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Censorship Education Government

Gilbert, AZ Censors Biology Books the Old-Fashioned Way 289

nbauman writes The Gilbert, AZ school board has voted to tear out a page from Campbell's Biology (a standard highly-recommended textbook that many doctors and scientists fondly remember), because it discusses contraception without also discussing adoption. Julie Smith, a member of the Gilbert Public Schools governing board, said that she was a Catholic and "we do not contracept." Smith convinced the board that Campbell's violates Arizona law to teach "preference, encouragement and support to childbirth and adoption" over abortion. The Arizona Education Department decided that the pages didn't violate Arizona law, but nevermind. Rachel Maddow generously risked hassles for copyright violation and posted the missing pages as a service to Arizona honors biology students.
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Gilbert, AZ Censors Biology Books the Old-Fashioned Way

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  • by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Saturday November 29, 2014 @09:37AM (#48484573) Homepage Journal
    It appears the school board didn't care about what was on the other side of the same page? Most textbooks I have seen are printed on both sides, so they just threw out two pages of of the book. I have used Campbell in the past (though not the current edition) and I suspect by the time the book reached the second side of that page they were no longer talking about contraception or abortion.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gander666 ( 723553 ) *

      This is Arizona you are talking about. The whiny religitards, and their republican puppets get their way, be damned.So glad I was able to move away. Even gladder that I didn't have kids in their schools.

      The real sad thing is that the schools in SE Phoenix are a lot better funded and better than the public schools back here in my hometown of San Jose (I moved back about four months ago. My colleagues with kids are appalled at the fact that they have to pay extra money for sports and music programs to partic

    • by cptdondo ( 59460 )

      The law says:

      "... childbirth and adoption as preferred options to elective abortion".

      So according to the schoolboard, contraception == abortion.

      • So according to the schoolboard, contraception == abortion.

        The page in question also contains a reference to a "morning after" pill which would be considered abortion. That was used as the justification, but according to the article the whole page on contraception offended the school board member.

        • by Ixokai ( 443555 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @02:16PM (#48486147)

          The morning after pill is not an abortifacient, point of fact.

          It prevents pregnancy, it does not abort nor induce a miscarriage. Fertilization and implantation (ie, a pregnancy) does not always or even usually happen immediately after sex, it can take hours or days to happen which is why it "may" work -- the morning after pill prevents pregnancy from happening, it doesn't abort a pregnancy already established.

        • by Pikoro ( 844299 )

          Which is also wrong. The "morning after" pill doesn't abort anything. It tells the body to stop ovulating "immediately" in order to avoid getting pregnant. If she's already ovulated before she takes the pill, it won't work, so it's no more an abortion pill than is aspirin.

      • by Teun ( 17872 )
        Also, the school board cannot distinguish between biology (=science) and religion (ethics).
  • by Nutria ( 679911 )

    contraception doing in a Biology textbook? Shouldn't that be taught in Health class?

    • by v1 ( 525388 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @09:49AM (#48484631) Homepage Journal

      contraception doing in a Biology textbook? Shouldn't that be taught in Health class?

      I can see a small crossover in biology and contraception, since contraceptives do interact with biology. Not so much for the condom, but very much so for the pill ("how does it work?") and then getting into male contraception, and also sterilization (tube tying in both genders) I can see where that has a biology application.

      But adoption, how the heck does that belong in a biology textbook???

      • After thinking about this for the past 10 or 15 minutes, I believe they are trying to suggest birthing then abandoning unwanted children is a favorable alternative to wearing a condom. I suppose "abstinence" wasn't gaining much traction.
    • by Trepidity ( 597 )

      It's fairly common at the high-school level to include a brief overview of human biology within the biology class. Looking through the ToC, it looks like some of the general topics have companion chapters specifically about human biology, e.g. there's a discussion of immune systems in general, but then also a chapter specifically on human immune systems.

    • by itzly ( 3699663 )
      I've never had health classes in school, so spending one page in a biology textbook sounds reasonable to me.
    • contraception doing in a Biology textbook? Shouldn't that be taught in Health class?

      Ummm, isn't health a subunit of biology? I've never had a class called "health" in my entire education.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    How Long before religion puts us back into the dark ages? No scientific book should be censored, simply added to as our understanding evolves, they may not agree to teach the subject without the addtion of adoption, but that is not a biological process as contraception is....

