Banned Websites Awareness Day is a Success! September 30, 2011

Banned Websites Awareness Day from New York Times

AASL’s Banned WebsitesAwareness Day (September 28, 2011) was a big success!
The New York Times ran a story featuring the event. Reporter Winnie Hu interviewed school librarians about their plans for the day. The list included:

Phil Goerner, from Silver Creek High School in Longmont, CO
Deven Black, from Middle School 127 in the Bronx, NY
Judy Gressel, from New Trier High School, just outside of Chicago, IL
She also interviewed Michael DeMattia, a senior at New Canaan High School in CT

Since August, this blog has featured contributions from a distinguished group of educators, librarians, and authors about the impact of filtering on teaching and learning. AASL thanks them for their support on this initiative.

Stephen Abram

Stephen Abram
Vice President Cengage Learning (Gale)
Librarian
Author of Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog

Helen Adams

Helen Adams
Former School Librarian and Technology Coordinator (WI)
Online Instructor for Mansfield University, PA
Chair of the AASL Intellectual Freedom Committee
AASL liaison to Freedom to Read Foundation Board

Deven Black

Deven Black
School Librarian
New York City Public Schools
Author of Education on the Plate blog

Connie Coyle

Connie Southworth Coyle
Adjunct instructor at the University of North Texas
Librarian

Doug Johnson

Doug Johnson
Director of Media and Technology
Mankato (MN) Public Schools
Author of Blue Skunk Blog and six books

Lisa Nielsen

Lisa Nielsen
Technology Innovation Expert
New York City Department of Education
Author of Innovative Educator blog & co-author of Teaching Generation Text

Mel Riddle

Mel Riddle
Associate Director
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
Former Principal (VA)
Author of  The Principal Difference blog

Lisa Von Drasek

Lisa Von Drasek
Children’s Librarian/ Director of The Center for Children’s Literature
Bank Street College of Education
Author of EarlyWord.com blog

Block Sites? No Way! | by Lisa Von Drasek September 25, 2011

For more information about Banned Websites Awareness Day, please visit the AASL BWAD site.

So I was at the SLJ School Librarian Summit. These kinds of meetings are about sharing what we do at our school and bringing back new ideas. While the presentations were riveting and inspiring, (can’t wait to try that!), the participants were as important to me as the speakers. It’s a small group, about 200, and at every break the room filled with a buzz of people reflecting and processing ideas.

It shouldn’t have taken me by surprise that in my last few minutes in the now almost empty hotel conference room, a librarian asked me “Are you participating in Banned Websites Awareness Day?” Huh? What’s that? “You know like Banned Books Week, but for websites.” Never shy in my ignorance I said, “No who sponsors it?” “AASL,” she replies. Now I feel really stupid but plow on… What do we do?

She proposed that since Bank Street has open access to the Internet, we show solidarity with censored schools and block “banned” sites like Facebook , Twitter, and YouTube for the day. Huh. My reply was, “Sorry, I wouldn’t do it even if I could.”

When I teach about censorship, banning and book challenges to our 4th graders (9 and 10 year-olds), it is a positive active experience. I read aloud Prelutsky’s title poem in Rolling Harvey Down the Hill. We discuss what it is about-taking revenge on a bully. I lead a discussion about the ideas in the book…what do the students think of Harvey’s bullying behavior? Is revenge an appropriate response? Then I ask them, who is this book for? Do any of them have a five year or six year old sibling? Would they read it aloud to them? A student always says no. The poems are too violent. Little kids wouldn’t understand that it’s funny, not real. Then I ask how should we keep those kids safe from those ideas? They brainstorm.
-put it on a higher shelf…”it won’t be in shelf order and older students will have trouble finding it”
-put it in your office… “Then how will we know that it is available?”
-put it on the shelves behind the checkout counter. “that might work”

Then we discuss who can have the book and the consensus is usually no one under eight.

I agree that what they suggest is a great idea. I am going to remove the book from the general shelves, put it on the shelves behind the desk and no one under the age of eleven may look at it or check it out.

It takes the students a minute to process before they start protesting. That’s not fair…we’re old enough …you can’t do that. Why not? You just said I could. But but but they sputter. I am using my professional judgement, my years of experience to evaluate material and this book should not be in the hands of children younger than eleven, I declare. More hrumphing.

We then have a selection discussion. What is censorship? What is selection? What does the word banning mean? What is a challenge?

