Censorship Roundup
Staff -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2003
Harmony, PA: Citing "gratuitous sex," a review committee has removed E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime (Random House, 1975) from a list of English materials required for senior high school students at the Seneca Valley School District. A March review of the reading list was prompted by a parent's objection to a teacher's assignment of the Stephen King short story "Apt Pupil," which had not been approved by the board.
Northern Territory, Australia: A local Aboriginal community wants to ban a children's book about a teddy bear that visits Uluru, the great monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock. The Anangu people claim that Bromley Climbs Uluru (Lansdowne Publishing, 1993) is offensive and denigrates traditional culture. National park officials, acting on behalf of the Anangu, who reclaimed ownership of the site in 1985, have threatened authors Alan and Patricia Campbell with a $31,000 fine unless they destroy the book or write a more culturally sensitive version.
Rosedale, IN: Rosedale Elementary School Principal Adrienne Gideon has pulled books about teen pregnancy and race from school shelves after parent Tracie Yelich objected to what she called the graphic sexual content in Detour for Emmy (Morning Glory, 1993) by Marilyn Reynolds and Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (Dutton, 1995) by Gregory Howard Williams. The books were purchased as part of the school's Accelerated Reader program for grades 4–6.
