A group has declared 1990 the worst year for school censorship, but locally that doesn’t stick.

The liberal group People for the American Way cited 229 censorship attempts in its ninth annual report, up about 20 percent according to an article in the Chicago Tribune.

Among the writings questioned last year were Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary,” the article said.

“It seems to get worse and worse every year, but traditionally with institutions of higher education, that type of pressure hasn’t had any effect,” said Robert Self, NIU director of Freshman English.

“Universities are lucky because it’s not a situation where an irate parent sees what Johnny is reading at school and then (the parent) goes to the school board and tries to get the book banned,” Self said.

DeKalb’s other schools haven’t had any problems with censorship, said Jeff Barshinger, assistant superintendent of DeKalb School District No. 428.

DeKalb schools have a policy that allows concerned citizens to view suggested curriculum before it is used. All textbooks are put on public review for a minimum of thirty days at the district office. Opinions of the citizens and recommendations from the faculty both go to the Board of Education, which makes the final decision on all textbooks, said Barshinger.

Last year the most challenged work was a reading series called Impressions, which includes works from Martin Luther King, Rudyard Kipling and Dr. Seuss. Groups targeted the series alleging it contained satanism and violence, according to the Tribune article.

“It’s (censorship) along the same lines that ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ is all about drugs. You can read into anything if you go over it enough,” said Marie Sellers, associate pastor of DeKalb’s Newman Center.