Book Banning In Walton County Based On Misleading “Porn In Schools Report” Illustrates Alarming Influence Of Fringe Groups On Educational Censorship
School districts like Walton are letting bigoted, unfounded claims dictate access to literature for all Last week, reports circulated that Walton County School District in Florida decided to remove a… More
Letter to Hinds County School District Regarding Termination of Assistant Principal Toby Price
PEN America today sent a follow up letter to the officials of the Hinds County School District, concerning the ongoing adjudication of the decision to terminate former Gary Road… More
For Educational Gag Orders, The Vagueness Is The Point
We find that instead of clarifying the laws, guidance documents have muddied the waters, further eroding academic freedom and students’ right to learn. More
PEN America & FIRE Object to New Restrictions of Free Expression for Mississippi Professors
Today, PEN America and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent a joint letter to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Education Board of Trustees (IHL) opposing recent changes to… More
Statement: Florida Rejection of Math Textbooks Raises Question Over Whether Politics Guided Decision
"The Florida Department of Education's rejection of 41 percent of math textbooks submitted to the state--including 71 percent of textbooks for grades K-5-- on the grounds that they include… More
Conservatives Oppose Educational Gag Orders, Too
Casual observers of the recent wave of educational gag orders could be forgiven for thinking that views on this issue are perfectly polarized along ideological lines. Conservatives support these… More
Educational Gag Orders Seek to Enforce Compulsory Patriotism
Three New Bills Become Law in Florida, Mississippi, and South Dakota Monthly Roundup, March This post is part of a series from PEN America tracking the progress of educational gag orders… More
Educational Gag Orders In Your Community: A Tip Sheet for Changing the Conversation
Here are a few steps you can take to help change the conversation about educational gag orders in your community. More
These 4 Florida Bills Censor Classroom Subjects and Ideas
These bills have been the subject of much public commentary, including an unfortunate amount of misinformation. To cut through the confusion, PEN America explains below the salient features of… More
Mississippi Principal Fired for Reading a Book to Second Graders Should be Reinstated
The letter to the Hinds County School District said the firing of Assistant Principal Toby Price from Gary Road Elementary School on March 4 was “an extreme disciplinary action,… More
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In "When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal" (@DukePress, 2022), Celes Tisdale collects poems by students in who participated in the poetry workshop he ran at Attica prison in the wake of the 1971 prison riots https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-poetry-of-a-prison-uprising #BlackHistoryMonth
Are you ready to take action against book bans in your community? Join us Tuesday 1/31 at 7:30pm EST to learn what new trends and targets are emerging in books bans and what tactics to expect from right-wing extremists groups going forward. http://go.redwine.blue/yu1
Border exceptions to the 4th Amendment happen w/in 100 miles of the US border, allowing DHS/CBP to search digital devices/violate constitutional rights under protection. This is a critical bill from @RonWyden for which I’m pleased to see renewed interest:https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/wyden-looks-to-limit-border-searches-of-americans-devices