Pro-Family Groups Offers to Defend Principal, School District Against ACLU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2000
NEWS CONTACT: Joe Glover – 804-419-4483 ext. 456

FOREST, VA – A Virginia pro-family organization is coming to the aid of a Rockingham County school district under fire from the American Civil Liberties Union for requiring a high school teacher to remove from his classroom door pamphlets promoting so-called “banned books.”

Joe Glover, President of the Virginia-based Family Policy Network, plans to offer free legal representation to Spotswood High School principal C. James Slye in Harrisonburg, whom he praised for “taking appropriate and decisive action to protect students’ and parents’ right to truth in education.”

“These lists of so-called ‘banned books’ are a fraud,” Glover said. “Taxpayers have a right to believe their children will be instructed and learn factual information in public schools. They should not be forced to foot the bill for subjecting their children to a liberal special interest group’s fraudulent propaganda. We want to applaud Principal Slye for his leadership, and back his action in the courts.”

According to the Associated Press, the ACLU and several book groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of high school English teacher Jeffrey Newton. Newton’s lawyers claim Slye violated Newton’s First Amendment rights when the principal removed the “Read a Banned Book” pamphlets from the teacher’s door. The pamphlets were published by the American Library Association, which is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg.

Associated Press reports the ALA lists include books such as Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Newton said he was told that a parent complained about other books listed: “The Joy of Gay Sex,” “Understanding Sexual Identity: A Book for Gay Teens and Their Friends” and “Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies.”

Glover said attorneys for the American Family Association Law Center, based in Tupelo, Mississippi, are prepared to “neutralize the ACLU’s routine tactic of intimidation by litigation” by offering to represent Slye and the school district free of charge. Family Policy Network is the state affiliate of AFA.

Glover said most, if not all of the so-called “banned books” listed in the American Library Association pamphlets displayed on the teacher’s door are not banned at all, but have instead been the subject of parental complaints over the years. He said the “banned books” theme is part of a propaganda campaign designed to discredit parents who may have legitimate concerns about the content and age-appropriateness of children’s exposure to certain materials in school.

Family Policy Network is Virginia’s American Family Association affiliate organization.

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For additional information on this story, see:
http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/1999/991018.html#hsban
http://www.littensipe.com/rcsb/answer.html
http://www.aclu.org/news/1999/n120199a.html