Court lifts Miami ban of school book about Cuba

By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) – A federal court judge ordered Miami’s
public school system on Monday to lift a ban on a children’s
book about Cuba that critics say fails to paint a bleak picture
of life on the communist-ruled island.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold granted a motion filed
by the American Civil Liberties Union for a preliminary
injunction overturning the Miami-Dade County School Board’s ban
on a book called “Vamos a Cuba” in Spanish and “A Visit to
Cuba” in English from elementary school libraries.

The ACLU filed suit against the school board and its book
ban on June 21, saying it marked the first major battle over
book censorship by a U.S. public school system since 1982.

ACLU lawyers said the school board had banned “Vamos a
Cuba” in response to pressure from Miami’s politically powerful
Cuban exile community, and the case was reminiscent of past
attempts by Cuban exiles to ban magazines favorable to Cuba or
concerts by Cuban musicians.

Lawyers for the ACLU do not dispute critics’ claims that
the book, with its pictures of smiling children, fails to
depict many aspects of life in Cuba.

But they argued at a hearing in Judge Gold’s courtroom last
Friday that the book and its content were appropriate for its
target audience of children aged 5 to 7.

They also argued that the book ban violated the First
Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, and openly
defied a U.S. law prohibiting censorship.

In his ruling, Judge Gold rejected arguments that a
court-enforced order to lift the book ban represented
interference in the affairs of the democratically elected
school board.

“Protecting fundamental constitutional rights is not
judicial ‘meddling.’ Rather, it is the sworn obligation of this
court to preserve and protect those rights from abridgment,”
said Gold.

The original complaint against “Vamos a Cuba” came from a
self-described former political prisoner in Cuba.