Sarah Schoenholtz: Reporting for Nassau News, this is Sarah Schoenholtz
Interview with Danielle Hindieh:
And, uh, eventually they allowed us to start the civil liberties union, uh we held voter registration drives, we held anti Bush rallies, uh, we held, uh, panel discussions where we had experts come in from all different sides of, you know, the political spectrum and debate we talked about censorship, we talked about, um, you know, uh, the Iraq war, we talked about Afghanistan, um, it was actually a really enlightening period, um, in college because you got to see, you know, things from all around you, got to find out what your rights were in this country, um, and so I was glad that we started the chapter at CW post, um, and you know it continues to this day, so…
Interview with Tara Keenan-Thomson, Executive Director of NYCLU Nassau County chapter.
Sarah Schoenholtz: What is the basis of the ex that u are presenting currently in the Locust Valley Library.
Tara Keenan-Thomson: uh, well it’s an example on censorship in public schools and libraries, and it deals with specific instances of censorship throughout America and there’s, there’s, uh, a good few examples of censorship that have censorship that has happened in Long Island
Schoenholtz: Do you have any specific ex’s of censorship on Long Island or in Nassau County that you could recall?
T: :laughs: – I’m sure I do, yeah, well I mean there’s the famous Island Trees case which um which went to United States Supreme Court and that case involved a school bored taking books off the shelf, um, from the school library, uh, because they were listed on um, you know, some organizations list as, um, I think the quote was ‘un-American, uh, anti Semitic ,and just plain filthy’ something like that so, um, so they went and took those books off the shelf and um and students actually then, um, wanted to sue based on their access to information and 1st amendment, so, we did represented them and that went all the way up the Supreme Court and it became a landmark decision that once the books are on the self the stay on the shelf
S: I read that in the pamphlet that you had out there, I actually took one if that’s ok?
T: Yeah, sure.
S: Ok, ok and what are you doing or hoping to do or hoping to change by presenting this exhibit in local libraries?
T: um basically what we want to do is let people know that censorship is alive and well. And that we need to beware of all the different kinds on censorship because a lot of people don’t realize um that you know censorship is happening in the schools and in the libraries and, um, you know, often times librarians don’t realize it or teachers don’t realize that they are censoring when they’re, when they’re, doing different things and they don’t realize the impact that that might have on the students education and the public’s education so, so we want people to just be aware that this is alive and well and we need to guard against it.
S: Are you meeting any opposition from the libraries or schools that you wanted to put this exhibit in?
T: No.
S: No, well that’s good. – And is there anything for schools and libraries that are being censored now? Like is there any censorship that you know of that is happening in the most recent 2000 years, I mean like 2000 until now?
T: Censorship happens every day, you know, I can rattle off a million different examples of times where, uh, a teacher may change the language of a play that they’re performing often ties if they have a Broadway style play that they perform, um, they tend to be very sexually suggestive and so they may have teachers trying to um figure out what the line is between having a fifteen year old get on stage and do you know perform a sexually suggestive dance for example and um and freedom of expression and um freedom, freedom of access to ideas. And so it’s a very hard thing to balance for teachers, having been a teacher, I understand that, um, so I mean it literally, I don’t have examples of things having gone to the courts, um, in the past year but, um, but having worked in schools having worked with people who’ve worked in schools um and libraries, it’s something everybody must battle against, the instinct to just shield, um, students and and its something that everybody must weigh and come out with, um, their own approach to it and hopefully with this exhibit they can look and see how different schools and libraries have approached it, um, and successfully gotten through it.
S: Do any students or have any students in the most recent, maybe 5 to 7 years, come to you or your organization and asked for help, saying “Hi I’m being censored, can you help me out?”
T: Um, not specifically in terms of their expression, but their access to ideas, yes, we had one student from a Nassau County school saying that they’re not getting any sex education.
S: I’m assuming it’s a public school?
T: Yes.
S: Ok.
T: And that the only thing being taught in that particular public school is abstinence only, and it’s kind of shocking when u think, oh we’re from NY, and you know, we already know the rules about this, and we know what we can and can’t do, you we sort of take, un we see ourselves of NY exceptionalists, like it doesn’t happen here, because we’re so liberal, or we’re so open to these ideas, we’re so multicultural, and that like of thing but actually in um, in places like this, where you have a lot of, uh, um, you know, different school systems and that kind of thing it can happen and that it can happen very easily because it not under, you know, 1 you know, huge system’s control, you know.
Interview with Alex Ehrlich, graduate of Locust Valley High School; Current Hofstra University Junior
Sarah Schoenholtz: May I have your name please?
Alex Ehrlich: Alex Ehrlich
S: And what was your experience at Locust Valley High School?
E: about censorship, I guess?
S: Of censorship, yes.
E: You weren’t allowed to search for any images at all for fear that we would search for pornographic things, that’s what they said at least.
S: That’s interesting. Were you ever, were you allowed to look for something as simple as a chair? Or no because…?
E: You had to have a librarian or a teacher assign in and override all the security things they had in place.
S: Was there any type of acceptable use policy for the internet that you signed, as a freshman, with your family?
E: There probably was yes.
S: And do you remember if that said anything like, no image searching?
E: I didn’t read it.
S: Ok.
Sarah, closing statement:
So the war against censorship is not over, there are books that are still being challenged today in pub schools across the country, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Citizens are not able to enjoy the books that they’re entitled to by their first amendment rights. This is Sarah Schoenholtz, for Nassau News, thank you.
Transcription of Movie:
Reporting for Nassau News, this is Sarah Schoenholtz
Alex Ehrlich: You weren’t allowed to search for any images at all for fear that we would search for pornographic things, that’s what they said at least.
Danielle Hindieh: they allowed us to start the civil liberties union, uh we held voter registration drives, we talked about censorship, I was glad that we started the chapter at CW post.
Tara Keenan-Thomson: it’s an example on censorship in public schools and libraries, and it deals with specific instances of censorship throughout America. [There are] A few examples of censorship that have censorship that has happened in Long Island. I mean there’s the famous Island Trees case which um which went to United States Supreme Court and that case involved a school bored taking books off the shelf, students, wanted to sue based on their access to information and it became a landmark decision that once the books are on the self the stay on the shelf. Let people know that censorship is alive and well.
Song playing in background, “Banned in the USA” by 2 Live Crew while montage of Censorship Exhibit images from NYCLU Nassau Chapter, posted in Nassau County libraries over the summer 2008.
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