On July 25, 2011, the Republic School District Board in southwest Missouri voted unanimously to ban Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer from its curriculum and library. Banning books from libraries is nothing new, but across the nation a brave new era has dawned in the suppression of knowledge. Today, as libraries and schools provide access to the Internet, countless ideas are kept out by software filters. In fact, this blog post may be inaccessible in some schools and libraries. Because societal and individual advancement is fueled by the free exchange of ideas, the ACLU, as part of its Don’t Filter Me initiative, is challenging those that seek to stifle public discourse.
Recently the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, and the Freedom to Read Foundation notified the Missouri Research & Education Network (“MOREnet”), a consortium that provides Internet access and filtering software to 100 school districts and numerous public libraries across the state, that it was illegally censoring LGBT-related websites. MOREnet promptly responded, stating that it will no longer activate this filter that blocks non-sexual content addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) subjects and issues. MOREnet’s commendable response is consistent with librarians’ responsibility to make available a wide spectrum of diverse materials and opposing viewpoints without imposing their own political, moral, or aesthetic views, without proscribing based on viewpoint, and without prejudicing or labeling material as subversive or dangerous.
Unfortunately, however, not all school districts and libraries are as responsible as MOREnet. For example, in May the ACLU of Eastern Missouri sent a letter to the Camdenton School District informing it that its web filters are unconstitutionally blocking access to hundreds of LGBT websites while allowing access to anti-LGBT ones. The school district brushed it off, so the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a federal lawsuit against the school district and its superintendent. Camdenton is not the only public institution that insists on blocking protected content, and the ACLU is actively investigating those that persist in illegal censorship.
“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 414 (1989). Although this principle was articulated by the United States Supreme Court 22 years ago, it remains true even as libraries and schools open themselves to the world via the Internet.
Copyright 2011 American Civil Liberties Union
Reprinted with permission of the
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org
Related articles
- ACLU Sues Missouri School District for Overblocking Internet Websites (speedofcreativity.org)
- Missouri Creates Electronic Barriers Between Teachers and Students (blogs.wsj.com)
- Banning Books: Make Your Own Choices but Leave Me Mine. (roofbeamreader.net)
- In South Korea, the Only Thing Worse Than Online Censorship is Secret Online Censorship (censorshipinamerica.com)
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Censorship in America 
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This article proves a valid point that there is a problem with censoring the types of books that appear in school. I do believe that certain books are not age appropriate for elementary and middle school students, but I feel like high school students should be able to get the exposure to certain types of books. I feel that banning books from schools infringes on the rights of Americans freedom of speech. In a way, freedom of speech is not connected to freedom of reading. I agree with Sean when he says that censorship needs to be banned. I feel that the government should not deem which types of books are appropriate for schools. I believe that the types of books that should be read in schools should be left up to the discretion of the teachers.
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