    • The Dark Ages is probably hyperbolic, but you do bring up an interesting point: If the issue is that some other piece of information is missing, why not add a supplement containing that information rather than remove this page?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        I'm sorry, but the way things are going in the US, dark ages is probably not all that hyperbolic. The US could become something like the wasteland that fundamentalism has cause in the Middle-East.

      • by Jawnn ( 445279 )

        The Dark Ages is probably hyperbolic...

        I'd love to agree with you, but history would beg to differ with both of us. The Dark Ages was caused, in large part, but the rise in political influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The Islamic world's fall from it's lofty position of leadership in arts and sciences was cause in large part by a similar rise in influence amongst Islamic clerics. The same mindless stupidity, driven by fear and ignorance, is playing out in the United States every day. The Gilbert, AZ school board silliness is just the latest

    • I pity the US, but don't worry, there are still secular states in existence where religion has no say in science.

      As long as politicians get laughed out of the parliament when they as much as suggest that creationism should be considered something akin to science, my hope in our politicians isn't entirely lost.

      • I pity the US, but don't worry, there are still secular states in existence where religion has no say in science.

        The problem is that the religious wingnuts can vote themselves entitlements which we then have to pay for. Only a couple of red states actually produce more tax revenues than they consume, like Texas which has oil. They overwhelmingly suck down our money, especially California which gets boned harder than anyone but Texas. And again, look at who's making the money in Texas. Fuck those guys over an oil barrel, anyway.

    • by Smallpond ( 221300 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:34AM (#48484855) Homepage Journal

      No censoring is happening. By doing this they have ensured that every student in that class will go find the missing page and read it. The point is that we are in the internet age, not the dark ages. You can't hide information.

      • by vux984 ( 928602 )

        No censoring is happening. By doing this they have ensured that every student in that class will go find the missing page and read it.

        You seriously overestimate how badly teenagers want to read text books.

        Even telling them they "can't" read it, isn't likely to motivate most of them.

      • Information Age....
    • The woman on the school board who decided this was a great idea is trying to use a law that addresses preference to childbirth and adoption over abortion (not by means of censorship mind you) to enforce her ideals on contraception but the law (A.R.S. 15-115) [azleg.gov] itself does not address contraception at all. In fact the state department of education said the pages in question do not endorse abortion but merely present information about contraception and related drugs as plain fact.

      So long story short this woman

  • by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @09:53AM (#48484655)

    “I’m Catholic; we do not contracept,” Ms. Smith said. “It is a grave sin.” By including those pages in the curriculum, she added, “you have violated my religious rights.”

    Her agenda is to make everyone Catholic.

    • by TheReaperD ( 937405 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:03AM (#48484701)

      Isn't that supposed to be the agenda of every Catholic? (and most other religions)

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Not really.

        Most religions seem to be created for let's say purely "domestic consumption". I only really can think of christianity (with all it's offshoots), islam and buddhism where missioning is really a major feature of the religion.

        Judaism doesn't seem to encourage converting to it, many other religions probably don't even concern themselves with the question in the first place.

    • by theronb ( 1170573 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:04AM (#48484705)

      "I'm Catholic; we do not contracept," Ms. Smith said. "It is a grave sin. By including those pages in the curriculum", she added, "you have violated my religious rights."

      Where do people get this idea that presenting facts or even opinions that they don't like constitutes a violation of their rights? How are we to have any kind of informed discussion in this country? Oh, I forgot - they don't want informed discussion.

    • by BonThomme ( 239873 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:14AM (#48484745) Homepage

      Catholicism's agenda is to make Catholics agnostics.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by khallow ( 566160 )
      The funny thing is that I bet the actual religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church wouldn't agree with this sort of censorship.
      • The funny thing is that I bet the actual religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church wouldn't agree with this sort of censorship.

        Given the church's history [wikipedia.org] of censoring other viewpoints in the past, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by khallow ( 566160 )
          And do you have a reason you disagree with me? I thought you were going to actually quote relevant history before I saw the link to the Crusades. The Church did have a list of censored books that lasted till 1966.

          But no, you link to the crusades which were never relevant to book censorship and which ended in the 15th Century over 600 years ago. That's a pretty lame response.

          Either way, that was then, this is now.
          • by sound+vision ( 884283 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @02:26PM (#48486221) Journal
            What I've been picking up is something of a schism within the Catholic church. You've had the pope give speeches about accepting gays, then all the bishops overrule him. So it seems that even if there are elements of the church that want to advance into the year 2000, by and large it still consists of a mound of idiots.
    • I think you read too much into it. All she does is trying to force everyone to live by the laws of her imaginary friend.

