The Telescope

Issue Date: 2/8/10

Even for students, freedom of speech is an unalienable right

Our Viewpoint

When a parent of an elementary school student in Menifee tried to get a dictionary removed from the classroom for containing a sexually graphic term, it should have reminded us all of the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, and how we must never stop the fight to think and speak for ourselves.

Whether censorship attempts make headlines or are quietly swept under the rug, it is important that citizens continue to stand up for these rights.

In 2007, administrators at Fallbrook High School removed a journalism adviser for encouraging students to write about the removal of the school district's superintendent, according to an incident report listed on the National Coalition against Censorship Web site.

Fallbrook High School's student newspaper, The Tomahawk, was censored again that school year by the principal, Rod King, after he disagreed with an editorial written about federal support of abstinence-only education.

More recently, the National Coalition against Censorship protested the 2009 removal of the novel "Speak" from high school classrooms in the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

By author Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character in the book is a high school student dealing with the aftermath of being raped at a party.

In a letter written to the Temecula school board, NCAC's Executive Director Joan Bertin wrote, "It is precisely this kind of literature that enlarges students' knowledge of the world and prepares them for college and adult life."

The book remains in the classroom, but just as in the case of the Menifee dictionary, parents are given the ability to opt-out of required reading materials. This is a slow, subtle form of censorship.

If parents don't want their kids exposed to what they deem inappropriate and want to force their Dark Ages mentality on their children, they should not be attending public schools.

A public institution is the last place censorship should take place; governed by elected officials, these entities have an obligation to uphold citizens' First Amendment rights.

There will always be those who try to smother our freedoms of the press, expression and reading materials.

Just as one person can start a chain of events leading to the removal of reading material from public education classrooms, so too can one keep it there.

To learn more about the continuing struggle against censorship in America, visit www.ncac.org.

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