Janson+Brown

= Banned Books? Or Book Discrimination by Janson Brown =



"Monthly Archive." //The Ebb and Flow//. Tarski, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.


 * Should mature books that include sexual references, drug use, and use of racial slurs be banned in high school libraries? **

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This topic needs to be defended because books need not to be censored because students are already mature enough and already exposed to these things through television and cell phones so therefore it’s normal in today’s society. ======

"Tappan Zee High School Library." //TZHS Library//. TZHS Library, 2005. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.


 * Pros || Cons  ||
 * This issue is a fairly popular issue and I will be able to find information easily. || As popular as these cases are, they are very spread out over long periods of time and sometimes conclusions are hard to come by ||
 * Court websites are very informative and give detailed information that will aid me in writing. || Supreme Court justices usually write their personal statements about why they voted the way they did. This are sparse and hard to locate ||
 * Most websites give links to other sources. || Cases can be misleading. Some cases are short and do not last long and can trick you into thinking it’s more useful than it truly is. ||
 * Books that have been banned are still in our library and are available to read and determine why it was debated over. || Court cases about this issue are being brought up every day. New information will be added in place of your current info ||


 * Court Cases**
 * Board of Education v. Pico. Steven Pico believed that he should be able to read whatever he believes is useful to him in his education. Apparently the Board of Education thought different and decided to ban multiple books from his school including “Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut; The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris; Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas; Best Short Stories by Negro Writers by Langston Hughes; Go Ask Alice by Anonymous; Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge; Black Boy by Richard Wright; A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich by Alice Childress; and Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. One of the books removed from the junior high was The Fixer by Bernard Malamud.” These books were removed for various reasons such as vulgar language, sexual and drug references, and racial jokes. Steven knew this was violating his First Amendment rights and decided to sue. The case was brought all the way to the Supreme Court and is now viewed as one of the most defining court cases in the censorship area.


 * Presidents Council, District 25 v. Community School Board No. 25. This court case ruled in a different way than Board of Ed. v. Pico. The court ruled in favor of the schools responsibility in being able to choose which books to censor and which to abolish completely. This caused outrage in the public as more students and teachers believed it was yet again, like in Pico, violating their First Amendment rights. “Judge Mulligan, writing for the court, declared that someone must bear responsibility for book selection, and since school boards are statutorily empowered to operate the schools and prescribe the curriculum, the board is the appropriate body.”

> > **What I think:**
 * James v. Board of Education is a very controversial case. The court ruled once again in favor of the school board. The court said that the students were the schools responsibility not the parents and therefore the school has more of a reason to restrict whichever they feel violate students work and reading experiences. “ loco parentis policy, which states that members of the school board and the school administration stand in place of parents while students are in school and consequently should be permitted to make decisions to oversee the growth of students’ intellectual and social values.” This was considered another direct attack on parents but the court pulled yet another standard called the indoctrination theory. “ perform certain socialization and indoctrination functions. Local school boards therefore must be given broad discretion to shape the minds of the students to accomplish these goals.”


 * Throughout this paper, the endless court cases, and the grueling late nights to improve my grammar, strides were made. I knew this subject would be a plus for me because of my love for reading and classic literature. Book banning was a very broad subject but at the same time I had to grind down to the core of some of these endless cases to find the information I really needed. As many cases as there have been over time about the banning and censorship of books, I was never aware of even one of them. I was completely thrown out of my seat when I learned how much I had been missing out on. Although I knew of certain series and authors being censored, I never knew about these Supreme and state court cases were happening. Within the research I discovered while on my expansive search for additions to book banning, I found my opinion stayed strong. My dedication to the art of reading and writing fueled me to push harder and dig deeper than the normal writer would. I felt as if I had something to prove with my words. Books are a way of life whether we believe it or not. Our nation was created with the swift movements of a quill pen, wars have been ended with the stroke of ink, and more importantly information has been passed down for centuries. From the scrawls on a leaf to the hieroglyphics in ancient tombs, vital information has been thought up and imagined and put into words that would come to change history. If our rights to express our freedom of speech and our right to have an opinion through books is taken away, the future will be dramatically changed and so will the lives of our children and of future generations to follow.

Works Cited  "About Banned & Challenged Books." American Library Association. ALA, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.  "BORZYCH v. FRANK." United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. Find Law, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> Brunner, Borgna. "Banned Books." Infoplease.com. Infoplease, 2007. Web. 11 Dec.2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> Carnes, Circuit Judge. "American Civil Liberties Union Of Florida Incorporated V. Miami <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> Dade County School Board." United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. Find Law, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> Conference of the American Library Association, 30 June 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> "First Amendment Schools: The Five Freedoms - Court Case." Speech. First Amendment Center, 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> "Island Trees School District Board Of Education V. Pico." Island Trees School District Board of Education v. Pico. US Supreme Court Media, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> "Notable First Amendment Court Cases." Ala.org. ALA, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> "The Freedom to Read Statement." ALA American Library Association. Westchester