Arizona School Censorship Hit by Salvo of Protest from Free Speech Orgs and Educators

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

________________________________________

This is the press release sent out on Monday, January 30, 2012, announcing the Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District, dated January 30, 2012.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Joan Bertin Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship bertin@ncac.org 212-807-6222 x 101 Michael O’Neil Communications Coordinator National Coalition Against Censorship michael@ncac.org 212-807-6222 x 107

Chris Finan President American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression Chris@abffe.org 212-587-4025 x 301 Amy Long Communications Coordinator American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression amyl@abffe.org 212-587-4025 x 302

Arizona School Censorship Hit By Salvo of Protest

From Free Speech Orgs and Educators

TUSCON, AZ, January 30, 2012

Dozens of national organizations have joined together to protest the banning of books used for the Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). “This is censorship at its most brazen,” said Joan Bertin, Executive Director at the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). “Officials at the state and local level are responsible for this unacceptable restriction on the educational opportunities of students and their ability to have discussion in school about historical and contemporary events touching on race and ethnicity.

“We call on them to restore the books and the topics for discussion in the district’s classrooms.”

The TUSD board ordered the books removed after State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal threatened to withhold state funding pursuant to a recently-enacted Arizona law. That law is being challenged in court.

“We do not think the students of Tucson should have to wait for a federal court order to get the education they deserve,” said Chris Finan, President of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE). “Regardless of the outcome of legal proceedings, this is harming students, whose education should be the primary concern of elected officials.  Instead they are putting politics and ideology ahead of the well-being of young people.”

NCAC and ABFFE have jointly created the Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), which offers support, education, and advocacy to promote the right of young people to read widely and to receive a high quality education that is challenging and relevant.  KRRP provides direct assistance to students, teachers, librarians and others opposing book-banning in schools and communities nationwide, while engaging local activists to promote the freedom to read.

In the shocking case of Tuscon, many national organizations dedicated to education and constitutional rights have organized to speak in one voice, calling on the appropriate authorities to correct what they see as an egregious abuse of power.

The joint statement to Arizona officials, with signatories including representatives from publishers, teachers, civil libertarians, and booksellers from the region, may be viewed at ncac.org and abffe.org.

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO BOOK CENSORSHIP IN THE TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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At 8:00 AM, Mountain Standard Time, teachers who taught in the Mexican American Studies Department distributed the statement below at the White House Hispanic Community Action Summit in Tucson, Arizona (updated at 10:33 AM, CST held a press conference where they read aloud the statement below). It is signed by national educational associations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the International Reading Association (IRA):

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO BOOK CENSORSHIP

IN THE TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

January 30, 2012

The undersigned organizations are committed to protecting free speech and intellectual freedom. We write to express our deep concern about the removal of books used in the Mexican-American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District. This occurred in response to a determination by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal that the program “contained content promoting resentment toward a race or class of people” and that “materials repeatedly reference white people as being ‘oppressors….’ in violation of state law.” The books have been boxed up and put in storage; their fate and that of the program remain in limbo.

The First Amendment is grounded on the fundamental rule that government officials, including public school administrators, may not suppress “an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” School officials have a great deal of authority and discretion to determine the curriculum, the subject of courses, and even methods of instruction. They are restrained only by the constitutional obligation to base their decisions on sound educational grounds, and not on ideology or political or other personal beliefs. Thus, school officials are free to debate the merits of any educational program, but that debate does not justify the wholesale removal of books, especially when the avowed purpose is to suppress unwelcome information and viewpoints.

School officials have insisted that the books haven’t been banned because they are still available in school libraries. It is irrelevant that the books are available in the library – or at the local bookstore. School officials have removed materials from the curriculum, effectively banning them from certain classes, solely because of their content and the messages they contain. The effort to “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, [or] religion” is the essence of censorship, whether the impact results in removal of all the books in a classroom, seven books, or only one.

Students deserve an education that provides exposure to a wide range of topics and perspectives, including those that are controversial. Their education has already suffered from this political and ideological donnybrook, which has caused massive disruption in their classes and will wreak more havoc as teachers struggle to fill the educational vacuum that has been created.

