Project-Int.+Freedom

Part 1: Reconsideration Process ** Once the complainant has filled out the request for reconsideration of materials and turned it into the school principal, the formal reconsideration process begins.
 * 


 * 1.** The first step would be to gather a reconsideration committee with members appointed by the building principal. (This should happen within 5 working days after the form is received).

The reconsideration committee should include the following:

· The building principal · One teacher from the building of the appropriate grade level · The school’s librarian · A parent from the school · A curriculum administrator

**2.** The reconsideration committee will all receive a packet to review with the following:

· The patron’s Request for Reconsideration of Materials form · The material being reconsidered · Reviews of the material from professional and scholarly review sources · Reconsideration Committee Report Form


 * 3.** Within 10 days after receiving the packet the committee will meet to discuss the materials in the packet, and prepare a report with their recommendation. Their recommendation will be one of three things:

· Retention of Material (with or without modifications) · Removal of Material from this school · Removal of Material at district level


 * 4.** The school principal will forward this report to the Superintendent of Schools, and within 5 days shall forward the report to the patron.


 * 5.** If the patron is not satisfied with the committee’s decision, the patron may write an appeal to the School Board through the Superintendent. This must be done within 10 working days after the patron receives the report from the Superintendent. (If not appealed within 10 days the findings of the Reconsideration Committee, will stand).


 * 6.** If an appeal is filed the following steps will be taken:

i. The librarian will prepare and distribute a review packet for the school board at the next scheduled school board meeting. ii. The board will establish a timeline for the review of the committee. iii. The Superintendent of Schools will notify the patron as well as the librarian of the School Board’s decision. This is the final decision that will stand.

**Part 2 Organization Reviews** The ACLU works to protect the First Amendment rights of everyone including students. || **PABBIS** - [] This organization stands for Parents against bad books in schools. This organization feels like schools are corrupting their children by allowing, what they deem as inappropriate books, them to have access to these books at school. They contend that just because it is not at school, doesn’t mean it is banned from the community, but that schools should not violate a family’s religion, beliefs, or values, and that parent should have the right to decide what their children will not read. ||  || The goal of this organization is to, “educate libraries and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.” One of the big projects by this group is “Banned Books Week” where libraries celebrate the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. They also defend the library Bill of Rights which states that, “Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.” ||^  ||   || This organization was founded by a group of parents who are “concerned with the content and quality of many of the books in our public schools.” The content on the website is focused on the Blue Valley School District, but support the idea in all school districts. ||  || The AFA is a nonprofit organization that “represents and stands for traditional family values and exists to motivate and equip citizens to reform our culture to reflect Biblical truth on which it was founded.” They believe in holding those accountable that sponsor or endorse programs that attack traditional family values. ||  || This organization supports the protection of First Amendment Rights for all people. They devote a section of their website to Schools and Censorship stating that, “Our basic right — the freedom to express ourselves as we see fit — is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States' Constitution, ensuring the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unpopular or unorthodox.” ||^  ||   || The Eagle forum takes a stand on many issues, including education. They state that, “We support parents’ rights to guide the education of their own children, to protect their children against immoral instruction and materials, and to home-school without oppressive government regulations.” ||  || EFF is a group devoted to the battle affecting digital rights. They provide a line of defense when our freedoms in the networked world are under attack. They believe that technologies are empowering our society as “speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers.” They support the protection of the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech. Their specialty is dealing with these issues in the digital medium. ||^  ||   || This organization’s mission is to support families as they teach their family about God, and to “protect themselves from the harmful influences of culture and equip themselves to make a greater difference in the lives of those around them.” ||   || This group supports the idea that parents have the right to choose what their students can read at school. While they state that their objective is not to remove any books from the library, but to enforce our parental rights to choose for our children, I still think that they would be on the side for removal of this book from the library. Their website includes a list of books deemed “inappropriate” as well as forms for reconsideration of library materials. ||  || The NCAC collaborated to develop the “Kids’ right to read project” which “offers support, education, and advocacy to people facing book challenges or bans and engages local activists in promoting the freedom to read.” ||^   ||   ||
 * **Supporting Organizations** || **Organizations that would take issue with the book** ||  ||
 * **American Civil Liberties Union -**[|**http://www.aclu.org**]
 * ** American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom ** – [|**http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/index.cfm**]
 * ^  || **ClassKC.org -** [|**http://www.classkc.org/index.html**]
 * ^  || **American Family Association –** [|**http://www.afa.net**]
 * People for the American Way – []
 * ^  || **The Eagle Forum –** [|**http://www.eagleforum.org**]
 * **Electronic Frontier Foundation** [|**http://www.eff.org**]
 * ^  || **Focus on the Family –** [|**http://www.family.org**]
 * ^  || **Parents Protecting the Minds of Children -** [|**http://www.teachclean.com**]
 * **National Coalition Against Censorship –** [|**http://www.ncac.org/**]

**Part 3: Important points from Selection Policies** principles of the Library Bill of Rights apply equally to all libraries, including school library media programs.”
 * ** Fayetteville, AR ** || ** Blue Valley, KS ** ||
 * “The school library media program plays a unique role in promoting intellectual freedom. It serves as a point of voluntary access to information and ideas and as a learning laboratory for students as they acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed in a pluralistic society. Although the educational level and program of the school necessarily shapes the resources and services of a school library media program, the

//I like the way this statement describes Intellectual Freedom and applies it to the School Library setting. The link to the Bill of Rights is also very useful for those not familiar with them. It makes it clear that School Libraries do promote Intellectual Freedom in their selections. // || “Students, their parents, residents and staff of the District shall be provided with the opportunity to challenge the quality and suitability of learning resources used in the District’s Educational programs.”

