Censorship in Public Schools Essay -- essays research papers fc

because he thinks they might contain "obscenities or offensive sexual references" (Berger 59). -A Vermont high school librarian is forced to resign because she fought the school board's decision to remove Richard Price's The Wanderers, and to "restrict" the use of Stephen King's Carrie and Patrick Mann's Dog Day Afternoon (Jones 33). -An Indiana school board takes action that leads to the burning of many copies of a textbook that deals with drugs and the sexual behavior of teenagers (Berger 61). These cases of censorship in public schools are not unusual and there is evidence that such challenges are increasing (Woods 2). These challenges are actually typical of the ones being leveled against school libraries today. These challenges can come from one person or a group concerned with the suitability of the material in question. In almost every case, the effort to ban books is said to be "justified by fear of the harmful effects that the books may have on young children" (Berger 59). The result of these censorship attempts has been two opposing sides: one side believes that "more suitable materials can usually be found from among the wealth of materials available on most subjects (Woods 1), and the other side believes that students' "intellectual freedom" can be upheld only if students are allowed to examine "any available relevant materials in order to gain the insights needed to reach their own conclusions" (Woods 1). In the simplest terms, the debate is between censorship and the freedom to read. The most important question when discussing censorship deals with its constitutionality; does censorship violate the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech? Censorship advocates actually use the words of the First Amendment to make their point; "the amendment reads, 'Congress shall make no law...", it does not say, "There shall be no law...'" (Berger 69). They believe that, although the federal government is forbidden to censor, it is not unconstitutional for states and local communities to pass censorship laws (Berger 69). Also, since the US Supreme Court does not believe the First Amendment protects all forms of expression (child pornography, etc.), then proponents of censorship believe that censorship laws are constitutional (Berger 69). Anti-censorship has the upper-hand, constituti... ...ensors react when they find anything they deem objectionable in the school. Why will people react emotionally, even violently, to certain spoken or written words, while in many cases having mild reactions to the actions described by the words? While D.H. Lawrence has seen considerable censorship due to his affinity for sexual content, Shakespeare has enjoyed relative peace even though Othello and his lover made "the beast with two backs" (I.I, 119-120). I, myself, will continue to struggle against the censors who seek to control written expression in our schools while waving the banner of freedom, for it is censorship that we must fear, not words, and hope that in the future, the true obscenities of the world (poverty, hunger, war) will be what we shall strive to censor. Works Cited Berger, Melvin. Censorship. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982. Jones, Frances M. Defusing Censorship: The Librarian's Guide to Handling Censorship Conflicts. Phoenix: The Oryx Press, 1983. Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945. Woods, L.B. A Decade of Censorship in America: The Threat to Classrooms and Libraries. London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1979