Book-banning and thought control are antithetical to American law, tradition and values. In Justice Louis Brandeis's famous words, the First Amendment is founded on the belief:

that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; … that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination …. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, [the Framers] eschewed silence coerced by law …. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

The First Amendment right to read, speak and think freely applies to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or national origin. We strongly urge Arizona school officials to take this commitment seriously and to return all books to classrooms and remove all restrictions on ideas that can be addressed in class.

American Association of University Professors

Cary Nelson, President

1133 19th St., NW, Suite 200

Washington, D.C. 20036

202-737-5900

crnelson@illinois.edu

American Booksellers For Free Expression

Chris Finan, President

19 Fulton Street, Suite 407

New York, NY 10038

212-587-4025

chris@abffe.org

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona

Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director

P.O. Box 17148

Phoenix, AZ 85011-0148

602-773-6006

ameetze@acluaz.org

Antigone Books

Trudy Mills, Owner

411 N. 4th Ave.

Tucson, AZ 85705

520-792-3715

info@antigonebooks.com

Arizona English Teachers' Association
Jean Boreen, Executive Secretary
Northern Arizona University, English Department
P.O. BOX 6032
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6032
Jean.Boreen@nau.edu


Arizona Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Craig Lefever, President
P.O. Box 881
Yuma, AZ 85366
Craig.lefever@yc.edu

Association of American Publishers

Judith Platt, Director, Free Expression & Advocacy

455 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

202-220-4551

jplatt@publishers.org

Association of American University Presses

Peter Givler, Executive Director

28 West 36th Street, Suite 602

New York, NY 10018

212-989-1010

pgivler@aaupnet.org

Atlanta’s Music & Books

Joan Werner, Owner

38 Main Street
Bisbee, AZ 85603

520-432-9976

Authors Guild

Paul Aiken, Executive Director

31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10016

212-563-5904

PAiken@authorsguild.org

Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking

Dr. Kathryn F. Whitmore, President

N275 Lindquist Center

The University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242

319-335-5434

Kathryn-whitemore@uiowa.edu

Changing Hands Bookstore

Gayle Shanks and Bob Sommer, Owners

6428 S McClintock Drive

Tempe, AZ 85283

480-730-0205

inbox@changinghands.com

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Charles Brownstein, Executive Director

255 West 36th Street, Suite 501

New York, NY 10018

212-679-7151

charles.brownstein@cbldf.org

Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliate of the American Library Association

Barbara M. Jones, Executive Director

50 East Huron Street

Chicago, IL 60611

312-280-4226

bjones@ala.org

International Reading Association

Richard M. Long, Ed.D., Director, Government Relations

444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 524

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 624-8801

rlong@reading.org

Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association

Laura Ayrey, Executive Director

8020 Springshire Drive

Park City, UT 84098

435-649-6079

laura@mountainsplains.org

National Coalition Against Censorship

Joan Bertin, Executive Director

19 Fulton Street, Suite 407

New York, NY 10038

212-807-6242

bertin@ncac.org

National Council for the Social Studies

Susan Griffin, Executive Director

8555 16th St, Ste 500

Silver Spring, MD  20910

 301.588.1800 x 103

sgriffin@ncss.org

National Council of Teachers of English

Millie Davis, Division Director

Communications and Affiliate Services

1111 West Kenyan Road

Urbana, IL 61801

800-369-6283 ext. 3634

mdavis@ncte.org 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Kichoon Yang, Executive Director
1906 Association Drive

Reston, VA 20191-1502

703-620-9840

kyang@nctm.org

National Education Association

Michael D. Simpson, Assistant General Counsel

NEA Office of General Counsel

1201 16th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20036

202-822-7035

msimpson@nea.org

National Youth Rights Association

Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Executive Director

1101 15th Street, NW Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-835-1739

akpalicz@youthrights.org

PEN American Center

Larry Siems, Director, Freedom to Write & International Programs

588 Broadway

New York, NY 10012

212-334-1660 ext. 105

lsiems@pen.org

PEN Center USA

Adam Somers, Executive Director

P.O. Box 6037

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

323-424-4939

adam@penusa.org

People For the American Way

Debbie Liu, General Counsel

1101 15th Street NW, Suite 600

Washington, D.C. 20005

202-467-4999

dliu@pfaw.org

Reach Out and Read

Anne-Marie Fitzgerald

Senior Director of National and State Programs

56 Roland Street, Suite 100D

Boston, MA 02129

618-455-0600

Reading is Fundamental, Inc.

