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Parents Challenge Caged Bird
in Anne Arundel County

Armed with a petition of 260 parents' signatures, a husband and wife were scheduled to take their case before the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, school board August 22 to have Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings taken out of school libraries and English classes.

According to the August 16 Baltmore Sun, Barry and Sharon Taylor, who say they are not affiliated with any organized group, have been working to have the book removed since last fall. A group of administrators, teachers, and students heard their complaint in May and voted unanimously that the book should continue to be taught in 9th grade and offered as supplemental reading in 11th-grade classes.

The Taylors' 9th-grade son, who was reading it for class, was eventually reassigned to Great Expectations but he was required to sit through class discussions of Angelou's book.

Posted August 24, 1998.

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