Fla. School Board to Appeal Ruling Reinstating Pro-Cuba Library Book
by Jim Brown
August 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Florida school board is appealing a federal judge's decision to have a controversial travel book on Cuba put back on school library shelves. The Miami-Dade County School Board had voted to pull the book, A Visit to Cuba, after a parent complained that the book presents a sanitized portrayal of life on the Communist island. However, a federal judge sided with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ruled that the book must remain in school libraries.
Attorney Richard Ovelmen is representing the school board, which has decided to appeal the judge's decision to the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He says the Miami-Dade County school district officials -- not federal judges -- should decide what values the local educational system seeks to inculcate in school children.
"The fundamental issue here," Ovelmen asserts, "is who should be deciding questions about the suitability of books in elementary school libraries. Should it be the school board, which is elected by parents to do that; or should it be a federal judge, who's being given that opportunity by a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union?"
The Florida attorney says the school board feels the appeal is a necessary move. Parents and community members who initially protested A Visit to Cuba continue to insist that the juvenile "nonfiction" book is little more than pro-Communist propaganda that attempts to falsely indoctrinate children.
"The objection to the book," Ovelmen explains, "is that it omits any reference to the realities of life in Cuba -- the fact that one man has governed for 48 years; the fact that there is rationing of food; the fact that you can only have one political party; the fact that there are no civil liberties; the fact that children have to engage in forced labor. None of these things are in the book."
Ovelmen believes the Miami-Dade County School Board has at least a 50-50 chance of winning the federal appeal. He says the school board is prepared to pursue the legal battle to its conclusion.
Incidentally, the attorney notes, the only time the U.S. Supreme Court has ever addressed the issue of whether a school board's removal of a library book violates the First Amendment was nearly 25 years ago. In that case, the high court deadlocked 4-4.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