We have always concluded that we should err on the side of open access. That parents, teachers and children can trust me to select material relevant to their age. That if a book has “bad” language, ideas and beliefs in conflict to your own or racism, sexism or cultural bias, it is an opportunity not a catastrophe.

What does it have to do with Banned Websites Awareness Day? Our no filtering and open access policy does make for interesting teachable moments. Some that I would prefer not to have. Students and their parents sign an acceptable use policy. Because we are pre-k through 8th grade, no student may be on the Internet without adult supervision. That is price we pay to enable our students exploring questions of health and wellness to go on Go Ask Alice, find a group of graphic novel fanatics on Facebook, explore the Amazon on YouTube and understand the immediacy and responsibility that comes with Twitter.

Banned Websites Awareness Day has given me a few issues to think about. I present to faculty and parents almost ever year about the students’ internet access. One if those stakeholders always asks, ” why don’t we just filter?” The AASL website has given me some tools for this discussion. Perhaps some of these ideas will be integrated into their work as responsible net citizens. It would be beneficial for them to understand that not all students have these freedoms in school.
—
Lisa Von Drasek is the Children’s Librarian/ Director of The Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. She blogs at EarlyWord.com.

National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Supports Banned Websites Awareness Day (BWAD) | by Mel Riddle September 19, 2011

For more information about Banned Websites Awareness Day, please visit the AASL BWAD site.

—Background: Back in 1995, I was teaching an Internet course for our teachers. When I look at the syllabus for that course, I have a good laugh. Sad to say, we could do things in 1995 that would be difficult to pull off today. Yes, we were using ftp and a beta version of Netscape, but we were regularly videoconferencing with people around the world. Today, I would have to get special permission from our district to conduct those same video-conferences. The reality is that “brute force” filtering of Internet content has resulted in us regressing rather than progressing.

School leaders are unintentionally killing the motivation of our teachers and students to make the most use of technology in our schools, not by our actions, but by our inaction on the issue of web filtering.

Teachers repeatedly complain to me that their students cannot do research at school because so many web sites are blocked. Students are resigned to the fact that doing research on a school computer is next to impossible. So, they just wait until they go home.

Scotomas
To put it bluntly, many of our colleagues have developed scotomas or blind spots in relation to certain practices in their schools, and content filtering is one of the most prevalent examples. Instead of asking why, they simply shrug their shoulders respond with a deer-in-the-headlights look. I have asked a number of my fellow school leaders about policies and practices in their school and school system relating to content filtering. Most have no idea what is going on in their school regarding filtering or the frustration experienced by their teachers and students.

Flat World
No, the world isn’t flat, but when it comes to content filtering in schools it might as well be. Most school leaders react to my questions relating to filtering in much the same way that Europeans must have reacted when Christopher Columbus challenged the prevailing wisdom of the day by proposing that the world was not flat but was round. School leaders generally accept the status quo related to content filtering with a ‘that’s the way it is’ response.

A Good Day In IT Land
In fact, many school leaders are allowing IT folks to do what we used to joke a few isolated librarians would do–keep the kids out and the books in. That is certainly not the case in today’s school libraries. In fact, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is leading the way calling for more access and less restrictive filtering practices by declaring September 28, 2011 as Banned Websites Awareness Day. The IT folks should follow the librarians lead on this issue.

Keep in mind that, for some, a good day in IT Land is when no one is on the network, and, thus, there are no problems. From my experience, IT folk are among the usual, but certainly not the only, suspects who are practitioners of ABC management practices–Administration By Convenience.

Over-Compliance
In an April interview, which is a must-read for all school staff and parents, Karen Cator of the U.S. Department of Education takes on what she calls “brute force technologies.” According to Cator, many schools are simply over-complying with federal guidelines.

What you must know about content filtering
In the interview, “Cator parsed the rules of the Childrens Internet Protection Act, and provided guidance for teachers on how to proceed when it comes to interpreting the rules. To that end, here are six surprising rules that educators, administrators, parents and students might not know about website filtering in schools.”

1. Accessing YouTube is not violating CIPA rules.
2. Websites don’t have to be blocked for teachers.
3. Broad filters are not helpful.
4. Schools will not lose E-rate funding by unblocking appropriate sites.
5. Kids need to be taught how to be responsible digital citizens.
6. Teachers should be trusted.

