A town meeting held September 13 in Fayetteville, Ark., to discuss a proposal from a parent to ban 58 books from the school library underscores the role the Internet is playing in increasing the number and intensity of challenges to books across the country.
Laurie Taylor has withdrawn her 12- and 13-year-old daughters from Fayetteville schools to protest library books she deems inappropriate, and has mobilized support for her cause via www.myppmc.com, the Web site of the group Parents Protecting the Minds of Children, which Taylor helped organize this summer. On the site, Taylor lists the objectionable books (Push: A Novel; Ragtime; and Rainbow Boys among them) and provides examples of the offensive passages and illustrations.
To combat Taylor, the National Coalition Against Censorship became involved, encouraging the citizens of Fayetteville to answer Taylor with a group of their own. According to Pat Scales, director of library services at the South Carolina Governor's School in Greenville, and a member of the advisory board of NCAC who offered advice to the Fayetteville group, "It's getting tough out there because the Internet has helped to mobilize big groups. It's much easier to sensationalize things and take them out of context on the Internet." Scales acknowledged that the Web also helps invigorate the other side of the debate as well.
While the school board vote on September 15 was a bit of a compromise, the use of the Internet is certain to spur more confrontations between free speech advocates and parent activists. Similar cases in Fairfax County, Va. (spurred by the Parents Against Bad Books in Schools Web site, www.pabbis.org), and Blue Valley, Kan., created such a stir that several people from outside those communities came to support both sides at various school board and town meetings. Because of that precedent, the Fayetteville board established that the meeting was open to parents, patrons, students and staff members of the school district, with any remaining seats then open to the public—but only Fayetteville taxpayers were permitted to speak.
The increased use of the Internet is also believed to have played a role in upping the number of censorship efforts. The American Library Association estimates that there were 547 books challenged in 2004, up from 458 in 2003.
