Opinion ID: 78271
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The School Board's Proffered Omissions

Text: The vast majority of educators that reviewed the book found that the omissions on which the School Board eventually relied to remove it did not affect its educational suitability. In fact, the omissions about which the plaintiff complained, if included, were found to be developmentally inappropriate and would render the book educationally unsuitable. [R:19:267: ¶ 17.] (finding that the type of information the objectors found was omitted from the book would be detrimental to a child's understanding of the world at a very young age). As the district court found, the School Board's concerns with Vamos a Cuba seem to be based on an adult attempting to import an adult value system into a children's book. ACLU, 439 F.Supp.2d at 1287. The book was written for children ages four to eight. The School Board complained that various facts relating to the Cuban government were omitted from the book. One of the School Board's experts, Dr. Juan Clark, listed the book's omissions of facts, which included the regime's rationing of consumer goods, limitations on private enterprise, the agricultural system, government-control and indoctrination of the education system, and child labor. [R: 19:47-48.] The plaintiffs' experts Lucia Gonzalez and Patricia Scales considered the inclusion of such information in children's books. Ms. Gonzalez found that children in this age group cannot grasp the level of political thought implicit in these omitted facts. [R:19:267: ¶ 17.] Ms. Scales noted that they do not understand the concept of government in any sophisticated way. [R:19:255: ¶ 16.] Rather, educators introduce young children to concepts including community or culture, ... self, and how they fit in, and their understanding of these concepts is only the most basic at this age level. [R:19:255: ¶ 16.] The record supports the conclusion that these omissions would have been inappropriate to include in light of the conceptual understanding of children in this age group. [5] The book attempts to illustrate complicated subjects in simple ways. For example, an in-depth discussion of Cuba's complicated transportation systems is omitted from the book. However, the book does explain the transportation situation. As the School Board's expert Dr. Clark asserted, Cubans cannot buy new cars, public transportation is overcrowded, and foreigners do not take buses. But nothing the book says paints a different picture the book reads: [T]here are not many cars ... [and] most Cubans travel by bus. [ Vamos a Cuba: 18.] As such, Dr. Clark's omission is not so much an omission as a developmentally appropriate way of presenting information to children in the early grades of elementary school. Similarly, the technical information about houses and buildings that Dr. Clark noted was omitted would be giving [children] more information than they would need, want or could comprehend, according to Ms. Scales. [R:19:255: ¶ 18.] Dr. Clark objected that the book only notes that there are new and old buildings without noting that some buildings are deteriorated. [R:19:47.] But such factual detail would be lost on a reader in this age group. [R:19:256: ¶ 18.] Children are far less patient than adults and will not wade through factual and technical details. [R:19:256: ¶ 18.] Children need to know only the concise fact that there are new and old buildings, as Vamos a Cuba points out at page 10. [R:19:256: ¶ 18.] It could well be that Vamos a Cuba 's simple depiction of life in Cuba does not contain information that would lead to a child's better understanding of it. According to the testimony of several of the plaintiff's experts, however, it is better to err on the side of caution in a young children's book. Giving too much inappropriate information, like the information regarding government discussed above, is cognitively more damaging to young children than [giving] too little. ACLU, 439 F.Supp.2d at 1287. The School Board's expert, Dr. Usategui, disagreed, stating that the book teaches something different from what the children learn in their homes or from peers in their neighborhoods, which can lead to cognitive dissonance. [R:27:128: ¶ 11.] Dr. Usategui argued in essence that the public school library shelves should not contain books which cast a pall on what is politically orthodox in the community. But the Supreme Court stated in W. Va. Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 1187, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943): If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.... Furthermore, if included, the negative information about Cuba the School Board claimed was omitted could render the book developmentally inappropriate for children. The majority, in order to demonstrate the differences between Cuba and the United States, highlights negative information including domestic violence, underage prostitution, sex tourism, [and] discrimination against persons of African descent. [Majority Opinion at 1214 (quoting the Cuba Human Rights Report)]. According to Ms. Scales, however, an important aspect of books written for young children is that they emphasize the positive. [R:19:256: ¶ 20.] Negative subjects are inappropriate. Assuming it could even be understood by young children, negative information has the danger of frightening children or inducing a sense of hopelessness that is both unnecessary and developmentally inappropriate. [R:19:256: ¶ 20.] The majority points out that two other books in the series include negative information, while Vamos a Cuba makes Cuba out to be hunky dory. [Majority Opinion at 1227.] First, the negative information to which the majority refers is minor. The Cambodia and India books briefly touch on the war in Cambodia and poverty in India in one sentence each, while leaving out volumes of negative information that their respective Human Rights Reports include. That left out information would likewise render the Cambodia and India books developmentally inappropriate. Moreover, Vamos a Cuba does not depict Cuba as hunky dory by any means. The pictures depict Cuba as a poor country, with children missing articles of clothing (on page 10 a young boy is shirtless and on page 19 a boy is shirtless and shoeless), people engaged in manual labor, children also engaged in such labor, and outdated housing and cars. Some of the text verifies this for example, at page 23, it reads: Some children work in gardens. Older children may work in factories. Negative information is in fact included in Vamos a Cuba. More extreme negative information is left out, along with any negative political information. The omitted information also falls outside the scope of a superficial geography book. [6] Vamos a Cuba is simply part of an apolitical geography series. Its overall purpose is to offer very basic information to young children about the way of life in another country. [R:19:267: ¶ 15.] The very title of the book tells the reader that he will be taken on a brief visit through the pages of the book. [R:19:256: ¶ 21.] If a young child were traveling, he would likely be taken to only certain places and would see only limited things. He would be shown a windmill in Holland, not the Red Light district in Amsterdam. [R:19:256: ¶ 21.] He would be shown the Eiffel Tower, not the seedy sections of Paris. [R:19:256-57: ¶ 21.] Vamos a Cuba introduces information children would want as young readers, and not beyond. [ Vamos a Cuba ], like all the other books in the series, is simply meant to give small children a sense of what it's like to be a child in another country. One page in [ Vamos a Cuba ] shows a shirtless and shoeless little boy leading a team of oxen to a farm field. Should the text say it's a state-owned collective? I don't think so, although a knowledgeable parent could tell his child that. Assuming a 6-year-old would care. Michael Putney, Let's Close the Book on Attempts to Censor, MIAMI HERALD, April 19, 2006, [Plaintiff's Exhibit 20.] A mother and teacher noted at a School Board meeting: introduc[ing] the truth to children [is best done] in increments. [April Transcript, 20:10-12.] A simple glimpse into life in Cuba stimulates the young child's interest so he will seek more complex information when he is older. [R:19:253-4: ¶ 13.] Moreover, a parent may provide more information to satisfy his child's curiosities, just as the parent may show his child more than a windmill or the Eiffel Tower. Vamos a Cuba provides only a basic picture of Cuba and contains a section at the end of the book called More Books to Read. [ Vamos a Cuba: 32.] That section refers a curious reader to additional sources, including a more in-depth book with a recommendation that an older reader can help you with this book. [ Vamos a Cuba: 32.] Consequently, the young reader can build on the basic information he has just learned by seeking out more information about Cuba. Not every book can be everything to every child, [Scales Cross, 115:8-9], which Vamos a Cuba implicitly recognizes by referring readers to further material. The answer to books that do not provide all the information a reader wants is to find another book. If a reader is curious about the Castro regime, he can find another book that enlightens him further. Nothing in this book hinders that process. To the contrary, it provides a simple glimpse into Cuba which will form the basis of a future, deeper understanding about the country. [April Transcript, 25:10-13] (a child may not be ready to understand all of the horrors of the Castro regime, but this book can be used to start the discussion about true life in Cuba). Even Mr. Amador, the father who made the underlying challenge to the book conceded: The best thing that's happened here is that this has given me further opportunity to talk with my child, my daughter, about the reasons why we are here, and even though they may not understand still what I've been through and what so many of Cubans have been through, I hope some day they will understand.... [June Transcript, 7:7-13.] Despite his purpose, Mr. Amador illustrated the marketplace of ideas.