// I like that this statement, specifically defines who can file a challenge. This section further defines each type of complaintent and outlines specific procedures for each different person. // || Spring. This does not mean all material can have a public preview before being made available to students as some items come in throughout the year to satisfy a curricular requirement. If a parent wishes to see materials not available in the Fall/Spring Parent Review, he/she should work with the school librarian to follow up with purchases made throughout the year.
 * Each library will maintain a printed list of materials at the library counter and on the school library web site that shows what has been selected and slated for acquisition. Each school librarian will offer a “Parent Preview” at the school the day before books are to be placed on the shelves, once in the Fall and once in the

//This policy gives parent the opportunity to view the new materials that are going to be in the LMS. This makes parents feel important and part of the process in acquiring materials. If you give this opportunity, the parents will have less of an opportunity to complain later, because they were offered the opportunity to view the books ahead of time. // || Any Directly Affected Person with a complaint about any Learning Resource(s) shall first discuss that complaint with the teacher using the resource(s) or the library media specialist in the case of a library media resource. If the complainant wishes to pursue the matter he/she shall contact the principal. The principal will advise the complainant of the option to file a “Request for Reconsideration of Learning Resources.” The material will be retained in use until the matter is resolved as per board policy.

// The last part of this statement is the part that I like, making sure that it is clear the material will stay in circulation until the matter is resolved. I also think it is important for it to be a part of the policy for the complainant to discuss the issue with the LMS before filing a challenge, often times the issue can be resolved at this stage. // || Reconsideration of selected materials shall be the responsibility of a Reconsideration Committee formed by the principal at the school where the patron filed the request. The Reconsideration Committee is charged with making one of three recommendations: 1. Retention of the material (with or without modifications), 2. Removal of material from this school, or 3. Removal of material at district level.
 * Reconsideration Committee:

//I like how this lays out the exact outcomes of the reconsideration committee. It leaves no room for question, one of three outcomes will happen once the committee has met. // || Indirectly Affected Persons may complain about a Learning Resource only by writing to the Superintendent or Board of Education. The Superintendent shall respond to that complaint within a reasonable time, and may (but is not required to) refer the resource for review pursuant to the procedures of the Directly Affected Persons part of this policy.

// What a great idea. If you do not have a direct affect from the book you must write to the Superintendent and he makes the call. This would probably deter many of the busy bodies looking for a fight from filing complaints that just waste the time of everyone involved. // || The packets are prepared for each committee member and contain copies of the following: the patron’s completed //Patron’s// //Request for Reconsideration of a Work// form, the //Checklist for Reconsideration// //Committee (Appendix C)//, the //Reconsideration Committee Report form (Appendix D),// the material being reconsidered, and reviews of the material from standard professional and scholarly review sources.
 * **Reconsideration Committee Packet: **

//I like the uniformity of this, it provides all the needed materials for each member of the committee. Everyone gets the same thing, and the same reviews of the book to read. // || Students along with their parents have the right to request an alternate selection if a novel assigned is not considered acceptable by the family for the student to read. The Superintendent shall develop guidelines for parental notification and alternate selection of assigned Communication Arts novels.

// I like this because instead of filing a challenge of materials, and trying to get the book removed for anyone to read, this allows alternates for people who feel something is not appropriate. // || request on file is complete. In order to establish a process to allow all materials to be dealt with fairly, these procedures allow no more than a total of 4 books to be under reconsideration within the district at any given time.
 * In order for a Request for Reconsideration of a work to be handled effectively, requests may only be accepted beginning the first day of any school year through the last student contact day in March. To assure that all materials will be dealt with fairly, no more than two requests for reconsideration of a work will be accepted from one patron at a time//.// When a Request for Reconsideration is in process, no other requests concerning the same material filed at any other school will be heard until the

//I like that this puts restrictions on the amount of requests by any patron at a time, so that one person cannot just decide to challenge all the questionable materials at once. Also that no more than 4 books can be under reconsideration at one time. This makes sure that the librarian can still perform other duties, not just on dealing with reconsiderations. // || Contribution of representative viewpoints, including, but not limited to, multicultural, disability awareness, and gender-fair concepts.

//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">This is a broad statement that covers a lot. By including this you are saying that you are providing materials that represent different viewpoints on most any issue. // ||