The American Educational Studies Association (AESA) awarded GW Law Professor Catherine J. Ross' book, Lessons in Censorship: How Schools and Courts Subvert Students' First Amendment Rights, this year's Critics' Choice Book Award. The reviewers choose "outstanding" books from various disciplines that they believe will interest AESA members, who are scholars of education with an interest in social justice. This year the reviewers had the highest number of books ever submitted for consideration.
Professor Ross's work highlights the troubling and growing tendency of schools to silence student speech that the Constitution protects, and to clamp down on off-campus speech such as texting and sexting. Responding to emerging contemporary problems, she argues that well-intentioned measures to counter purely verbal bullying and hate speech may impinge on the constitutional right to free speech. Throughout her book, Professor Ross clarifies the constitutional law governing speech in public schools, and proposes ways to protect student expression without disrupting education.
On her recent award, Professor Ross said, "I am delighted that AESA has recognized Lessons in Censorship. The Critics' Choice Award has gone to some classics in the literature on education, and should help my ideas reach professors and students in schools of education around the country and internationally. I very much want to reach that audience, because too many teachers and principals don't know that public schools students in grades K-12 have constitutionally protected speech rights, and the special legal tests that apply in schools are difficult to sort out and apply as speech incidents develop. I hope that my work will help educators to understand why student expression is so important in helping students become mature citizens and will facilitate recognition and protection of constitutional rights for young people. I believe that this is essential for the future of a healthy democracy."
Professor Ross began her work on Lessons in Censorship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where she was awarded a fellowship as a Member of the School of Social Science. During her sabbatical last year, Professor Ross was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She teaches constitutional law with particular emphasis on the First Amendment as well as family law. Professor Ross has written numerous law articles and books on family law and on a range of issues involving children's constitutional rights and social policies affecting children and families.