Ohio Principal Judges Magazine by Its Cover
The removal last fall of an issue of a gaming magazine from a media-center collection has attracted the attention of the local teachers union and the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sent a cautionary letter to the school board president.
Shortly after the 2008–09 school year began, Brian Sharosky, principal of the Cleveland Heights–University Heights (Ohio) City School District’s Roxboro Middle School, instructed school librarian Amy Bloomberg to pull the November 2008 issue of Nintendo Power magazine from the shelves of the school library. Sharosky said he objected to the cover, which showed what he characterized as a “violent figure”— a videogame-like rendering of woman holding a large handgun—by way of promoting a feature about the release of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
Bloomberg objected on the grounds that Sharosky had failed to follow request-for-reconsideration procedures set forth by the school board. Sharosky removed the magazine anyway, asserting that the material was neither age appropriate nor educationally suitable for middle-school students.
The media specialist approached the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union with her concern. The union responded by meeting with the board and then issuing a position paper December 16 calling for the magazine’s reinstatement. Three days later, the board responded that it “empowers the administration to make educational decisions in this regard, including the ability to remove or ‘weed’ materials that are of doubtful literary quality.” In a January 16 posting on the union website, CHTU President Tom Schmida called Sharosky’s action a “dangerous precedent” for the district. Schmida told American Libraries that his concern was not about the content of Nintendo Power but the way in which Sharosky removed it.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio stepped into the fray March 18 with a letter (PDF file) that called the magazine issue’s removal “a violation of the First Amendment as well as the written policies of the School Board.” The letter points out that, despite the board’s insistence that the district complaint policy about curricular and library materials applies only to patrons, a separate policy titled Selection of Controversial Materials “requires that there be a procedure whereby citizens, staff, or pupils may challenge materials.”
Because of this discrepancy, ACLU attorney Michael Honohan told AL, the civil-liberties group is also seeking that the school board clarify or amend its policies. He said the magazine’s removal is both a violation of the First Amendment and a violation of “students’ freedom to be educated.” Honohan also maintained that school administrators’ involvement in the library’s selection process undermines the librarians’ role as professionals.
However, the school board continues to support Sharosky’s decision even as it underscores that it values the First Amendment and the diversity of ideas. “In point of fact,” board spokesman Michael Dougherty told AL, “the issue here involves an incorrect reading of the board’s policy [by the union and the ACLU], which would remove the authority of a building administrator to make necessary judgments about age inappropriateness in a timely fashion.” Dougherty said that school district officials do not anticipate further action regarding the incident.
Posted on March 27, 2009. Discuss.