Posted April 7, 2006.

Miami School Reconsiders A Visit to Cuba

In response to a parent’s objection to a book cover depicting Cuban children wearing the uniform of the island nation’s Communist youth group, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary School in Miami has formed a materials review committee to reconsider Alta Schreier’s Vamos a Cuba (A Visit to Cuba) on April 19. Media accounts, however, have painted an incomplete picture of how the district is handling the challenge, Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesperson Joseph Garcia told American Libraries.

Garcia refuted an Associated Press report stating that the school district plans to pull the book after going through the formalities, explaining that the confusion stems from a hastily written April 5 memo to board members from Superintendent Rudy Crew that states, “Staff is following approved School Board rules to remove the book from all libraries.” “Under our board rules,” Garcia told AL, “the superintendent doesn’t have the power to remove a book.”

The complainant is “himself an immigrant from Cuba,” Garcia told the AP, “and doesn’t feel the book is a fair and accurate representation of life in Cuba under the current regime.” A Visit to Cuba remains unchallenged in 32 other school libraries in the district.

Posted April 7, 2006.