Judge says book on Cuba must stay

[Judi Lynn]

July 24, 2006, 2:15PM
Judge says book on Cuba must stay


By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

MIAMI — A federal judge Monday temporarily barred the Miami-Dade County School District from removing a children's book on Cuba from school libraries.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which is seeking to keep the book, "Vamos a Cuba" ("A Visit to Cuba"), in schools. Gold's decision would keep the book on the shelves until the case goes to trial.

Last month, the Miami-Dade school board voted to remove the book from its elementary schools after a parent complained that its depiction of life in the communist nation was overly rosy. The board then expanded that order to all 24 books in the series on children living around the globe.

The Miami-Dade Student Government Association and the ACLU said the board's decision violated students' constitutional right of access to information under the First Amendment.

In a strongly worded decision, the judge gave the school system until the end of the day to restore any books removed from the shelves.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4068102.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Reuters: Court lifts Miami ban of school book about Cuba

Court lifts Miami ban of school book about Cuba

By Tom Brown
2 hours, 22 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) - A federal court judge ordered Miami's public school system on Monday to lift a ban on a children's book about Cuba that critics say fails to paint a bleak picture of life on the communist-ruled island.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold granted a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for a preliminary injunction overturning the Miami-Dade County School Board's ban on a book called "Vamos a Cuba" in Spanish and "A Visit to Cuba" in English from elementary school libraries.

The ACLU filed suit against the school board and its book ban on June 21, saying it marked the first major battle over book censorship by a U.S. public school system since 1982.

ACLU lawyers said the school board had banned "Vamos a Cuba" in response to pressure from Miami's politically powerful Cuban exile community, and the case was reminiscent of past attempts by Cuban exiles to ban magazines favorable to Cuba or concerts by Cuban musicians.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060724/us_nm/rights_cuba_usa_dc;_ylt=A86.I17ZPcVEiVYBYQMWIr0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[rodeodance]

2. stupidity reigns high!

........The board then expanded that order to all 24 books in the series on children living around the globe.

[Dora]

3. "Errors of omission."

Juan Amador Rodriguez, the parent who complained about the book, said he was surprised and disappointed.

"The book has errors. It has errors of omission, omission about the reality of the country," Amador said.

If he were to look at any of his children's American History textbooks, he'll find a few more errors of omission.

Perhaps he could try to get those banned too?

[zreosumgame]

9. And I bet Juan would be even more pissed

if the book had included details about the gambling drug and sex haven Cuba was under the previous government, supported in large part by American money. Or how Fidel was rejected by the US who he first asked for help from (good old anti-commie paranoid Nixon's influence there) so turned to the USSR and had the temerity to win. Yet another enemy made to order...

Oh, but we can be sure he would not want any of THAT mentioned.

[noonwitch]

13. Just show them "The Godfather II"

I thought that Fredo and Hyman Roth caused the Cuban Revolution? LOL.

This is a totally stupid and silly case. A book like this will lead kids to questions like "Can I go on vacation to Cuba", which will lead to a good discussion of why you can't go there, why people are willing to risk their lives on boats to get out of there, and so on.

I hate communism, it's wrong and it kills people's spirituality and individuality. In practice, it limits freedom and promotes a lack of individual responsibility. But it fuels revolutions in places where class inequity and brutal oppression reign. It never made sense to me to support people like Marcos, Pinochet or the Contras for that very reason. If we are truly interested in preventing communism from spreading in those type of situations, we shouldn't be helping brutal dictators who commit genocidal acts, either.

[Rose Siding]

4. Thank you, Judge Gold!

:toast:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Kicking!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Interesting comment on Miami censorship from Huffingtonpost:

~snip~
I've lived in Miami for almost 20 years. During this time, I've seen movies, musicians, artist banned, and even Nelson Mandela criticized by this community.
I watched them break the law over the return of a child to his rightful parent.
Their political mentality is akin to Battista, the dictator Castro overturned.
They oppose ending the embargo. They oppose normalizing relations.
To be fair not all of the members of the community harbor these views. There is a Democracy Movement.
However, to the Miami exile community anything originating from Cuba under Castro is devoid of value.
A personal experience, I was reading a semi-favorable biography of Castro by writer Tad Szulc, on the Metrorail one day on my way to the office. My reading the book was met with such anger, fearing for my safety, I left the train.
By way of another example, years ago I was teaching a course in educational law at the county's state university. During my lecture on the first amendment one of the students, who were all Miami-Dade County teachers, raised her hand and asked "Isn't this all to much trouble?" I thought to myself, imagine what kind of political system Cuba will have sans Castro.
I doesn't surprise me that this children's book would be banned.
It also makes me cringe when Cubans use the word "Diaspora" to describe their plight.
(snip/...)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/07/01/cuban-librarians-protest-_n_24195.html

