18 and Older Only for Rolling Stone Magazine at Wisconsin High School

IGN=”BOTTOM”>

MILWAUKEE, WI — Any student who is not 18 years or older at a Wisconsin high school will need a written note from their parents before reading Rolling Stone Magazine, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today.

While the high school’s head librarian told the paper that the policy of keeping a magazine behind a counter to restrict access to content is “extremely unusual,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin said the move was also extremely unconstitutional.

“Restricting access to material because of its content amounts to censorship,” executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin Chris Ahmuty told the Sentinel.

According to the Sentinel, the new policy was established after a School Board member said the magazine’s content was pornographic and unsuitable for reading at school libraries.

But the director of a local public library supported the ACLU’s claims, telling the paper, “putting [Rolling Stone] behind a counter and requiring a permission slip — I’ve never heard of that.”

The high school’s head librarian told the Sentinel that this will be the first time a magazine has been kept behind the counter at the library for these reasons.

Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 6, 1999