Patricia Polacco Alleges Censorship by McGraw-Hill

Debra Lau Whelan, Laura Weiss -- School Library Journal, 5/10/2006

Children’s book author Patricia Polacco alleges that educational publisher SRA/McGraw-Hill tried to censor her remarks at the International Reading Association’s (IRA) annual conference in Chicago, earlier this month, after hiring her for several speaking engagements—a charge that SRA/McGraw-Hill denies.

Polacco claims that when she refused to alter her comments, SRA/McGraw-Hill fired her. Polacco  has been an outspoken critic of President Bush’s controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and SRA/McGraw-Hill sells a range of products that help educators meet the law’s requirements. Signed into law in 2002, NCLB established strict standards for schools nationwide and penalizes those who fail to meet them.

SRA/McGraw-Hill, however, says that Polacco’s dismissal wasn’t about censorship. A K–12 division of McGraw-Hill that sells educational products aligned with NCLB’s accountability requirements, SRA says Polacco signed a two-page contract in February specifically outlining two topics that she was to speak about: the heroes who have made a difference in her life and the real-life experiences that have influenced her books, says Tom Stanton, director of communications for McGraw-Hill Education.

“Two weeks before the conference, she reneged on our agreement and wanted to use the sessions as a political platform for herself,” says Stanton, adding that Polacco was to be paid $2,500 a day to speak at two 30-minute presentations on May 2 and 3.

Polacco says it all started when she was contacted by the Ohio-based firm Buchanan Associates to speak at IRA. Polacco agreed, under the assumption that IRA officials and her publisher Philomel had extended the invitation. IRA, however, says it never pays its speakers and had nothing to do with the agreement between Polacco and McGraw-Hill. The event wasn’t even listed in IRA’s catalog of conference programs.

“When someone agrees to speak on behalf of a commercial product, the company is likely to want some control over the content of the presentation, and that is what appears to have happened here,” says Alan Farstrup, IRA’s executive director.

It wasn’t until Marcie Mutters, an account coordinator at Buchanan, asked Polacco to hand in advance copies of her speeches and to avoid speaking about “anything political” that the author became suspicious about who was actually sponsoring the events, Polacco says. It was then that Polacco says she discovered that the sponsor was SRA/McGraw-Hill.

Polacco told Mutters that their request violated her First Amendment rights. “I told them they didn’t have the right to modify the contents of what I was going to speak about,” Polacco says. “Giving me an honorarium doesn’t mean they’re hiring me as a proponent of the company line. They’re hiring me to hear my remarks.”

Mutters declined to comment for this article.

Polacco says she was also “quite mystified as to why SRA/McGraw-Hill would even select me and invite me to be a part of their program knowing how strongly I feel about this entire [NCLB] situation.”

Stanton says Polacco “was chosen for her outstanding reputation as an author of children’s literature” and not for her political views.

Frustrated and angry about the whole incident, in late April Polacco told Mutters that they could “uninvite” her. And within one hour, SRA/McGraw-Hill cancelled her programs.

“My main concern here, is that I very much fear the conferees will be led to believe that it is I who cancelled this event,” Polacco wrote in an open letter posted on her Web site. “The cancellation was the choice of SRA/McGraw-Hill and was generated by a blatant attempt to CENSOR my remarks and the content of what I say to teachers.”

Stanton disagrees. “It’s straightforward. It involved a signed contract with [Polacco], but she chose to speak on topics that we felt were inappropriate for a forum like IRA.”

Polacco says SRA/McGraw-Hill is threatening to sue her for loss of revenue and cancelled orders over the incident. Stanton says there are no plans to sue Polacco at this time and that he’s unaware that the controversy has affected sales.