Carol Hampton Rasco, President/CEO

1255 23^rd Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20037

202-536-3500

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

Lin Oliver, Executive Director

8271 Beverly Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90048

323-782-1010

linoliver@scbwi.org

Spark Teacher Education Institute

Educational Praxis, Inc.

P.O. Box 409

Putney, Vermont 05346

802-258-9212

Student Press Law Center

Frank LoMonte, Executive Director

1101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1100

Arlington, VA 22209-2275 USA

703-807-1904

flomonte@splc.org

TESOL International Association

John Segota, CAE, Associate Executive Director for Public Policy & Professional Relations

1925 Ballenger Ave., Suite 550

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-518-2513

jsegota@tesol.org

(List in formation)

_____________________________________

For further information contact:

Joan Bertin, National Coalition Against Censorship, 212-807-6222, Bertin@ncac.org

or 

Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, 212-587-4025, chris@Abffe.org

Chris Crutcher on Matt de la Pena's book being banned: "This is racism, plain and simple."

Tucson Unified School District has a long history of failing its Mexican American students. This is true elsewhere, too, across the country. The PBS documentary "Taking Back the Schools" (below) is primarily about Mexican Americans in East Los Angeles in the 1960s.

In the 1960s, tired of being tracked into vocational classes and feeling shame for being Mexican American, students in East LA decided to go before the school board asking for changes. They did a survey of fellow students asking them what they wanted to present to the school board. They wanted  bilingual instruction, Mexican American history courses, Mexican American teachers, and an end to corporal punishment. They also wanted access to college prep classes so they could go on to college.

Carmen Lomas Garza, author of In My Family/En Mi Familia, was a young child in the schools then. In the video (at the 5:45 mark) she talks of being made fun of when she took out her lunch of tacos with frijoles, meat, and rice. It was so bad that she didn't want to take that lunch to school anymore.

Her book won the Americas Picture Book Award in 1996, and in 1997 it received the Pure Belpre Honor Award, and was listed as a Notable Book by the International Reading Association.

In 1997, her book also won the Tomas Rivera Children's Book Award, which brings us back to the present and the ban of the Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson Unified School District. Tomas Rivera's books are among those that were taught in the MAS program.

Until it was shut down in January, the Tucson MAS program was doing precisely what students wanted in 1968, and it was doing precisely what college students are been taught in teacher education courses. Use multicultural literature and teach critical thinking!

The outcome? Students did better in school, graduated at higher rates, and went on to college at higher rates than students who were not in the MAS classes. They read Matt de la Pena's Mexican WhiteBoy.


Matt de la Pena

Matt de la Pena's Mexican WhiteBoy is amongst the books that were taught in the MAS literature courses, but it is more than that...  His book is mentioned on page 29 of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Kowal's decision about the program, in the section titled "Latino Literature." As such, it is evidence that the MAS program violates the law. Here's the text from that section:

Latino Literature
160. Drafts of the Pacing Guides for the MAS junior and senior Latino Literature courses demonstrate that elements of critical race theory and critical pedagogy encompass a significant portion of the course.
161. Proposed required reading for these classes include "Justice: A Question of Race," by Roberto Rodriguez and "Mexican Whiteboy" by Matt de la Pena.
162. Juniors in Latino Literature appear to study "Our History-Indigenous Roots and the Mexican Revolution Novels."
163. Senior Latino Literature students appear to devote an entire quarter of the semester to "Critical Race Theatre," in which they are required to "critically dissect and identify components of critical race theory through literary works."
164. Student assessments from these courses show that the focus on Latino Literature is the oppression of Mexican Americans by the White European race.
165. As an example, one second semester final exam for a Latino Literature course used in the spring of 2011 tests students with the following essay prompt:

All year long we have read stories where the Mexican Americans were discriminated against, taken advantage of, oppressed, etc. We are destined to repeat history if we don't do something to change it. Reflect on what we have read about this year and in an essay, write about what we can do as a group to change things. What will you do as an individual to change things? Select one of the pieces we have read this year that reflects the point that you are trying to make in your essay.

Throughout the document, some things were underscored (as shown above) by the Department of Education. Apparently, those portions are "the smoking gun", so to speak. From my perspective, however, all of that sounds fine, especially for college prep classes. 

