Making good on its December warning of a civil action, the ACLU of Wisconsin filed suit February 16 against Barron (Wis.) Area School District officials on behalf of six students and their parents for the restoration of four titles to the high school library's shelves. Federal District Judge Barbara Crabb will hear the case, which concerns the removal of Baby Be-Bop, The Drowning of Stephan Jones, When Someone You Know Is Gay, and Two Teenagers in Twenty, on March 3.
School board attorney William Thiel told the Associated Press February 17 that the board and District Administrator Vita Sherry, who are named as defendants, removed the titles because they contained “pervasive vulgarity and obsessive obscenities.” But Chris Ahmuty, who directs the ACLU of Wisconsin, sees that explanation as a “pretext,” citing Sherry's written statement that decries the “dangerous viewpoint” in When Someone You Know Is Gay that people “are free to interpret . . . biblical references in any way they wish.”
Posted February 22, 1999.