The Solution
If you, as a school leader, don’t advocate for your teachers and students, who will? Content filtering is an important part of any school-wide technology effort. I should know. In my former high school, every one of our 3,200 students had a laptop.

Yes, we blocked inappropriate sites. On occasion, our IT staff blocked appropriate sites, but we had a simple remedy. If a teacher came across a site that she wanted unblocked, she simply emailed me the name of the site and the URL. I forwarded a request to our IT people and, within minutes the problem was solved.

The key here is that, as the principal, I got involved and assumed responsibility. IT people are simply doing what they think is best. If they never hear from us, they have no idea that a problem exists. It is true that some IT people practice the ABCs (Administration-By-Convenience). However, I have found most IT people to be particularly helpful, especially when the school leader is willing to take the time to show interest and to get directly involved.

Don’t wait another day! Meet with your IT staff and discuss content filtering. Work out a plan to address teacher issues and advocate for improved student achievement through the effective use of technology.

—

Mel Riddle is the Associate Director of the National Association of Secondary Schools Principals (NASSP). He blogs at http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference. He Tweets as @PrincipalDiff.

7 Myths About Internet Filters September 11, 2011

Seven Myths about Internet filters

by Doug Johnson dougj@doug-johnson.com and http://www.doug-johnson.com

I am very happy AASL isaddressing the issue of filtering and intellectual freedom. It’s been a hottopic for me personally for over 15 years. Given my training as a librarian, I often find myself at philosophical odds with my fellow technology directors and school administrators who come from a more “control-oriented” background of technology management and use.

Here are some common myths created both through ignorance and intent about Internet filters. These mistaken beliefs often result in poor decisions about the use of this software, leading to censorship of online resources . You and your school will be more successful in developing good policies about filtering if you have good information about why and how this software. And it will be up to you, the librarian, to bring intellectual freedom into the conversation.

1. The Childhood Protection Act (CIPA) is specific and  broad in what must be filtered in schools. CIPA reads: “The protection  measures must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a)  obscene, (b) child pornography, or (c) harmful to minors” That’s it.  Karen Cator, Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, reassures teachers that schools will not risk loosing E-rate funding for  unblocking YouTube or giving teachers broad access to the Internet. <tinyurl.com/filteringfacts> And no, Facebook does not have to be blocked, as a clarification in the FCC Order 11-125 of August 2011 states implicitly <tinyurl.com/fccCIPA>.
2. It’s the filtering company that determines what is blocked. Most filters have a great deal of customizability when it comes to what is filtered. Broad categories of blocked sites can be enabled or disabled. Schools can override filters by adding specific sites to “white lists” of allowed sites or to “black lists” of blocked sites. Filtering can (legally) be turned off in schools on specific computers by user category, by specific IP address of a computer, or by using a filter bypass login.
3. Some sites must be blocked due to bandwidth limitations. A common reason for blocking sites like YouTube or Pandora is that they use too much bandwidth. While it is true that most districts have a limited amount of Internet connectivity, devices called packetshapers can be use to prioritize traffic on a network, eliminating the need for band-width intensive sites to be blocked completely.
4. The processes for re-consideration of print materials don’t apply to online resources. Digital resources are as legitimate as print resources and the same criteria for removing online resources apply to them as apply to library books, textbooks, magazines and videos. Once a district has decided that the Internet is an educational resource, any removal of a specific resource on the Internet must follow board-adopted policies and procedures on the reconsideration of education resources.
5. The technology department must determine what is blocked. The major intellectual freedom issue related to filters is not whether a particular resource is blocked or not blocked, but who makes the blocking decision and how it is made. Determinations about the availability of Internet resources should be made by a formal group of educators, technicians, and community members at two levels. The first level is the broad filter level – selection of the filtering product itself and the categories settings of that filter. The second level is the individual Internet site level (Planned Parenthood, SarahPAC, YouTube, Facebook, etc.) Single individuals should not make blocking decisions.
6. Internet filters are so good that supervision of students while online and instruction in online safety and appropriate use is not necessary. One of the biggest dangers of Internet filters is over-reliance on them. No filter catches 100% of all pornographic sites. Users can use proxies and other work-arounds to bypass the school’s Internet filter. And increasingly, students are using personal devices such as cell phones and tablets that use cellphone carrier data plans for Internet connectivity that are completely unaffected by school filters.
7. Internet filters and intellectual freedom are mutually exclusive. When chosen, configured and monitored carefully a filter can become a selection tool. A limited filtering system that keeps the little ones from accidentally accessing inappropriate or even dangerous websites is ethically responsible. It’s not the technology but its application that can lead to censorship.