Matt de la Pena has been following and writing about all of this at his blog. He will be in Tucson, at Tucson High School, on March 13. He writes:

Ironically, I'm scheduled to speak at Tucson High School on March 13. A young female student there spearheaded the whole thing. She went to the administration on her own accord and helped raise funds. She's a self-admitted reluctant reader, but she was introduced to my books in a class much like the one above, and something clicked. Because of her effort and passion, this has been the visit I'm most looking forward to this year. I can't wait to meet her. 

He links to the video (below) of Yolanda Sotelo who taught at Pueblo High School and used his book.

Among the comments to his blog post is one from Chris Crutcher. He writes:

Hey Matt, the responders here have said it as well as it can be said. I’ll what I can to bring as much light to this as possible. Let me know if you have ideas. I’ve been able to laugh off book bannings based on irrational right wing Christian fears (and politically correct left-wing fears as well) for years. There were even times I (foolishly) believed those folks wanted the same things for young people that I wanted; just had a different belief about how to get there. But this is racism pure and simple. I’m sick of living in a country in which it’s become more heinous to CALL someone a racist than it is to BE a racist. There will come a time, I hope in my lifetime, when the ethnic scales will tilt and these assholes will be voted out of office. Until then, let’s do what we can to make their lives interesting.

Crutcher is right. This is racism pure and simple. Crutcher's "I'm sick of living in a country in which it's become more heinous to CALL someone racist than it is to BE a racist" is especially powerful.

I'm glad some of the well-established authors like Crutcher are paying attention. Students in TUSD's MAS program read works by Mexican American, and American Indian, and Asian American, and African American authors. They were taught to think critically. They went from being uninterested---and perhaps reluctant readers like Matt was---to being students like Matt who go on to college.

I'm closing this post with part one of a four-part video of Matt de la Pena talking with high school students. His personal story is important, and the opportunity to read his books from a Mexican American perspective in a Mexican American class should never have been taken away from the students in TUSD.

__________
For a chronological list of AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies program, click here.

To participate in the Feb 1, 2011 National Teach-In, go here.

Jan 28 Updates regarding shut-down of Mexican American Studies program at Tucson Unified School District

 [Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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Below is Curtis Acosta's January 26, 2012 update from Tucson. Acosta is a teacher in the now-shuttered Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson Unified School District.

Norma Gonzales

In his letter, Acosta writes about his colleague, Norma Gonzales, and her experiences over the last few days. In addition to teaching literature at the high school level, Gonzales worked with elementary school teachers in TUSD, helping them bring Mexican American content into their teaching. She also did art projects with students at Wakefield Middle School.

On January 24th, students at Wakefield participated in a walkout. They were subsequently suspended. Rather than stay home on Thursday, January 26th, they spent the day attending Mexican American Studies classes at the University of Arizona, including Roberto Rodriguez's class. Among the speakers Rodriguez had lined up for that day was Simon J. Ortiz of Acoma Pueblo. Rodriguez has been writing about the attacks on the MAS at TUSD for some time at his blog. In his post on Thursday, he writes that just as his class ended that day, they learned that the suspension of the students had been lifted.

The Three Sonorans YouTube Channel uploaded a twelve-minute video of interviews with the middle school students. I'm sharing it below and urge you to watch the entire video.

Here is Acosta's letter, titled "Behind the Curtain in Tucson". He concludes with a reference to students in the video.

Thank you all for your patience this morning with the earlier message, and I hope this latest update on what my colleagues and I are experiencing in Tucson find you well.

Unfortunately, there has been little guidance and movement toward how my colleagues and I are to move forward in the development of brand new curriculum and the pedagogical changes that must be made. As I wrote to you all last week, anything from the Mexican American Studies perspective is now illegal for the former MAS teachers. We are being asked to use the district adopted textbooks as the model for how to move forward. We have been told that we can still teach about race and sensitive topics, which is contradiction to earlier direction from our school/site administrators, but we must be balanced and cannot reflect MAS perspectives, although this has yet to be defined.

In fact, Norma Gonzalez (one of my MAS colleagues) was specifically told that she “CANNOT teach or discuss in class anything that is specific towards the culture and background of Mexican American Students.” This is an exact quote from her administrator. She was also asked to leave the middle school site that she is currently teaching and forced to abandon all her current students. Norma's mere presence at her school is seen as unbearable to her administration regardless of her quality work, dedication to her classes and amazing relationships she creates with her students. This is the damage being displayed in our classrooms in order to fall in line with the political motivations behind destroying our program. 

