pfaw.org; http://www.pfaw.org
From 1982-1996 PFAW published an annual report on school censorship called Attacks on the Freedom to Learn, which documented challenges to school materials and methods on a state by state basis. Copies of most of these reports are still available from PFAW. The annual report has since been replaced with a bimonthly newsletter of the same name. Email subscriptions to the newsletter are available online. An online form also allows you to report censorship incidents. PFAW occasionally provides legal support in important cases.Materials available from PFAW include these items: An Activist's Guide to Protecting the Freedom to Learn (kit) -- Provides information and tools for organizing pro-public education advocates to combat censorship efforts and participate in school board races ($11.95/$13.95)
Redondo Beach: A Stand Against Censorship -- 1990 videotaped documentary of community's successful resistance to school censorship ($15/$20)
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGES
If, despite all your preparation, instructional materials come under attack, there's much that you can do.
Make every effort to talk with parents yourself, with your department head, grade-group chair, principal or some other ally present. Listen respectfully, provide copies of your rationale and discuss it, and make it clear that you're willing to work with the parent in choosing a mutually acceptable alternative and procedures for study. A good review policy should require complainants to start at the school level, with the teacher, before filing a formal complaint. Many grievances can be resolved at this level if cool heads prevail.
Be scrupulous about taking detailed notes during or after every conference or incident remotely connected with censorship. If your case goes to court, contemporaneous notes are one of your strongest weapons. If it doesn't, you can use your files as the basis for articles or even a book. Begin to build and organize your censorship archives by clipping news stories (and making sure to date and label each one); collecting other artifacts such as memos, letters, relevant policies, the formal complaint, your response, the rationale for the book, etc.; and storing each item in a portable file.
If you haven't already familiarized yourself with your district's policies, by all means do so now. Often, the bureaucrats who are charged with administering the policy don't understand or follow its provisions. Many policies, for example, allow challenged materials to remain in use while being reviewed. Make sure that such provisions are followed to the letter.
Once a formal complaint is filed, consider responding to it in writing and making copies available to all members of the review committee. If you have collected student responses to the work, you might make those available as well. If possible, you might also offer copies of the book to the review committee, making it crystal clear that they must be returned. In states with open government laws, the review committee meetings are open to the public and you should be allowed to speak as an advocate. Of course, so will the complainant(s).
Contact NCTE, PFAW, your state affiliate of NCTE, NCAC, and your state ACLU office. Give them the facts and ask for letters of support or any other assistance you need. Remember that you can report incidents at the PFAW website, and NCTE will soon have a similar feature available at its website.
Ask your local affiliate of NCTE to develop a program on censorship. Share the information you've gathered as well as tell your story.
Once a formal complaint is filed, you have everything to gain from publicity, so contact local media and keep them informed. They are natural allies in censorship battles and will rarely disappoint you. Also contact national groups and let them know what kind of help you need. Take advantage of talk radio if you have an NPR station or other sympathetic host; otherwise, beware of ambush. Learn to speak in sound bites.
If you subscribe to email discussion lists, post a notice there about your situation and ask for advice, encouragement, or specific help. Over and over again I've been amazed at the lengths to which strangers on the net will go to provide help. Once when Leslie Marmon Silko's novel *Ceremony* came under fire here in Florida, the teacher wanted to talk to Silko herself, and I posted a request on a listserve maintained by the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, where a tribal lawyer read it and got in touch with Silko, who contacted me. I've also reached Nikki Giovanni and others through similar contacts.
Contact your teachers' union and see if contractual violations are involved in the censorship. Some unions have strong intellectual freedom clauses that can be invoked. In major cases with egregious violations, the unions occasionally provide legal representation. In my district the NEA affiliate recently represented an advisor removed from her post in an attempt to silence a student newspaper.
Arrange a meeting at the local library (which often provides free meeting space) and invite natural allies such as supportive parents, colleagues, librarians, booksellers, civil libertarians, those wonderful Unitarians, personal friends, media, professional organizations, and groups connected with the arts, theater, music, etc. Tell your story and ask them to help carry it throughout the community by inviting you to speak at local civic clubs and by writing letters to the editor and to school officials and school board members. Organize special events such as "Banned Books Readings" at local coffeehouses, bookstores, libraries, community events, etc.
Write professionally about the experience. As the former editor of Florida English Journal, I can tell you that state journals are eager to receive well-written submissions on just about any teaching-related topic.
RECOMMENDED READING
Blume, Judy, ed. 1997. Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Brown, Jean E. and Elaine C. Stephens. Rationales for Teaching Challenged Books; SLATE Starter Sheet, April 1994, #98610; ($1.95; $1.50). Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Christenbury, Leila, ed. English Journal, February 1997, 86:2. Themed issue on censorship includes an important article challenging "the myth of appropriateness," as well as Cissy Lacks' story of being fired for allowing her students to videotape their original scripts, which contained street language; and accounts of teaching about censorship DelFattore, Joan. 1992. What Johnny Shouldn't Read: Textbook Censorship in America. New Haven: Yale University Press. Examines major school censorship cases of the last decade or so.
Foerstel, Herbert N. 1994. Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Johnson, Claudia. 1994. Stifled Laughter: One Woman's Story About Fighting Censorship. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing. Karolides, Nicholas, Lee Burress, and John Kean, eds. 1993. Censored Books: Critical Perspectives. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow. More than fifty critical defenses for books published before 1982
Moffett, James. 1988. Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Moffett's involvement in the violent 1975 Kanahwa County, West Virginia censorship case led him to return eight years later and explore the roots and effects of censorship by interviewing many of the principals. His analysis is the best I've found.
Moshman, David. "Adolescent Reasoning, Adolescent Rights" in Human Development 1993; 36:27-40. Moshman is an educational psychologist whose work on the intellectual abilities of adolescents can help us in making the case for their intellectual freedom. From his conclusion: "Nothing about this process [of socializing each new generation] requires restriction on what adolescents may believe, express, or encounter."
Pipkin, Gloria T. "Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Censorship." The ALAN Review, Winter 1993, 35-37. A critical look at instructional material selection and review policies.
-- "Confessions of an Accused Pornographer," Arizona English Bulletin, Spring 1994, 37:1, 13-18. Summarizes my own epic (five-year) battle with censors in NW Florida.
Reid, Louann, ed. Rationales for Challenged Books. Summer 1997 issue of Statement, the journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society. 33:3. Contains thorough rationales for The Giver, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Chocolate War, Tenderness, Like Water for Chocolate, The Color Purple, Annie on My Mind, and nine other books, as well as other material about censorship.
Please feel free to contact me at any time for materials or moral support. My office is in my home now, so you can call day or night.
November 1998
Gloria Pipkin
310 Michigan Avenue
Lynn Haven, FL 32444-1428
850-265-6438; 850-271-3136 FAX
gpipkin@i-1.net