Alaina Olson
Professor Wilcox
PHI2600
26 September 2017
Alaina Olson: The Banning of Books
Case Study: Island Trees School District v. Pico
In March of 1982, the Supreme Court case of Island Trees School District v. Pico, five students, including the high school senior Steven Pico, fought in Washington D.C. for their first amendment right. The outcome of this case would forever change school districts rules and regulations across the nation. During the school year of 1975-1976, the Island Trees School District No.26 in New York banned the sum 11 novels from its school’s district junior high and high school libraries. The 11 books banned were: Slaughterhouse-five by, Kurt Vonnegut, The Fixer by, Bernard Malamud, Soul on Ice by, Eldridge …show more content…
In the late fall of 1975, the school board of the Island Trees School District acquired a lengthy complaint from the conservative Parents of New York United community, regarding the inappropriateness of some of the novels that were are able to be issued out for rent in the school’s library. The complaint stated that these supposedly deplorable novels were not only anti-American but also anti-Christian and anti-Semitic. In response the complaint, the committee of the School Board of Tree Islands School District, (President of the School Board Richard Ahrens, Vice President of the School Board Frank Martin, and the school board members, Christina Fasulo, Patrick Hughes, Richard Melcers, Richard Michaels, and Louis Nessim) agreed upon the removal of all 11 books in the libraries from the complaint letter, by February …show more content…
A notion was made that the school board must create a “Book Review Committee” where they read and review the books prior to banishment. Four Island Trees School District’s parents and four members of the Island Trees School District Staff were on the “Book Review Committee”. In the following July the eight members unanimously agreed upon returning five books: The Fixer, Laughing Boy, Black Boy, Go Ask Alice, and Best Short Stories by Negro Writers to the library. The committee could not concur upon books, Soul on Ice and A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, committee had no opinion on A Reader for Writers, and agreed to parent signature permission slip needed to checkout Slaughterhouse-five from the school libraries. Ultimately, the school board ignored the reading suggestion from the “Book Review Committee” and decided to allow the book Laughing Boy back into the high school library with no restrictions, and the novel Black Boy allowed to be read with a signed parent permission slip only. The remaining nine novels were still
Professor Wilcox
PHI2600
26 September 2017
Alaina Olson: The Banning of Books
Case Study: Island Trees School District v. Pico
In March of 1982, the Supreme Court case of Island Trees School District v. Pico, five students, including the high school senior Steven Pico, fought in Washington D.C. for their first amendment right. The outcome of this case would forever change school districts rules and regulations across the nation. During the school year of 1975-1976, the Island Trees School District No.26 in New York banned the sum 11 novels from its school’s district junior high and high school libraries. The 11 books banned were: Slaughterhouse-five by, Kurt Vonnegut, The Fixer by, Bernard Malamud, Soul on Ice by, Eldridge …show more content…
In the late fall of 1975, the school board of the Island Trees School District acquired a lengthy complaint from the conservative Parents of New York United community, regarding the inappropriateness of some of the novels that were are able to be issued out for rent in the school’s library. The complaint stated that these supposedly deplorable novels were not only anti-American but also anti-Christian and anti-Semitic. In response the complaint, the committee of the School Board of Tree Islands School District, (President of the School Board Richard Ahrens, Vice President of the School Board Frank Martin, and the school board members, Christina Fasulo, Patrick Hughes, Richard Melcers, Richard Michaels, and Louis Nessim) agreed upon the removal of all 11 books in the libraries from the complaint letter, by February …show more content…
A notion was made that the school board must create a “Book Review Committee” where they read and review the books prior to banishment. Four Island Trees School District’s parents and four members of the Island Trees School District Staff were on the “Book Review Committee”. In the following July the eight members unanimously agreed upon returning five books: The Fixer, Laughing Boy, Black Boy, Go Ask Alice, and Best Short Stories by Negro Writers to the library. The committee could not concur upon books, Soul on Ice and A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, committee had no opinion on A Reader for Writers, and agreed to parent signature permission slip needed to checkout Slaughterhouse-five from the school libraries. Ultimately, the school board ignored the reading suggestion from the “Book Review Committee” and decided to allow the book Laughing Boy back into the high school library with no restrictions, and the novel Black Boy allowed to be read with a signed parent permission slip only. The remaining nine novels were still