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Miami-Dade Bans A Visit to Cuba in All Its SchoolsThe Miami–Dade County school board voted 6–3 June 14 to remove Alta Schreier’s Vamos a Cuba (A Visit to Cuba) from its libraries in response to a parent’s complaint that it portrays a deceptively idealistic view of life in Cuba.After Juan Amador, a former political prisoner under Castro’s government, requested that the title be removed from his daughter’s school, two committees–one at the school level and one at the district level–recommended retaining it, a decision affirmed by Superintendent Rudy Crew. However, the board’s ruling calls for all 49 copies of the book to be removed from the 33 libraries that own it, the Associated Press reported June 14. The other 23 books in the series, which teaches about travel and culture in Costa Rica, Germany, Canada, and other countries, will also be banned, even though no one had formally objected to them. All six Cuban members of the board voted to ban the book, while the three non-Hispanics voted to retain it. “A book that misleads, confounds, or confuses has no part in the education of our students, most especially elementary students who are most impressionable and vulnerable,” said Perla Tabares Hantman, a board member who supported the book’s removal. Board member Robert Ingram said he only voted for the ban out of fear for his family’s safety. He said threats from the Cuban exile community caused him to think board members “might find a bomb under their automobiles” if they voted to keep the book, the June 15 Miami Herald reported. “There’s a passion of hate,” said Ingram. “I can’t vote my conscience without feeling threatened—that should never happen in this community any more.” The Herald said board member Frank Bolaños tried to persuade the board to remove another title portraying life in post-revolutionary Cuba, George Ancona’s Cuban Kids; but by a 6–3 vote the body chose not to act unless a parent files a formal complaint—an action that activists at the meeting promised would be forthcoming. The board also approved a bill directing Crew to reevaluate the procedures school libraries use to select books. The current rules require books to meet 15 criteria, but the Herald said they are roundly ignored because librarians are unable to screen every title individually and rely on reviews in professional journals instead. The American Civil Liberties Union said it was preparing a lawsuit challenging the removal of Vamos a Cuba. “This unfortunate decision is a throwback to a Miami of several decades ago, when the battle about freedom in Cuba was waged too frequently about First Amendment rights in Miami,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. Posted June 16, 2006. |
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