NEWSSCHOOL CENSORSHIP

Officials at an Aurora, Colo. high school are scrambling to explain away the controversy over the principal's decision to shutter the school newspaper and yank the faculty advisor from the program.

But they just can't keep their answers straight -- and Overland High School students maintain that the principal angrily told them that the newspaper would stop printing because he was unhappy with a story they were printing about the death of a fellow student.

To reporters, however, the district is singing a different tune. Will Overland High School's The Scout stop being printed due to budget concerns, not censorship? That's what a district rep told the Denver Post on March 27. School spokeswoman Tustin Amole said that students "did not have the money to publish any more issues after the upcoming senior issue" -- an excuse students say they'd never heard before.

A Colorado high school principal has shut down the school's award-winning student newspaper -- for truthfully reporting on the death of a classmate. Telling students that their story was "too big for a high school paper," he yanked the students' faculty advisor from her position, changed their journalism class to a non-publishing class and shut down the paper.

But Principal Leon Lundie of Overland High School in Aurora, Colo, may have picked the wrong students to intimidate. The students behind The Overland Scout have enlisted the ACLU and the Student Press Law Center to come to their defense. You can help add pressure by signing this Change.org petition, which will send an email to Principal Lundie telling him that censoring student journalism isn't just unethical - it's against the law.

Colorado is one of a handful of states that specifically guarantees student journalists - and their advisers - the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. (Read the text of the Colorado Student Free Expression law here.)

But Principal Lundie blatantly disregarded the law in an attempt to silence a benign story the students reported about a fellow student who died as a result of an injury during a wrestling tournament, students say. Even though the students backed up the story with interviews and research - and even provided Lundie with the student's death certificate - he reportedly told them that the story lacked balance and couldn't be printed.

2000 was a big year for civil rights in South Carolina. In 2000, the state became the last state to make Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a holiday - 17 years after it was first passed.

2000 was also the year that the Confederate flag was removed from S.C.'s statehouse dome.

But today, more than ten years later, two civil rights groups in Rock Hill, S.C. are fighting to make sure MLK Day remains a holiday. Even though it's a national day of remembrance, Rock Hill's school district plans to use it merely as a snow day make-up.

The Rock Hill NAACP, as well as a faith-based group called THUG (True Healing Under God) are calling on the superintendent to change course and respect Dr. King's memory.

"We are very disappointed that the Rock Hill schools will use the Official Holiday of slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a makeup day," NAACP chapter president Melvin Poole wrote Rock Hill Schools Superintendent Lynn Moody in a letter.

"This time is set aside to honor a man who devoted his life to the service of mankind and should not be disturbed," he said. "(We) kindly request that you reconsider."

You won't find these heroes on the red carpet. They haven't hired publicists, held national press conferences or thrown posh fundraisers. But before we usher in 2011, here are some 2010 education heroes that you may not have heard of. They spent hours of their time organizing, calling, researching, working and fighting for children and schools.

The Chicago Moms of Whittier Elementary School. A group of working, Latina moms on Chicago's South Side had been trying for seven years to convince Chicago Public Schools to build a library for their children at Whittier Elementary. They were getting nowhere -- and to add insult to injury, the small field house they'd been using as an informal community center was slated to be knocked down by the school system and replaced with an empty field. What did they do? They staged a six-week sit-in at the field house, backed by a smart strategy to target local officials, get national media coverage and negotiate for more input in the long-term. What happened? They got the school.

Students at UCLA fighting to bring back the Islamic Studies program. College students at the University of California Los Angeles took to the streets, the hallways and the Internet to spread the word about the school's Islamic Studies program, which has been under an admissions freeze since 2008. Correctly arguing that the closure of this program isn't just a campus issue - it's a national issue - students held protests, created a website and lobbied administrators to bring the program back. More than 5,000 Change.org members have signed their petition as well. The latest? UCLA's leaders are "optimistic" about the program's return, they told us earlier this month.

Seattle school board members unanimously agreed: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World would stay on their district's reading lists, despite protests from a parent that the book was culturally insensitive.

Lisa Sense-Wilson wanted the book banned because she said the book's depiction of "savages" upset her daughter and gave her classmates negative imagery about Native Americans.

"They left having an image of Indian people as being criminals," said Sense-Wilson. "That we're to be feared. That we're scary. That we hold these ceremonies that are animalistic and brutal and violent."

Huxley's Brave New World revolves around a futuristic "utopia" where a few of the characters take a vacation to a "savage reservation," to see people who resemble a Native American tribe that still does "beastly" things - mainly, read books and have families. Sense-Wilson said the students in her daughter's class weren't able to grasp the fact that the "savages" in Huxley's book are actually portrayed as heroes in a way - strange outcasts from a "perfect" society that has many disturbing problems.

Seattle school board members voted 7-0 to retain Brave New World, agreeing with Sense-Wilson that portraying Native Americans as savages is wrong, but that the problem was the way it was taught - not the book itself.

"I don't believe that censorship is the right answer," said Steve Sundquist, vice president of the school board. "If a teacher wants to teach this text, clearly I want it done in a culturally sensitive and appropriate way."

A parent of a child in the Seattle school system is raising a ruckus over a book that's not unfamiliar to the Banned Book List: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Her choice of book may be quite common, but the reason Lisa Sense-Wilson wants the book banned is quite new. Not because of its sexual content or because it challenges ideas about religion. But because Sense-Wilson says the book's depiction of "savages" upset her daughter.