[mitchum]

22. The use of the word "diaspora" from the lips of Cuban "exiles" also...

sets my teeth on edge

[AlphaCentauri]

7. this book must be omitting the alphabetization rates in Cuba

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. You ARE from somewhere in Latin America, aren't you?

Or else you'd be using the term "literacy" instead of "alphabetization" :hi:

[AlphaCentauri]

18. I'm Nacho Libre, .... and you are?

Memorable Quotes from Nacho Libre

Nacho: They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do!
Esqueleto: I don't believe in God, I believe in science.
Nacho: I'm not listening to you! You only believe in Science. That's probably why we never win!
Esqueleto: We never win because you are fat!
Nacho: It sucks to be me right now!
Esqueleto: How come?
Nacho: How come you think? I used to really like Ramses. I wanted to become him! But it turns out, he's a real douche.

:toast:

[Mika]

8. Heavens forbid that a book mentions that Cuban kids go to school..

.. learn to read, write, do math, and play soccer, baseball, and ride bicycles with their friends..

That's pretty much the content of this book for kids and about kids in other countries.


Yet another example of the level of political pandering to the dangerous extremist minority of "exiles" in Miami.

[Nutmegger]

10. All this over a silly book?

OMG! Talk about censorship...

[heliarc]

11. Bad translation

"A visit to Cuba" is NOT a proper translation for the phrase "Vamos a Cuba" more accurate is "Let's go to Cuba." Just thought I'd clear that up. Why do translations get so bad? Sheesh

[Igel]

14. So a school board must not violate the students'

constitutional right to information?

Does that include *all* information, or just the information that the librarians hired by the principles under the authority of the school board want to provide?

Or perhaps the judge will moonlight as an "information content provider", saying what information the students have a constitutional right to?

While I've generally disagreed with school boards' banning books, it's never struck me as a First Amendment issue; it's struck me as an educational issue, a local autonomy/political issue, and an issue over how to resolve conflicts in cultural values. Librarians don't have a constitutional right to decide how to spend the schools' money, and publishers and authors don't have a constitutional right to having their products purchased by any level of government.

[SensibleAmerican]

19. This case looks like it's going up on appeal

Hopefully, some clearer guidelines can be given as to what is allowable and what is not.

[krkaufman]

15. "overly rosy"

I think those terms might apply to every bloody kids book and elementary school history book in the US. It's time we start kids off reading w/ a book by Howard Zinn! :)

[Judi Lynn]

16. Banned books ordered back on shelves

Posted on Tue, Jul. 25, 2006

Banned books ordered back on shelves
A series of children's books banned last month by the Dade School Board must remain in libraries while the district fights a lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
[e-mail]

A federal judge on Monday ordered all copies of Vamos a Cuba and 23 other children's books returned to Miami-Dade school libraries, hobbling the School Board's attempt to ban the controversial books.

In a sometimes scathing 89-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold said the School Board ``abused its discretion in a manner that violated the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment.''

His ruling was not final, but the preliminary injunction will apply while the American Civil Liberties Union and Student Government Association continue their lawsuit against the School Board. Depending on the board's response, that could be weeks or years.

''What the board did was so clearly wrong, factually and legally,'' said Randall Marshall, legal director for the ACLU of Florida, referring to the board's June vote to remove the 24 titles from all school libraries.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15114360.htm

[AlphaCentauri]

17. where is the list of the other book titles? n/t

[Judi Lynn]

20. I found a list of some of the books at this location:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-1403441472-0#

Australia

Australia

Brazil

Costa Rica

Egypt

Egypt

Israel

Japan

Japan

Mexico

Mexico

Puerto Rico

I believe the double entries indicate books which are also in paperback. This list is not complete, obviously, as there are 24 books. If I had time to sift through the overload of articles on the banned Cuba book I could probably find a complete list, but it would take forever, as it seems.

It appears the series was written by various authors.

[Blue_Tires]

21. ttt n/t