| oversy over Book Ban Rattles Miami Schools | | | | group that all school children in Cuba are required to |
| Miami Dade Public schools have been rocked by | | | | be members of). Parents of Cuban American children |
| allegations of throwing aside civil liberties in favor of | | | | in Miami schools say the book gives young children |
| pleasing parts of the local populace. First came the | | | | the impression that the lives of Cuban children is the |
| unnecessary controversy over an innocuous | | | | same as the lives of American children. They argue |
| children’s book that portrayed life in Cuba | | | | that young impressionable minds are not able to filter |
| from a child’s perspective. The book | | | | party mouthpiece rhetoric from fact and risk being |
| “A Visit to Cuba” was not a | | | | brainwashed by books like these that do not portray |
| prescribed textbook for young children in Miami | | | | the true picture of life under Castro for students in |
| schools, rather it was part of the school library. A | | | | Miami schools. |
| young Cuban American girl bought the book home | | | | The argument seems a little too simplistic. Civil |
| and showed it to her father; a Cuban dissident and | | | | liberties activists and critics of the book ban agree |
| political prisoner who was upset at the soft picture | | | | that it would be hypocritical for a country that claims |
| the book portrayed of life under Castro. He | | | | to uphold democratic ideals the way ours does, to |
| immediately notified the Miami Dade public | | | | allow react with a knee-jerk response to the |
| schools’ authorities who proceed to place the | | | | contents of a book. What, they ask, would be the |
| book under a ban. Miami’s strong Cuban | | | | difference between Castro’s Cuba and the |
| American population supported the ban on the book | | | | land of the free if the simple decision of whether or |
| in Miami schools’ arguing that reading the | | | | not to read a book is taken away from its citizens? |
| book could create the wrong impression in young | | | | While parents of Cuban American children in Miami |
| children’s minds about the reality of life in | | | | Dade Public schools, many of them having arrived at |
| Cuba. The American Civil Liberties jumped into the | | | | this country after extended stays in Cuban prisons, |
| fray and filed a lawsuit against the ban calling it | | | | do have a point in being concerned about the |
| unconstitutional. | | | | impression that their children and others will receive |
| Book Ban – A Knee-Jerk Reaction by Miami | | | | through these books-they don’t need to be. |
| Schools? | | | | In a situation like this keeping the lines of |
| A few weeks later another book found itself at the | | | | communication between parents and children open |
| center of a storm in Miami Dade Public schools. This | | | | can go a long way to help children separate the grain |
| time it was Cuban Kids, a children’s book that | | | | from the chaff and come away with a true picture |
| portrayed a couple of Cuban children on the cover | | | | of the ground reality in the Communist nation. Banning |
| dressed in what seem to be Scout uniforms- but are | | | | a book, any book is not the solution. |
| reportedly uniforms of the young revolutionaries, ( a | | | | |