TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
On Jan. 17, the Tucson Unified School District released a statement saying that no books had been banned, despite some reports to the contrary.
An excerpt of the statement follows:
Seven books that were used as supporting materials for curriculum in Mexican American Studies classes have been moved to the district storage facility because the classes have been suspended as per the ruling by Arizona Superintendent for Public Instruction John Huppenthal. Superintendent Huppenthal upheld an Office of Administration Hearings' ruling that the classes were in violation of state law ARS 15-112.
The books are:
- Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado
- 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures edited by Elizabeth Martinez
- Message to AZTLAN by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
- Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales
- Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuna
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
- Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years by Bill Bigelow
NONE of the above books have been banned by TUSD. Each book has been boxed and stored as part of the process of suspending the classes. The books listed above were cited in the ruling that found the classes out of compliance with state law.
Every one of the books listed above is still available to students through several school libraries. Many of the schools where Mexican American Studies classes were taught have the books available in their libraries. Also, all students throughout the district may reserve the books through the library system.
UPDATE 3/13: Currently, there are 112 copies of the books available to students through the library system.
Here is the breakdown of how many copies of each book are in school library collections:
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures edited by Elizabeth Martinez – 36 copies
Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales – 36 copies
Message to AZTLAN by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales – 18 copies
Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado – 8 copies
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire – 5 copies
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years by Bill Bigelow – 5 copies
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuna – 4 copies
A total of 40 copies of two titles (Message to AZTLAN and Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement) remain in the book warehouse, available for libraries if requested. All other books that were collected from schools have been distributed.
