The controversial book is out the door:
A controversial children’s book about Cuba — and similar books from the same series about other countries — will be removed from all Miami-Dade school libraries after a School Board vote Wednesday that split Hispanic and non-Hispanic members in an incendiary political atmosphere.
Some are suggesting the board overreached:
Legal experts said the board’s action appeared to be unconstitutional. A 1982 Supreme Court case ruled that school boards have wide discretion to determine which books go on shelves, but “that discretion may not be exercised in a narrowly partisan or political manner.”
The high court’s ruling in that New York case, Board of Education v. Pico, cited an example of an inappropriate book-banning — “if an all-white school board, motivated by racial animus, decided to remove all books authored by blacks or advocating racial equality and integration.”
Courts typically give school boards more discretion in choosing instructional materials — and Simon, the ACLU director, said he could envision ”a perfectly reasonable judgment being made” to remove a book that was not considered age-appropriate.
However, he said, “the court was adamant that books couldn’t be removed because of content.”
As with so many aspects of public education, the battle continues over how much say parents get in the system. (By the way, is Simon hinting at a lawsuit?)
We’re still waiting for Val Prieto, whose Edspresso guest column on this is here, to weigh in. In the meantime, check out this from Miami Herald edureporter Matthew Pinzur, who cowrote the article above. It’s a very interesting take on the electoral dynamics at work here. (And you can only get it online–the paper didn’t have space to run it, so it lives on in cyberspace. Viva la blogosphere!)