t a legal voting citizen. Therefor, school boards are creatures of the state, responsible for the education of the nation's youth. They have the power to control the formal educational process and the responsibility to consider the welfare of the student under their care. Most school boards are granted authority over book selection. If society begins to remove books from the shelves, because of a disagreement with the material, fewer and fewer books will be available to readers.
             One of the major issues for these groups is sex education found in children's literature. Judy Blume is an author of books based on her feelings and concerns she had when she was young, therefor her books deal with female adolescence including masturbation, menstruation, and sex. Her mentality when writing these books was to write the most honest way possible. It is through her honesty where controversy has arose. It first began in 1980 when censors wanted to decide what not only their children could read but all children. Within months, challenges to her books were accumulating. One method of censorship used to avoid controversy, was seen when teachers, librarians, and principles removed her books form the shelves without acknowledging public opinion. The problem that surfaced was due to the thought that these authorities did not have the right to be moral guardians over all children.
             In 1993, a case arose in a United States school district banned Judy Blume's book Forever. "They (those contestors) called the book "filth" and "pornography". One of the many critics of this decision was teacher Mike Dishnow, and as a result of his open criticism he was fired. After many years in court, he was compensated many thousands of dollars for what was noted as a violation of his civil right, freedom of speech. This shows the problems with censoring children's books. By taking a book off of a shelve you are taking away a person's free will. Is it...