🚀 go-pugleaf

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 13:09:45 EST
From: Gloria T. Pipkin 904-265-6438 <PIPKING@MAIL.FIRN.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list ALAOIF <ALAOIF@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU>
Subject: *...Caged Bird...* Under Fire in Florida

      In Volusia County, Florida, Maya Angelou's *I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings* has been denounced as a "nigger trash book" by the parent of a
junior assigned to read the book at Deland High School.  Glenn Holland, the
parent, has announced his intention to file a formal complaint with the
school board.  Holland denied that his complaint was racially motivated,
saying that the word "nigger" appeared in the book itself and that he
wasn't using it as an epithet. (*The News-Journal*, Daytona Beach, 11/9/95)
      In response to the objection, the principal has required the teacher
to write a letter to parents explaining her choice and use of the book and
requesting them to return permission slips before study of the novel
begins.  The school district's selection and review policy provides for
parents and students to be given alternative selections upon request.  The
policy also requires challenged materials to be reviewed first at the
school level and then by a district-level committee if the school
committee's recommendation is appealed.  The school superintendent makes
the final decision.
      The Volusia school district has experienced a number of challenges to
instructional materials during the last year.  S.E. Hinton's YA novel *Tex*
was challenged and retained in a Daytona Beach middle school last term, and
several parents also complained about the use of PBS *DeGrassi Junior High*
videos in middle school advisement classes during the same school year.
Over the summer, school board member Deborah Denys launched an attack on
three books (two with gay/lesbian themes and another about a teenage
stripper) available to teachers for review in a professional development
library.

Gloria Pipkin, Coordinator
Florida Coalition Against Censorship
904-265-6438
904-271-3136 fax
pipking@mail.firn.edu