Find below a selection of my writings, some serious and some not so serious, on the topic of filters and intelletual freedom. Note that one dates back to 1994. This has been a long battle!

Are You Sure You Want an Internet Filter? Virtual Censorship is Still Censorship
TechTrends, May/June 1998
www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/internet-filtering.html

Blocked Bytes Week
Blue Skunk Blog, September, 2008
doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/9/23/blocked-bytes-week.html

Censorship by Omission
Library Media Connection, January/February 2010.
www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/censorship-by-omission.html

The Engagement Filter
Blue Skunk Blog, June 2007
doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2007/6/28/engagement-filter.html

Filtering and Hyper-compliance
Blue Skunk Blog, June 2010
doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/6/16/filtering-and-hyper-compliance.html

Filtering Follies
Education World, November, 2007
www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson022.shtml

Freedom and Filters
The Book Report, 2003
dougjohnson.squarespace.com/dougwri/freedom-and-filters.html

Freedom to Learn
Library Media Connection, Jan/February 2012 (forthcoming)

The Long-term Solution to Internet Blocking Problems
Blue Skunk Blog, April 2006
doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2006/4/20/the-long-term-solution-to-internet-blocking-problems.html

Maintaining Intellectual Freedom in a Filtered World
Leading & Learning, May 2005
www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/maintaining-intellectual-freedom-in-a-filtered-world.html

Why Filters Will Never Be Enough
Blue Skunk Blog, November 2006
doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2006/11/28/why-filters-will-never-be-enough.html

Why Minnesota’s Children Need Access to the Internet
Text of talk at a TIES meeting, 1994
dougjohnson.squarespace.com/dougwri/why-minnesota-students-need-access-to-the-internet.html

Posted on behalf of Doug Johnson.

Preparation for Living in a Public World | by Stephen Abram September 10, 2011

Sometimes I worry about the control fixation in some parts of the world today. We see so many attempts to legislate behaviour that are doomed to failure and yet they continue to flourish. This is particularly evident in some of our school systems where there are extreme attempts to damage our children’s ability to deal successfully with the emerging information ecology by overly restricting access to information and websites.

That’s why I am supporting this AASL project.

Celebrate the freedom to read and learn on the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Banned Sites Awareness Day (September 28).

Banned Websites Awareness Day is a censorship awareness campaign designed to celebrate children’s freedom to learn with participatory media in school. In 2011, it will be celebrated on September 28th during ALA’s Banned Books Week.

Blocking access to social media leaves most students susceptible to dangerous behaviours as they can’t easily be taught digital safety in a vacuum. The list of websites that have been banned has become ludricous in the extreme. Some boards have set themselves up as laughingstocks and lose the respect of the very students, teachers and learners they purport to support. Some schools have pushed so many websites off the list of available education resources that the sites have become underground fixations for many students who share the workarounds and succeed in gaining access anyway. Some teachers are forced to recommend that students use some tools from home or the local public library when their employers block educational websites, YouTube, and so many more. It’s a great irony that after so many millions of dollars in technology investments adding digital tools to our schools and school libraries, the best technology and access is often on an unsupervised, friend’s basement home computer as opposed to an educational setting with trained and professional adults available to assist learning and development.

This situation has become so ridiculous that the federal Department of Education has been forced to issue clarification of the rules to try to stem the tide of irrational over-filtering of websites and tools for learning.
Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites

The US “Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator, “parsed the rules of the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and provided guidance for teachers on how to proceed when it comes to interpreting the rules. To that end, here are six surprising rules that educators, administrators, parents and students might not know about website filtering in schools.”
In short:

1. Accessing YouTube is not violating CIPA rules.
2. Websites don’t have to be blocked for teachers.
3. Broad filters are not helpful.
4. Schools will not lose E-rate funding by unblocking appropriate sites.
5. Kids need to be taught how to be responsible digital citizens.
6. Teachers should be trusted.

