Winners of the NCTE/SLATE
National Intellectual Freedom Award

Established in 1996 to honor individuals, groups, or institutions that merit recognition for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom, the NCTE/SLATE National Intellectual Freedom Award has been given each year beginning in 1997.

2007 Kimberly Horne, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Austin, Texas

2006 The Blue Springs Board of Education, Missouri
Early in the fall of 2003, five parents of students in the Blue Springs School District, a suburban district of 13,000 students in metropolitan Kansas City, Missiouri, requested the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction that Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver be removed from the district’s curriculum. The parents contended that the novel implicitly condones infanticide, teen suicide, euthanasia, governmental brainwashing, and disobedience to parents, and they objected to its general negativity.  The district followed its policy by having the parents fill out a “Reconsideration Request” form and organizing a review committee, to which the parents spoke.  The committee recommended that the novel stay in the curriculum and it was retained.  However, in the fall of 2004, the parents requested that the Board of Education review the committee’s recommendation.
     In the meanwhile, challenges to many of the texts used in grades 6-12 were being challenged throughout the metropolitan area. Some districts were giving in to the challenges and the press, including the Kansas City Star reported on the cases. The Blue Springs Board of Education held firm.  Over winter break, each school board member read the novel in preparation for the hearing in which the parents were to present their case.  The March 2005 board meeting was well publicized and a great many people attended.  During the meeting board members expressed their admiration for Lowry’s work and their intention to protect the right to read quality texts which depict what one reporter referred to as “the dark side” of life (Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, January 10, 2005, B-2).  While districts all around the Kansas City metropolitan area were busy removing challenged books from their curricula, the Blue Springs Board of Education stood firm.  As the district’s Director of Information Services said, “We don’t haphazardly create our curriculum, and we don’t haphazardly change it” (Kansas City Star, January 16, 2005, pages A-1 and A-8).  --summarized from nomination materials submitted by Maridella Carter.

2004
James LaRue, Director of Douglas County Libraries, Castle Rock, Colorado

2003
Gloria Pipkin and ReLeah Cosset Lent, Lynn Haven, Florida
Gloria Pipkin and ReLeah Cossett Lent believe it’s important for students to think deeply, read widely, and write honestly. Equally important, they are not afraid to defend this conviction, even if it means standing up in a courtroom.
     The duo met as they helped to build a strong literacy program at Mowat Middle School in Lynn Haven, Florida. In 1985 NCTE named the program one of 150 “Centers of Excellence” across the country for exhibiting high quality in the English language arts. It was during this decade that religious fundamentalists challenged the program’s methods and materials and the superintendent eventually banned more than 60 books. Pipkin and Lent rallied to the defense, and Pipkin was a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit, which lasted five years and restored access to all banned books and restricted materials.
     Lent faced other challenges when she taught at A.C. Mosley High School, also in Lynn Haven. There she helped to reverse the principal’s ban on the classroom teaching of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and confronted a challenge as advisor to the student newspaper. On the last day of school in May 1997, the principal removed Lent as advisor, citing differences in philosophies and a desire to emphasize school spirit over investigative journalism. Lent sued in federal court and won an out-of-court settlement in 1998.
     Their struggles gained wide exposure, including an article in The Washington Post Magazine (January 4, 1987). They also have told their stories in At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom (Heinemann, 2002), which contains an “Intellectual Freedom Manifesto” listing teachers’ and students’ rights and responsibilities related to reading, writing, thinking, and learning. Pipkin and Lent also are editors of Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, which relates stories of other educators who share the conviction to stand up for teachers’ and students’ rights (Heinemann, 2003).
     Their courage has drawn other honors as well. The Courage Foundation recognized Pipkin for defending the right to read. Lent received the PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. And both Lent and Pipkin have received Golden Apple Awards from the Association of Bay County Educators.

2002 Mark Goodman, Esq., Student Press Law Center

2001 Joyce Meskis, The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver, Colorado
The committee applauds Meskis for her defense of the public’s access to a “vast array of books containing ideas as diverse as the world in which we live.”  In the words of Carol Sullivan, the nominator:
     During nearly 30 years of bookstore ownership, Joyce Meskis has adhered to [her] philosophy in the face of threats, loss of business, and, most recently, a police task force demand to review customer records.  Because she so strongly believes in the free flow of ideas, regardless of her personal beliefs, she also allows off-duty employees to picket the store when they oppose the beliefs of authors who come for book signings.

2000 Frosty Troy, editor The Observer, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The committee applauds Troy for his ongoing crusade for teachers and their right to teach and for students and their right to read, particularly his vocal stand against those who would restrict teachers in their efforts to teach students to think.  In the words of V. Pauline Hodges, the nominator:
     "Frosty is not afraid to print the truth, and his research is thorough so that he is confident that what he prints is accurate and without error.  He does not play favorites as to political party or status.  He attacks anyone of any political party if he believes them to be unfair or if he thinks their actions are for their own political gain."

1999  Jim Burke, Moderator of CATENet (California Association of Teachers of English)
The Committee applauds Burke’s efforts to develop and maintain the CATENet list, which serves its 2,000 members (and the additional 3,000 who receive forwarded messages from CATENet), to keep them informed about and to post their discussions and comments on issues of intellectual freedom, including censorship of texts and instructional practices.  With its diverse membership of teachers, politicians, writers, professors, reporters, school board members, and textbook company representatives, CATENet provides a rich resource on teaching the English language arts and a venue for advancing intellectual freedom.

1998 Chris Crutcher (young adult author)

1997 Washington Coalition Against Censorship