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