For the love of children, we have to stop the madness. I’ve seen websites blocked because they contain the word “specialist”. Why? The word ‘CIALIS’ is contained within it. I’ve seen many current affairs, government affairs, and public affairs sites blocked completely. Why? The word ‘affairs’ was blocked completely. Some boards blocked every site coming from Middlesex counties around the world. Why? Well, you can probably guess. One board I am aware of blocked all ‘documents’ (look carefully for the bad word) and anyone who carried the designation ‘magna cum laude’. You likely see my point (as long as your filter let’s you see this post!). It is a slippery slope in a democracy that once any government entity starts to block access to sites and information for any citizen, of any age, you start down the path to a diminished democracy. Acclimatizing youth to the concept that people in power can restrict their free access to information is the opposite of what a good democracy wants or values or the value system that we want our children to adopt in our democracy. An informed citizenry is essential to a working democracy and to effective voting and decision making. Governments should not broadly restrict access, just look at the example of those countries that do. The best democracies encourage and protect the roles of the the 4th and 5th estates and these roles are constitutionally protected in the United States, Canada and more. In recent years we have seen the power of collaboration and social media to change history in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and more. We’ve seen people saved and assisted by social media quickly during natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami as these become essential communication tools for FEMA and more. Social media are now essential to our elections, primaries, and democratic process as well as to news distribution. Are these to be bocked in our schools and for what purpose?

Schools create the citizens of the future. Will these future citizens learn how to effectively differentiate quality from bad information? Will they develop the skills to identify content spam from good content?; excellent sources from the merely adequate?; sexist, racist, ageist, evil, manipulative content from mere opinion? How can they if they never see the full range of tools and information in the context of effective digital information literacy and critical thinking curriculum? That’s why it is deep in the value systems of educators and librarians that our learners must learn to live in the real world, one where they are in public and are streetproofed for the Internet. You can’t teach a child to cross the road or streeproof a kid without them ever seeing roads or the outside world. It’s the same situation for the modern world of digital information.

Our society values many things including the freedom to speak, the freedom to assemble, freedom of expression, the freedom to read, freedom to research and create. We enjoy free public libraries. The courts and society are very careful to not limit our freedoms in too many ways. Our future depends on access to the world of information, creativity, and insight. The individual challenge of dealing with bad information isn’t met by building walls, it is addressed by opening the minds of learners to credulity, critical thinking, openmindedness, and at the earliest stage of readiness. That way every next generation will be prepared to deal with the challenges they’re faced (or left) with. It’s our responsibility to prepare them for the world that they will meet and live in, not the analog one in which we developed, that will never exist again. Nostalgia is not a vision.

Are we protecting our children too much by walling them away from the whole digital world?

Let’s make sure that we open minds rather than closing them. Let’s build a better generation every time.

Stephen

—
Stephen Abram is ably capable of providing tips and techniques for strategic thinking and innovation in libraries. He has visited hundreds of libraries in many different countries and is uniquely positioned to spark ideas and insights to the listeners of this blog.

Banned Websites Awareness Day Resources September 8, 2011

Ask many school librarians and other educators about excessive filtering of websites in their schools, and many have story after story to relate.

On May 5, 2011, the AASL Intellectual Freedom Committee posted a blog entry “Filtering as an IntellectualFreedom Issue” drawing attention to the problem of overly aggressive filtering.

In June 2011, the AASL Board took another step to begin a dialogue on this issue. It approved the creation of a day, Banned Websites Awareness Day, to bring awareness to filtering practices in K-12 schools.

On Wednesday, September 28, 2011, AASL is launching the first annual Banned Websites Awareness Day to spotlight the problem of excessive filtering of legitimate educational Internet websites in many K-12 schools. AASL is providing resources for school librarians and others concerned with how filtering is affecting teachers’ ability to effectively use the Internet as an instructional resource and equally as important how it is affecting student learning.

The AASL Banned Websites Awareness Day landing page provides the following:

• The press release explaining the AASL Board’s decision to initiate this day.
• Two articles from the September/October 2010 Intellectual Freedom Online themed issues of Knowledge Quest.
  • Helen Adams. “Filtering Texas-Style: An Interview with Michael Gras and Scott Floyd” Knowledge Quest
    39, no.1 (September/October 2010), pages 30-37.
  • Theresa Chmara. “Minors’ First Amendment Rights: CIPA & School Libraries” Knowledge Quest 39, no.1
    (September/October 2010), pages 16-21.
  • A link to the Banned Websites Awareness Day Essential Links resources.
  • Links to the AASL Blog with special blog posts related to Banned Websites Awareness Day.