If you haven't read Brave New World in awhile, let me refresh your memory. Huxley takes us to a futuristic "utopia" where no one has children of their own, everyone is divided into castes, and the whole population exists on a wonder-drug called "soma" which makes everyone blissfully happy. At one point, a few of the characters take a vacation to a "savage reservation," to see people who resemble a Native American tribe that still does "beastly" things - mainly, read books and have families.

They left having an image of Indian people as being criminals," said Sense-Wilson. "That we're to be feared. That we're scary. That we hold these ceremonies that are animalistic and brutal and violent."

She says the students in her daughter's class weren't able to grasp the fact that the "savages" in Huxley's book are actually portrayed as heroes in a way - strange outcasts from a "perfect" society that has many disturbing problems.

Update: On December 6, the dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs stated publicly that students were free to discuss WikiLeaks on social media, the Columbia Spectator reports.

Aftershocks from WikiLeaks' most recent exclusive release -- 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables -- are still rocking the free world. Although many of these State Department messages are pure gossip (file this under "Duh": Prince Charles isn't as respected as the Queen), Change.org's Criminal Justice blog points out far more damning evidence uncovered about government decisions and civilian lives lost.

While free speech advocates praise WikiLeaks for uncovering shocking information, WikiLeaks critics argue that these continued releases are jeopardizing the lives, and reputations, of innocent people. The debate rages on.

But chillingly, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs - a prestigious school known for grooming future diplomats - is telling its students not to even have the debate to begin with.

An email from the Office of Career Services tells students that a concerned alum who now works for the State Department is saying that students should keep mum about the documents. The Huffington Post reports that an e-mail went out to students saying, "DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government."

Does the name Lauren Myracle ring a bell? If so, you might be one of the 4,000+ Change.org members who told Scholastic Books last October to stop excluding Myracle's book at their school book fairs. Her book Luv Ya Bunches features two moms raising a child; Scholastic initially chose to keep the book out of their popular school book fairs for that reason, but after pressure from Change.org members and other online advocates, they reversed their decision.

Myracle, an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author who writes for children and young adults, stuck to her guns and took a stand against censorship last year. The majorly-influential publisher Scholastic initially asked her to change her plotline, replacing a gay couple in her book with a heterosexual couple. When she refused, Scholastic decided to pull her book from book fairs. 

Myracle is being honored later this month by the National Coalition Against Censorship as the "Most Censored Author In 2009." Her books have been praised for dealing with serious topics with relatable characters and realistic language, and her popularity as a writer shows that she connects with kids, teens and tweens. Her books ttyl, ttfn and l8r, g8r are written in instant message conversations by girls who are dealing with puberty, body image issues and their own sexuality. Those dangerous, dangerous topics put that series at #1 on the American Library Association's top ten most frequently challenged books list of 2009. It's sad when educators and parents seek to control and limit information instead of helping children and teens get to the knowledge they need. Props to Myracle for standing strong and refusing to change the couple she wrote about in Luv Ya Bunches. 

As Change.org Women's Rights editor Alex DiBranco pointed out recently, the best way to fight censorship and to support banned books is to read, read, read -- and Myracle's continuing popularity means readers are doing just that. Another thing you can do is to support the National Coalition Against Censorship -- read their newsletters, follow their blog and let the Change.org community know if you hear about censorship in schools near you.

Photo credit: Carmichael Library via Flickr

So you're a white supremacist who wants to raise some money for your local private school. What do you do? Host a barbecue, of course. That's one of the fundraising tactics that hate group Council of Conservative Citizens uses to pump thousands of dollars into two private Mississippi academies, the Southern Poverty Law Center has found.

What kinds of schools do white supremacists like? Virtually all-white schools. And that's just the type of schools that Calhoun Academy in Calhoun City, Miss., and Carroll Academy in Carrollton, Miss. are. Calhoun boasts four non-white students; Carroll has only one. Scroll through the photos on both schools' websites and you'll see only white children; Carroll Academy happens to be the proud home of the Rebels. When contacted by the SPLC, the heads of both schools refused to speak critically of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Carroll's headmaster added, "they have their right to feel how they feel." That's a chilling statement coming from an educator.

As Change.org reported earlier this week, both schools are accredited by the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, which certifies private schools in Mississippi and surrounding states.

But here's some news: Sponsors of the MAIS, proudly displayed on the association's homepage, are household names including Wilson Sports, Russell Athletic, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company and Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance. "Our major sponsors help to make it possible for us to provide quality academic and athletic events for our students, teachers and administrators," the MAIS writes glowingly. White Supremacist 101, brought to you by... Wilson Sports?

Last year, all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia made some changes to its dress code. Students at the historically black college discovered they were now forbidden from wearing dresses, tops, tunics, purses or pumps -- really, anything that makes a man not look like one.

Morehouse College called it a just and minor part of their "Appropriate Attire Policy" instituted at the beginning of last school year. Others called it the last straw.

Vibe Magazine spoke with one student who no longer calls himself a Morehouse man and is seeking to get his education elsewhere. Part of  the openly gay population on campus  and its sub-culture of cross-dressers, he told Vibe that he now feels understandably out of place. The policy, which the college's gay organization voted on and passed, was and still is controversial. The punishment is heavy-handed: If the code is broken, a student can and will be suspended.

Morehouse's policy is troubling to an A student who happens to tote a purse. It puts limits on not only self-expression, but self-identity. Just this week, a student from George Washington University became the first transgender Division I athlete. Women's basketball player Kye Allums was granted the opportunity to be called a man by his university. His decision to no longer be seen as a woman was not scrutinized by his school, nor was it celebrated. He was simply allowed to be what he always was -- a student.