What is troubling for all of us is the fact that we have always been balanced, encouraged students to engage in critical thought, and embraced diverse voices and viewpoints throughout our curriculum and pedagogy. The direction from the district implies the opposite regardless of the many audits and observations that have proven otherwise.

To put this in a more concrete way, my classes were designed in a way that showed multiple perspectives and voices. Here is a short list of authors who are not Mexican that I use: Sherman Alexie, Jane Yolen, Junot Díaz, David Berliner, Angela Davis, Pat Buchanan, Ofelia Zepeda, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jonathan Kozol, and Martin Luther King Jr. 

This is critical since we see a common theme that administration across the district have told my colleagues and myself - we are all to avoid Mexican work and perspectives at all costs. However, these authors are a part of the same censored, banned, or illegal curriculum and this surely means we must abandon these authors and this curriculum, too. We are also forbidden to use the critical lenses to view the work which challenge students to develop academically credible arguments in order to support their own views.

Thus, when they tell us we may move forward and develop multicultural curriculum it feels like we are being set-up to fail. The district has been caught in so much double speak and contradictory language they have no idea how to move forward, and we have no confidence in trusting them as they give advice. As I have mentioned in other interviews I do not feel safe teaching The Tempest or "Beyond Vietnam" by Dr. King as I normally have for years since it is clear that the district wants us to not only abandon the history and culture of Mexican Americans, but also the curriculum and pedagogy developed by Mexican American teachers. The only safe route appears for us to flee from any history or voices of color, authors that echo the themes that we had used in the past, and embrace curriculum that does not venture down those pathways. In other words, for my colleagues and I we must step back in the time machine to Pleasantville.

We are working without a net and there have been credible claims that two TUSD Governing Board members have told our district superintendent that any violations by teachers should be disciplined harshly and immediately. Thus, my colleagues and I feel that our jobs are very much on the line, and we have not been given any reassurance through specific criteria in curriculum and pedagogy of what is to be avoided and how we can confidently move forward with our students.

Yet our students remain dedicated to the restoration of the program and to have their voices heard. This week many of them participated in walkouts and an Ethnic Studies School was created for a day by the youth of UNIDOS, where many community members and professors from the University of Arizona donated their time to teach the youth. Above all else it is their education that matters, and this massive disruption in their lives and schooling is clear proof of how their futures have been dismissed and marginalized by local and state officials. The good news is that they are resilient and we all will continue to ensure that their future dreams are not compromised by the pettiness and spite of the tragic few that made this deplorable and shameful decision.

In Lak Ech,
Curtis Acosta

   

Nation-wide responses to the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District

 [Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the American Library Association issued a resolution condemning what is happening in Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) and calling for the law that banned Mexican American Studies to be repealed.

However, the harsh reality in Arizona is that the Republicans hold a super majority. They passed the law banning ethnic studies, and the newly introduced bill calling for its repeal is not likely to be passed.

Meanwhile, Tom Horne, the Attorney General for the State of Arizona continued misrepresenting the program in the US and abroad. He gave an interview on BBC in which he said that students in TUSD are divided by race. He said "if you're this race you take this class. If you're that race, you take that class." That is not true. Students from several racial groups have taken classes offered in the program. Last year, John Huppenthal, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, hired an independent firm to conduct an audit of the program. The audit includes information about the ethnicity of students who have taken MAS courses as follows:

• Hispanic, 90%
• White/Anglo, 5%
• Native American, 2%
• African American, 1.5%
• Asian American and Multi-racial, just under 0.50%

The audit also found improvements in school attendance, grades, and graduation rates of students of all races who were taking classes in MAS.

State level politics in Arizona are driving the shut-down of the program. For background and analysis, I recommend you go to Huffington Post (start with the article dated January 25) and read all the stories Jeff Biggers has written over the last few years. Use the "Mexican American Studies" tag to find them.

Attacks on, and misinformation about, the MAS program in Arizona are not an isolated case. Too many of us express outrage when we learn about this, but, we've got to do more than express outrage! Outrage doesn't stop what is happening. Actions are what is needed. 

A few days ago, CNN ran a story that the United States Congressional Hispanic Caucus is asking for an investigation of the law that banned the MAS program.

