School Officials and a Circuit Court of Appeals Take a Book from Libraries

By Brittni Smallwood
© 2006 The Associated Press
(Photo: Virginia Rosen)



A book known as “A Visit to Cuba” will be take removed from Miami libraries. According to an article in the First Amendment Center website a three-judge panel of the 11th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted in favor (2-1) of the book being taken from schools in the Miami-Dade Country School Distrist. The judges ruled that their decision does not infringe upon First Amendment rights because according to them the book shows a misrepresentation of life in Cuba.

The school district has issues with the book because to them it depicts children in Cuba in a distorted way. The book has Cuban children smiling while in communist uniforms, meanwhile it fails to mention the issues of the country. The school district said the book was brought to the attention of the Board about three years ago when a parent made a complaint. The parent was a former political prisoner in Cuba.

One Federal Judge advised that the school district should bring in books that showed different perspectives of Cuba.

• Does the bookseller have a right to argue the books existence on Miami Library Shelves? What if the author says their book is a depiction of what Cuba really is, especially to them, regardless of what others say?
• Does the town or the upset father have a right to remove literature from shelves, even if it is not accurate; it’s providing a different look of Cuba?