ACLU of Wisconsin Prepares to Sue Barron over Censorship of Gay Books

December 27, 1998

The Barron Area School Board on Monday night, December 21, 1998, decided to continue to censor four books having lesbian and gay themes despite protests from community members and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.  The Board decided to make permanent a ban on the novel "Baby Be-Bop" immediately.  The Board will allow "The Drowning of Stephan Jones," "Two Teenagers in Twenty," and "When Someone You Know is Gay" to go back on the high school library shelves for ninety days, after which time they will be removed or replaced.  The Board acted on motions to reconsider decisions to remove the books made by the District Administrator Vita Sherry and the Board  in August and September.

The ACLU of Wisconsin agreed with many residents of the district when it expressed its frustration and disappointment with the Board.  The District Administrator and a majority of the Board in Barron have not taken the rights of their students to receive information seriously.  The ACLU and community members are chagrined that the Board is harming its students both straight and lesbian or gay.  It is disabling straight students who will have to live and work in a pluralistic society.  It is harming its lesbian and gay students by sending them a terrible message of exclusion and intolerance.

"The Board may not establish a narrow orthodoxy in its library because it is offended by lesbian or gay subject matter," said Chris Ahmuty, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director, in a December 22, 1998, media release.

For the Board to be talking about replacing books instead of removing them is a distinction without a difference.  All books are unique.  It is particularly absurd to "replace" a novel, such as "The Drowning of Stephan Jones."  If anything such talk sounds like double talk.

The Board should know it cannot string out the opponents of censorship.  Supporters of First Amendment rights have been more than patient with the Barron Area School Board.  The Board appears to have used extra time to reconsider its removal decisions to do little more than attempt to make their rationale and procedure seem less questionable.

Volunteer attorneys for the ACLU of Wisconsin at the Madison office of Foley and Lardner are preparing to sue the Barron Area School District on behalf of all the students and residents of the district, current and future, who deserve to have their rights respected.  The ACLU of Wisconsin anticipates that it will file a federal lawsuit after school resumes in January.

Background article posted October 6, 1998.