Censorship in Public Schools Essay -- essays research papers fc

because he thinks they might maintain "obscenities or offensive sexual references" (Berger59).-A Vermont high schooldays librarian is force to resign because she fought the schoolboards decision to remove Richard Prices The Wanderers, and to "restrict" the use ofStephen Kings Carrie and Patrick Manns frankfurter Day Afternoon (Jones 33).-An Indiana school board takes action that leads to the glowing of many copies of atextbook that deals with drugs and the sexual behavior of teenagers (Berger 61).These cases of censoring in public schools are not unusual and there is evidencethat such(prenominal) ch exclusivelyenges are increasing (Woods 2). These challenges are actually typical ofthe ones being leveled against school libraries today. These challenges can come fromone person or a separate concerned with the suitability of the material in question. In almost both case, the effort to ban books is said to be "justified by veneration of the harmful effectstha t the books may have on young children" (Berger 59). The solvent of these security reviewattempts has been 2 opposing sides one side believes that "more desirable materials canusually be found from among the wealth of materials available on most subjects (Woods1), and the other side believes that students "intellectual freedom" can be upheld only ifstudents are allowed to examine "any available relevant materials in order to gain theinsights needed to reach their own conclusions" (Woods 1). In the simplest terms, the manage is between censorship and the freedom to read.The most important question when discussing censorship deals with its nativeity does censorship violate the First Amendments guarantee of freespeech? censoring advocates actually use the terminology of the First Amendment to featuretheir point "the amendment reads, Congress shall make no law...", it does not say,"There shall be no law..." (Berger 69). They believe that, a lthough the federalgovernment is forbidden to censor, it is not unconstitutional for states and localcommunities to pass censorship laws (Berger 69). Also, since the US Supreme Courtdoes not believe the First Amendment protects all forms of spirit (childpornography, etc.), then proponents of censorship believe that censorship laws areconstitutional (Berger 69). Anti-censorship has the upper-hand, constituti... ...ensors reactwhen they find anything they deem objectionable in the school. Why go out people reactemotionally, even violently, to certain spoken or scripted words, while in many caseshaving mild reactions to the actions described by the words? While D.H. Lawrence hasseen considerable censorship due to his affinity for sexual content, Shakespeare hasenjoyed recounting peace even though Othello and his lover made "the beast with twobacks" (I.I, 119-120). I, myself, will continue to struggle against the censors who seek tocontrol written expression in our schools while waving the banner of freedom, for it iscensorship that we must fear, not words, and hope that in the future, the true obscenitiesof the world (poverty, hunger, war) will be what we shall reach to censor.Works CitedBerger, Melvin. censoring. New York Franklin Watts, 1982.Jones, Frances M. Defusing Censorship The Librarians Guide to Handling CensorshipConflicts. 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 andLibraries. London The strawman Press, Inc., 1979