The CNN story also includes information about how the program's shut-down is playing out on the lives of students and teachers who were in, or teaching, MAS classes when they were shut down. Imagine being given 48 hours to rewrite your lesson plans and curriculum so that it is stripped of anything that you did from a Mexican American perspective.  Here's two examples:

• Norma Gonzales, a teacher who taught Mexican American History was reassigned to teach American History and given a textbook that says that the Tohono O'odham people mysteriously vanished. She has two Tohono O'odham students in her class. Ironically, students who took the Mexican American Literature courses read Ofelia Zepeda's Ocean Power. She is Tohono O'odham and received the MacArthur Genius Grant for her work. In MAS, curriculum reflected who they are. In the core curriculum, they have "mysteriously disappeared."
• Curtis Acosta, a teacher who taught Mexican American Literature, had a meeting with district administrators. Listen to the audio of Acosta being told how he can and cannot teach The Tempest.

As news spread about the banning of books in TUSD spread across the country, people asked what they could do to help. There are several initiatives in progress.

EDUCATIONAL RESPONSES:

In Tucson, students walked out of classes on Tuesday and held an Ethnic Studies Teach-In off school grounds. Some were suspended for walking out, and rather than stay home yesterday, they attended Mexican American courses at the University of Arizona. Those are localized educational responses to the shut-down of their classes.

A nation-wide educational response in the form of a National Teach-In will take place on February 1st. Some things people can do include the following:

• View excerpts--specially selected for the Teach In--from Precious Knowledge, the documentary about the MAS program that will be aired on PBS in May.
• In elementary classrooms or library read-alouds to elementary-aged children, tead aloud from one of the picture books used in the MAS program. Two suggestions are Pam Mora's The Desert is My Mother, Gary Soto's Snapshots from the Wedding.  
• With older students, introduce them to Matt de la Pena's Mexican WhiteBoy or Sandra Cisnero's House on Mango Street. 
• Share what you know with your family, friends, and colleagues. 
• Purchase a copy of Rethinking Columbus or one of the other books that was boxed up and removed from classrooms, or, one of the books that was used in the program.
• Purchase a copy of Precious Knowledge. To order, write to preciousknowledgedvd@gmail.com. (Individual copy is $28. Public library copy is $40. Rights for university or public performance are $200.)
• Sign the petition set up by Norma Gonzales. She taught in the MAS program.
• Donate to the fund to support the work to fight the ban.

Another option is to watch "A Teach-in on Tucson" that will take place at Georgia State University's College of Education. Portions of it will be streamed online. Initial information is here. The flier for the event is shown below. I'll share more information on the Teach In as I learn more details. 

In addition to the educational teach ins, there are other ways people are pushing back on the shut-down of the program. I will add others as I find them, and I invite you to send me information about other initiatives that you know about.

• Librotraficante is a planned caravan in which carloads of banned books will be driven from Texas to Arizona.
• At Banning History in Arizona, you can submit a video of yourself reading from one of the banned books.

AICL Coverage of Arizona Law that resulted in shut down of Mexican American Studies Program and Banning of Books

This is a comprehensive set of links to AICL's coverage of the Arizona law that led to the shut down of the Mexican American Studies Program in Arizona and the subsequent banning of books used in the program. It will be updated as my coverage continues.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

• Teaching critical thinking in Arizona: NOT ALLOWED
• Mexican American Studies Department Reading List

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

• Authors banned in Tucson Unified School District respond

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

• Copies of books in TUSD Libraries?
• "Reports of TUSD book ban completely false and misleading"
• TUSD vs The Tempest: To teach or not to teach

Thursday, January 19, 2012

• What Mark Stegeman said...
• What Huppenthal said...

Friday, January 20, 2012

• Three of the banned books were approved in 2007, but not properly?!
• Video: What Huppenthal saw
• National Association of Multicultural Education responds to closing of Mexican American Studies Program

Saturday, January 21, 2012

• A Sampling of Children's Books used in the Mexican American Studies Program
• Dear Editors at the New York Times

Sunday, January 22, 2012

• ALA Midwinter Discussions of Tucson Ban of Mexican American Studies Covered by CNN
• Progressive Librarian's Guild: Statement of Censorship and the Tucson Unified School District

Monday, January 23, 2012

• Stegeman's January 22, 2012 letter
• Tweeting Tucson Events

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

• Curtis Acosta's Letter

Friday, January 27, 2012

• Nationwide Responses to the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department

Saturday, January 28, 2012

• Updates regarding shut-down (includes Curtis Acosta's letter "Behind the Curtain" and video interviews of middle school students who walked out of school on Tuesday)

Sunday, January 29, 2012

• Chris Crutcher on Matt de la Pena's Book Being Banned: "This is racism, plain and simple."

