ALA Sues School for Banning of
Banned Books Week Brochure
The American Library Association and the four other sponsors of Banned Books Week are suing Principal C. James Slye of Spotswood High School in Penn Laird, Virginia, for ordering English teacher Jeff Newton to remove the 1998 Read a Banned Book pamphlet from his classroom door September 29. Filed January 12 in U.S. district court in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the suit also names as defendants the Rockingham County Public Schools board and Superintendent of Schools John H. Kidd.
The suit seeks “to reestablish the right of the teacher” to post educationally appropriate materials, attorney Michael Bamberger of the New York office of Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal told American Libraries. Slye banned the pamphlet for “endorsing” The Joy of Gay Sex, Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies, and Understanding Sexual Identity: A Book for Gay Teens.
Bamberger and the ACLU of Virginia Foundation are representing ALA as well as the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the National Association of College Stores, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Posted January 17, 2000.
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