Reading Assignment # 4

Appears Court: Miami-Dade Book Ban Isn't Censorship"
American Library Association
2/11/09 (Date accessed: 2/12/09)
http:www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/February 2009/vamoscango.cfm

The article “Appears Court: Miami-Dade Book Ban Isn't Censorship” deals with the board of Miami-Dade County Public Schools being allowed to remove off of their bookshelves, a children's book called “Vamos a Cuba,” that is about “contemporary life in Cuba.” ACLU Florida then went to court to try to have this ban removed, but the federal appeals court rejected this complaint. The defendant Miami-Dade County Public Schools counter rebuttal was that “Vamos a Cuba” was not the only book to be removed from their schools libraries. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members said that there was "23 other books that begin with “A Visit to...” that was removed from the bookshelves as well. Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members also said that these books were ““an offense" to the First Amendment.” Also, they stated “there is a difference not including graphic detail about adult subjects on the one hand and falsely representing that everything is hunky dorky on the other.” “The defense had pointed to several passages it deemed misleading.”

In my opinion, I feel that they should have kept the book on the shelf because of the Cuban culture surrounding Miami, Florida. I'm from Miami and Cubans are a huge chunk of the population there, and not only there, Florida period. So, if I was a Cuban in the United States I would see this as disrespect. Especially because their children our attending these schools, and this is basically sending a message that says, you can't read this book about your own culture, here in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the United States. Now, I do agree about the misleading information in the book that needs to be changed, but that is easy to fix. The author of the book could request that the book be edited again, and then put back out on the bookshelves. After this happens, then I believe Miami-Dade County Public Schools board members, would rely on the other complaint about the title of the book how it's “offense.” I hope ACLU Florida finds a way to fight this one.