    • No she is not (per that statement alone) but she is claiming a "right" which does not exist. That the Catholic church says "do not use contraception" is not the same as "even reading about contraception is a sin.". Nobody is telling her or her offspring they must use contraception. If that were the case, then she would be correct, her rights were violated.

  • by davmoo ( 63521 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @09:57AM (#48484671)

    This will all but guarantee that every student in the school system will read the page the school board is removing. Everyone knows that the quickest way to encourage a teen to seek out and read something is to remove it or ban it and tell them its not permitted.

    • Not only that, but it would be interesting to see if the publisher will sue ( the one time I would LOVE to see a copyright lawsuit ) for copyright infringement; the school seems to be buying, modifying, and redistributing the book with modified information. Doubly so if the students have to buy the book from the school, since the school most likely will make some profit from the deal then...

  • Remind me again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @09:58AM (#48484677)

    why we let religious loonies dictate what can and what can't be taught. Separation of church and state my ass!

    • Re:Remind me again (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Half-pint HAL ( 718102 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:35AM (#48484861)
      We let people determine what can be taught. Very few people are free of ideologies, whether they be religious or secular. Find me a living, breathing human being who has no personal biases, and I'll ask the doctors why a patient with absolutely no higher brain function hasn't been taken off life support.
      • Well, outside the US, Iran and some other countries I'd not consider for permanent residency, schools are usually required to teach a secular world view.

      • by itzly ( 3699663 )
        Plenty of people have ideologies, but luckily many of them realize that their ideology doesn't belong in science books.
        • Unluckily many others don't. There are science books that proselytise green power or nuclear power, for example, rather than openly and honestly discussing them both.
      • We let people determine what can be taught. Very few people are free of ideologies, whether they be religious or secular. Find me a living, breathing human being who has no personal biases, and I'll ask the doctors why a patient with absolutely no higher brain function hasn't been taken off life support.

        One of the things that we, as conscious human beings, should do is strive to recognize the lenses through which we view reality. Yes, everyone has personal biases but it is possible to understand those biases, examine decisions that you are making and recognize their influence on your decision making process. This allows us to make more objective decisions. If someone is not able to do this then IMHO they should not be in a position to make decisions that have significant influence over other people, suc

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Well - the state shouldn't even be in the education system. Local school boards are supposed to run their own schools. This entire discussion should only be of local concern, and neither the state capital nor Washington should have any voice in the matter. Take away all those funds offered by the state and the feds - cool. LOCAL funds should be used exclusively. Local people pay local taxes, and decide locally where to build the schools, what to teach, and whether there will be sports, clubs, tutoring,

      • Fine by me, but then don't come home crying for state funds for propping up your unemployed, single 16 year old moms.

      • Re:Remind me again (Score:5, Insightful)

        by currently_awake ( 1248758 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @12:15PM (#48485485)
        The situation is worse at the local level. It's fairly easy for the dominant religious group to control a small town and mandate prayer classes etc.
        • You don't understand that THIS IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!

          If a school board chooses wisely, the people will benefit, and the economy will grow.

          If the board chooses less wisely, less benefit, less economic growth.

          If the board truly fucks up - the locals suffer, the board gets shit canned, and a new board takes a stab at getting things right.

          There is no good reason for the monoculture we have in education today. There should be different approaches to things. Those systems that excel are likely to be copied in

          • Re:Remind me again (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @02:25PM (#48486203) Homepage Journal

            If the board truly fucks up - the locals suffer, the board gets shit canned, and a new board takes a stab at getting things right.

            By then the damage has been done - they've spewed out a bunch of imbeciles like you. And once those imbeciles can vote, you'll find that the new board is very much like the old board.

  • hm. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vomitology ( 2780489 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:09AM (#48484721)
    om the original article:
    “I’m Catholic; we do not contracept,” Ms. Smith said. “It is a grave sin.” By including those pages in the curriculum, she added, “you have violated my religious rights.”

    “I’m American; we do not censor education,” vomitology said. “It is a grave sin.” By removing those pages in the curriculum, he added, “you have violated children's educational rights.”

    FTFY
  • Bullshit (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 29, 2014 @10:26AM (#48484815)

    Julie Smith, a member of the Gilbert Public Schools governing board, said that she was a Catholic and "we do not contracept."

