Bonfires were a very efficient form of censorship in an age when books were handwritten and existed in few copies. Today, in an era of printing and mass markets, burning a book has been reduced to merely a shocking gesture. To be effective, censors have devised other methods of restricting access to publications and materials deemed offensive or dangerous.

The Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts offers assistance to teachers and districts faced with censorship concerns that range from the use of non-print media in the classroom to classroom texts. For assistance, contact co-chairs:

Additionally, the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) website provides the following link to report censorship, offer advice, supportive documents and current news for K-12 teachers facing these issues.

http://www.ncte.org/search?q=censorship

**Ohio Named Winner of the
2011 NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award**

Ohio has been named one of the state winners of the 2011 NCTE/SLATE Affiliate Intellectual Freedom Awards. These awards are sponsored by NCTE/SLATE (Support for the Learning and Teaching of English) Steering Committee on Social and Political Concerns. The 2011 winner former OCTELA Executive Director and currently, OCTELA Advisor, Ruth McClain, is a faculty member at Ohio University, Chillicothe. Nominated by OCTELA, McClain was recognized for her efforts toward advancing the cause of intellectual freedom throughout her teaching career.

Past winners have also included:

2010 Karen Ballash, Lakewood High School, Lakewood City Schools

Karen Ballash, journalism and American Literature teacher at Lakewood High School, values journalistic integrity and the freedom to read controversial literature in her classroom—a value for which she has changed jobs until she found a school board willing to support those freedoms. Not only has she taught her students to “get the story right,” she has also defended the school’s editorial policy and stood up for the First Amendment rights of colleagues. In her own words, she “fights the good fight every day. And sometimes,” she says, “I'm not always sure I'm right as I try to balance freedom with responsibility. But my heart's in the right place—right behind the First Amendment in the plastic ID holder I wear around my neck."

2009 - Dean Woodring Blase of Clark Montessori, Cincinnati Public Schoools

Dean Blase is committed to bringing to her students the very best literature in the world.  She asks all of her students to read Oedipus Rex and The Odyssey to provide foundations for reading and understanding Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. Students study Freud's Interpretation of Dreams to open up Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being.  But ultimately, the boldest (and, ironically, simplest) device she has used is to require students entering their senior year to compile an independent reading list, centered around a "unifying element" and to read in a Nancie Atwell reading workshop style, those books to which they will be drawn as adults. 

2008 - Stacey Ciancio, Hilliard Davidson High School, Hilliard, Ohio

Stacey consistently pushes students to think critically about ethnicity, sexuality, mental illness, and other subcultures in our society. She teaches a multicultural literature class in which she encourages students to look beyond their white privilege. She has also addressed female genital mutilation in her multicultural literture classes and uses YA and contemporary literature to help her students connect with their own world. Not fearful of using media literacy in a world of "that's not on the OGT so I can't teach it, " Stacey says, "It's a wonder I've never been fired."

2007 - Tammy Metcalf of West Alexandria, Ohio

Tammy came under fire while teaching Nadine Gordimer's July's People. The book was deemed pornographic by community parents, but Tammy followed all district censorship policies, wrote a rationale for the book. The result was that the book was retained for use in the school and is used in the following ways: to provide students with exposure to works from other cultures; to provide students insight into how history influences literature; to open discussion on other African works as well as discussion on the lack of said works; and to expose students to critically recognized literature written by a woman.

2006 - Marcia Punslan of Oregon, Ohio

The 2006 recipient is Marcia Punsalan. Ms. Punsalan fought objections to the use of Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in her 10th grade English class.  Marcia teaches in Oregon, Ohio. The book was retained after a long battle.

2004 - The Youngstown State University English Festival

For the past 26 years, Dr. Gary Salvner and the YSU community have collaborated to produce the Youngstown English Festival which attracts nearly 3000 students annually from throughout the region. Young Adult books are selected for students, and, of course, the issues of morality, sexuality, parental authority, and alternative lifestyles, have often been challenged. The Festival committee has used these incidences as avenues for talking with students, teachers, and parents about what quality YA literature offers, the questions raised in this literature, and how these questions and issues should be explored by students.

2003 — C.J. Bott of Solon, Ohio

for her work in establishing a Gay Straight Alliance, organizing a Women Helping Educate Women group, and initiating a non-harassment statement for all classes in the Shaker Heights City School District, Shaker Heights, Ohio.

2002 — Dottie DePugh
of the Adena Local School District (Ross County)

for defending the reading of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone in her classroom.

Any member of NCTE may make a nomination for either a state or a national Intellectual Freedom Award.

National Nominations:
To nominate a person or group for a national intellectual freedom award, go to http://www.ncte.org/awards/slate Follow the procedure for nomination.

State Nominations:
Any member of NCTE may make a nomination for a state Intellectual Freedom Award. To make a nomination , go to http://www.ncte.org/affiliates/awards/slate Follow the procedure for nominations.