What will your response be to Banned Websites Awareness Day? How does filtering of educational websites affect the instruction and learning in your school? What are your stories about filtering incidents?  What successful strategies have you used with administrators to request a more measured approach to filtering? Can you contribute ideas for an activity you will use to recognize Banned Websites Awareness Day?

Posted on behalf of the AASL Intellectual Freedom Committee

Censorship in Schools: More Than Makes the Headlines | by Deven Black September 5, 2011

For more information about Banned Websites Awareness Day resources and support materials, please visit AASL Essential Links.

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image by the|G|™ via Flickr

Book challenges and banning get all the media attention but they are a small minority of the censorship that occurs in schools.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), 11,000 book challenges occurred in the past 20 years.

To call attention to these challenges and highlight the books banned as a result, the last week of September each year is designated Banned Book Week by the ALA and theAmerican Association of School Librarians (AASL).

It is absolutely imperative to defend intellectual freedom and fight against book challenges, but in paying so much attention to them, it is easy not to notice the more pervasive and far more prevalent censorship that occurs in every public school every minute it is open.

I’m talking about censorship of the Internet.

The federal Children’s Internet Protection Act requires schools to ensure that children are not exposed to sexually explicit words and images in order to qualify for Federal technology subsidies. Almost all schools accomplish that by using filters that are designed to stop obscenity before it reaches student computers.

Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against blocking student access to pornography at school, they get more than enough exposure to sexual messages in the mainstream media. But internet filters block much more than pornography.

“What we have is what I consider brute force technologies that shut down wide swaths of the internet, like all of YouTube, for example. Or they may shut down anything to so with social media, or anything that is a game. These broad filters aren’t very helpful because we need more nuanced filtering.” Karen Cator, United States Department of Education Director of Education Technology (Barseghian, 2011).

image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

Even the National Educational Technology Plan notes that in some cases internet filtering “creates barriers to the rich learning experiences that in-school internet access should afford students” and that tools such as blogs, wikis and social networks have the potential to support student learning and engagement.

Some argue that the anxiety over the internet that leads to filtering has less to do with possible student exposure to pornography or other sexual content and more to do with fear of unfettered ideas and the technology through which ideas are transmitted.

“Filters would not be placed on computers if government officials, religious moralists and the competitive marketplace didn’t feel their control slipping away or threatened” (Bissonnette, 2003).

Decisions about what to filter are made by filtering companies that are not held accountable to anyone and which refuse to explain the criteria for their decisions because they are trade secrets.

Educators and educational needs have been totally taken out of the picture.

New Canaan High School librarian Michelle Luhtala says the same issues of censorship, fear and free speech that make banned books resonate also apply to social networking sites that most schools block.

“Teaching with social media shows students how to responsibly use those platforms. Blocking access denies kids the chance to practice sharing their knowledge with the real world in a supervised setting” (Toppo, 2011)

Thanks largely to her efforts the ALA and AASL have declared September 28th to be Banned Sites Day.

One day. It is a step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done to protect student intellectual freedom and access to all age-appropriate learning materials.

Despite the efforts to restrict or cleanse the materials in school libraries, racial slurs, bullying, obscene language, sex scenes and violence will always appear in books students read. There will always be challenging themes, emotionally charged scenes, and characters with few traits to admire.

“Pretending there are no choices to be made — reading only books, for example, which are cheery and safe and nice is a prescription for disaster for the young,” asserts author Lois Lowry who has seen her book The Giverchallenged and removed from libraries.

“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of The Giver, the world where there are no bad words, no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted.”

“And that is the most dangerous world of all.”

References

American Library Association (2011). Number of Challenges by Year, Reason, Initiator & Institution (1990 – 2010). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengesbytype/index.cfm

Barseghian, T. (2011, April 26). Straight from the DOE facts about blocking sites in schools. Retrieved from http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

Bissonnette, S.T. (2003). Smothering Free Speech. Journal of Library Administration; 2003, Vol. 39 Issue 2/3, p87-105. doi: 10.1300/J111v39n02_08

Lowry, L. (2005). A dangerous utopia. RHI for High School Teachers. Retrieved fromhttp://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/RHI_magazine/pdf3/Lowry.pdf

National Educational Technology Plan. US Dept. of Ed. 2010, 54.

Toppo, G. (2011, July 25). Web restrictions draw ire of some educators. USA Today Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-07-25-banned-websites-school_n.htm

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Deven Black recently became a middle school librarian in the Bronx, NY after seven years as a special education teacher. He is pursuing an MLS degree at Queens College.