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· Long Island--Reportedly on a whim, two

County school system. Judith Johnson,

the district superintendent, apologized

students at a Long Island high school

for inviting Autum Ashante to recite her

submitted quotes from Adolph Hitler to

poems for district children. "We had a lot

go into the school's yearbook, and class-

of kids who were really upset," Johnson

mates lobbied to keep them in the book

said. Ashante, however, made no apolo-

despite the yearbook adviser counseling

gies for what she said, "I don't think

against it. Once published, the quotes

there's anything wrong with my poem. I

were condemned by Rabbi Ian Silverman

was trying to tell them the straight-up

of the East Northport Jewish Center, who

truth." The teacher who invited Ashante

said that "this is offensive not only to

reported that, truth or not, after her con-

Jews but to all Americans."

troversial performance Autum was

The principal of the school apolo-

"unofficially" banned from ever perform-

gized for the quotes, and district officials

ing in the district again.164

said they were considering contacting the

publishing company to ask them to

either reprint the affected section, omit-

Multiculturalism

· Albany--In September, the New York State

ting the quotes, or to offer white-out tape

to those who wish to cover the quotes up.

legislature created a new Amistad

In addition, the school is contemplating

Commission--named after the slave ship

creating a committee of parents, teach-

Amistad--to determine whether the state's

ers, and students to vet senior quotes in

schools were adequately teaching about

future yearbooks. Some students saw

the slave trade. "We feel there is . . . a void

that possibility as censorship. "I don't

in our education curriculum . . . when it

believe they should censor your senior

comes to the issue of slavery and the dehu-

quote," said senior Joanna Dickman. "I

manization of Africans," explained

mean, if that's what those guys want to

Assemblyman Clarence Norman (D-

be remembered by, that's up to them."162

Brooklyn). Opponents of the commis-

·

sion's work argued that the state's schools

New York City--Students at Hunter

were already doing all they could to teach

College High School threatened to sue

African-American history, and they feared

the school in May after advisors cut

that the commission would open the door

jokes in the yearbook that typically

for every ethnic or racial group to demand

accompanied pictures of student clubs.

special treatment. "Jews will decide how to

School officials had the yearbook's

teach the Holocaust, the Irish the Great

printer excise the jokes because they

Famine, Armenians the Turkish genocide,

could have been considered offensive.

Indians the French and Indian War, and so

Students maintained that doing that

on," argued Candace de Russy, a State

violated their First Amendment rights.

University of New York trustee. Both sides

"My concern is that they are going too

made clear why former New York state

far," said editor Netta Levran, who

schools chancellor Carl Hayden respond-

added that "it's not just the jokes but

ed to the fracas by noting that "the single

the bigger issue of losing something

that makes Hunter unique."163

most difficult standard . . . [is the] history

·

standard, because it is so potentially con-

Peekskill--In March, a 7-year old girl's

troversial."165

recitation of a poem she wrote that con-

demned white nationalism and called

people like Christopher Columbus and

Sex Education

· New York City--In March the New York City

Charles Darwin "pirates" and "vam-

pires," elicited an apology to all district

Department of Education announced that

parents from officials at the Peekskill

children as young as five years old would

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