Censorship in the Schools
"Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas."— Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports , vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.
“The Fourteenth Amendment, as now applied to the States, protects the citizen against the State itself and all of its creatures—Boards of Education not excepted. These have, of course, important, delicate, and highly discretionary functions, but none that they may not perform within the limits of the Bill of Rights. That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.” — Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)
“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate....In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate.”—Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, in Tinker v. Des Moines Community School District
Links to Information on the First Amendment and Intellectual Freedom
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.
ALA Policies and Statements on the Freedom to Read
Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights
What You Can Do To Oppose Censorship
Schools and the Children's Internet Protection Act
Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials
News Stories on Students and Their First Amendment Rights
News Sources on Censorship, Intellectual Freedom, and the First Amendment
Letters from ALA and Allies
Dallas County, Missouri: ALA/MLA, NCAC, MASL, ACLU
Banned Books
Council of Trent: Rules on Prohibited Books