    Meanwhile, the Cathloic school I attended was more than happy to explain all forms of contraception, and making mention that there's a risk that it won't always work. The Catholic school also noted a form of contraception based around when the female partner has the period, a form of contraception fully sanctioned by the Catholic church.

    • by localroger ( 258128 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @03:35PM (#48486753) Homepage
      Catholics range from fundamentalist jerks like this woman to those like the Jesuits who are quite sophisticated philosophers and fully aware of the difficulties which arise aligning faith with reality. Unlike Protestants who are prone to start a new denomination when they have a disagreement, all Catholics tend to continue considering themselves Catholic but they build up cliques which can barely tolerate each other under the common umbrella of the main organization. I attended a Catholic high school even though my parents were Southern Baptist; this is not unusual in New Orleans where the Catholic schools have an excellent reputation for their secular education. They had a standard procedure for non-Catholics to opt-out of rituals like the Mass when those arose, although we did have to learn the major points of Catholic doctrine (which has turned out to be useful) and we also got a whole year of comparative religion hitting the main points of other world religions. I have to give it to the CSC that they weren't afraid to hold their own beliefs up for comparison with their competitors.
  • in preference to childbirth or adoption. A significant percentage of students will get pregnant, even if taught properly about contraception, because that's what teenagers do. Giving birth means that both teenagers and their children will miss out on a big part of what life has to offer. Early abortion is medically safer than childbirth and not ethically questionable. Any good biology textbook would make it obvious that a fetus in early stages of development is further from a thinking, self aware human bein

  • After the big bang and evolution big bombs the Pope just laid out this past summer/fall (he believes in them), I wonder what his take on this would be. Seeing as how this stupid woman used 'being a catholic' as an excuse to do it. There are some hints already that he thinks contraception is not necessarily a bad thing. [telegraph.co.uk] Granted he didn't get all he wanted at this years synod, but he is a relatively young Pope and if he can avoid being poisoned, or some other "sickness" from schemers (I don't doubt they would
  • Yes, I did just say that. Got a problem with it? Tough shit. We're living in a world where there are assholes out there right now who are cutting off people's heads, ostensibly because of their 'religious war', throwing acid in the faces of little schoolgirls, because they have the gall to actually want to learn to read, write, do math, and learn history, and exterminate entire populations, just because they don't believe in some 'god' the same exact way that they do, and in general be violent pieces of shi
  • Whee, another chance to beat our chests and gloat about how superior we feel to those rubes.

  • by westlake ( 615356 ) on Saturday November 29, 2014 @05:33PM (#48487563)

    The Tea Party faction in control of the Gilbert AZ school board lost its bid for re-election.

    There has been some huffing and puffing on both sides about what it might do before the new board takes control in January.

    The AP Biology text is more symbol than substance.

    The state of Arizona doesn't require sex education, which means that a general biology textbook is as close as a Tea Party controlled board will let students get to a serious discussion of sexual reproduction in humans, standards of sexual behavior, homosexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, abortion and so on.

    Arizona law requires that districts that do offer sex ed must teach a preference for childbirth and adoption over abortion and inform students about date-rape drugs, dating violence, AIDS and other dangers.

    State law requires textbooks that mention abortion to state that childbirth and adoption are preferable alternatives.

    Sex ed controversies in Gilbert, Tempe an anomaly [azcentral.com]

    [In Tempe, debate over a proposed two-week course in sex education] derailed when board Vice President Moses Sanchez challenged a section of the curriculum that explains birth-control devices. Sanchez asked whether an intrauterine device, or IUD, should be called an abortion method instead of a birth-control device because it works by preventing implantation of fertilized eggs.

    Arizona law and board policy say a sex-ed curriculum must:

    Emphasize the power of the individual to control one's own behavior.
    Instruct students on how to say no to unwanted advances and peer pressure.
    Teach students about the prevention of dating abuse.Stress that sexually-transmitted diseases have severe consequences.
    Discuss the consequences of pregnancy.
    Promote respect.
    Stress abstinence until the students are mature adults.
    Promote childbirth and adoption over abortion.

    Instructional materials may not:

    Promote a homosexual lifestyle.
    Portray homosexuality as a positive alternative lifestyle.Include tests with questions about students' or their parents' beliefs regarding sex, family life, morals, values or religion.

    Tempe Union High district still debating sex-ed program [azcentral.com]

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