Banned Books Week Brochure
Stays Banned
A federal judge has refused to stop a Virginia high school from compelling an English teacher to take down copies of ALA’s Read a Banned Book pamphlet from his classroom door. The American Library Association and the four other sponsors of Banned Books Week filed a lawsuit January 12 against Principal C. James Slye of Spotswood High School in Penn Laird for ordering English teacher Jeff Newton to remove the flyer last September.
On May 2, U.S. District Court Judge James H. Michael Jr. denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that Newton could still make assignments about censorship and keep the pamphlets within his classroom, the online Freedom Forum reported May 4. He noted that school officials “believed that the pamphlets carried messages potentially compromising the themes of its current curricular initiatives,” such as “Family Life Education.”
Chris Finan, executive director of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, said attorneys for the plaintiffs would soon meet to decide whether to appeal the ruling or proceed further at the trial court level.
Posted May 8, 2000.
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