ACLU Sues School District Over Ban On Cuban Book
The Miami-Dade County Student Government Association joined the ACLU in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in downtown Miami. They argue the books are appropriate for their target group, children ages 5 to 7, and that the board should add materials with alternate viewpoints rather than remove books that could be offensive. Last week, the board voted 6-3 to remove "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A Visit to Cuba" from 33 schools, stating the books were inappropriate for young readers because of inaccuracies and omissions about life in the communist nation.
The suit alleged the books were removed without due process, violating students' Fourteenth Amendment rights. It cited staff recommendations to retain the books. "The Miami-Dade School Board's decision to defy U.S. law prohibiting censorship and ignore the recommendation of their own Superintendent and two committees is a slap in the face to our tradition of free speech and the School Board's own standards of due process," said JoNel Newman, an attorney working with the ACLU.
A phone message left for Miami-Dade school officials by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. The suit also condemns the school board's decision to remove 24 other books in the series, including ones on Greece, Mexico and Vietnam, "despite hot having received a complaint about those books and without having reviewed the books in its administrative process."
The ACLU noted the books have received favorable reviews in nationally recognized publications including Publishers Weekly and the School Library Journal. Board member Perla Tabares Hantman, who supported the ban, has said the Cuba book "misleads, confounds or confuses has no part in the education of our students, most especially elementary students, who are most impressionable and vulnerable."
The book, by Alta Schreier, contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the 1959 Cuban revolution. The district owns 49 copies of the book in Spanish and English. The controversy over the book began in April when a parent who said he had been a political prisoner in Cuba complained about its depiction of life under communist rule.