Monday, January 30, 2012 

• Arizona School Censorship Hit by Salvo of Protest from Free Speech Orgs and Educators
• Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District
• TUSD Superintendent Pedicone Scolds University Professors

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

• American Indian Library Association's Statement on Ethnic Studies Programs in Arizona

Thursday, February 2, 2012

• Go to the NO HISTORY IS ILLEGAL website (art/photo of teen using bullhorn to read aloud from Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians

Friday, February 3, 2012

• Live Stream: Teach-In on Tucson with MAS Teachers
• TUSD Board Member, Michael Hicks: "if you do not trust your employee, you need to remove the employee."  

Monday, February 6, 2012

• What did Curtis Acosta teach in his Mexican American Studies course? (Answer: Barack Obama's 2004 DNC speech)

Friday, February 10, 2012

• Debbie Reese reads from Delgado and Stefancic's CRITICAL RACE THEORY

Sunday, February 12,  2012

• Critical Thinking about Thanksgiving: Not allowed in Tucson

Saturday, February 18, 2012

• Arizona Legislation to "prohibit public school teachers from using partisan books or any partisan doctrine"

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

• Short Stories, Essays, Speeches, Poems, and Music Banned in TUSD

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

• Sherman Alexie, New Bills Proposed in Arizona, Citizens United

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

• Yale University holds Teach-In; Former MAS Students Skype In

Friday, February 24th, 2012

• February 23rd update from Curtis Acosta

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

• Matt De La Pena featured at a Save Ethnic Studies fundraiser

Thursday, March 8, 2012

• March 7th update from former MAS teacher, Curtis Acosta
• Modern Language Association: Statement on Tucson Mexican American Studies
• REFORMA Resolution in Support of the Students of the Outlawed Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District

Monday, May 7, 2012

• Jim Blasingame: "Ethnic Studies Ban Hits Tucson Hard: YA and Canon Alike Take a Hit"

Thursday, July 5, 2012

• Recent radio program on the shut-down of TUSD's Mexican American Studies Classes

Thursday,  June 6, 2013

• Update from Curtis Acosta

_________________________________
Additional information outside of AICL:

For insider updates from Tucson, read these blogs (on a daily basis):

• David Abie Morales at The Three Sonorans at Tucson Citizen
• David Safier at Blog for Arizona

Tuesday, January 24, 2012:

• American Library Association Resolution Opposing Restriction of Access to Materials and Open Inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies Programs in Arizona, and a link to HB 2654 referenced in the ALA resolution, Arizona House Bill 2654
• Arizona Congressman Grijalva urges investigation of Arizona law

Wednesday, January 25, 2012:

• CNN is reporting that Norma Gonzales, a teacher who taught in the MAS program, has been reassigned to teach American history and was asked to teach out of a textbook that says the Tohono O'odham tribe mysteriously disappeared. She has two Tohono O'odham students in her class. Among the books no longer being taught in the shut down MAS program is Ofelia Zepeda's Ocean Power. Zepeda is Tohono O'odham, teaches in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Arizona, and won a MacArthur Genius Grant.

Monday, January 30, 2012:

• The "Joint Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District" coordinated by the National Coalition Against Censorship

Efforts to support Mexican American Studies teachers and students:

• Donate to Save Ethnic Studies
• Librotraficante Caravan from Houston to Tucson
• Sign the petition at Save Ethnic Studies and receive updates from them

______________________________
To order a copy of Precious Knowledge, a documentary of the Mexican American Studies program (view trailer here):

1. Send an email to preciousknowledgedvd@gmail.com
2. Send a check made out to DOS VATOS PRODUCTIONS to:

Dos Vatos Productions
4029 E. Camino de la Colina
Tucson, AZ 85711

The DVD is priced as follows---Individual: $28, Community Group, High School, Public Library, Non-profit: $40, University and public performance rights: $200