LB Press-Telegram, Friday, January 11, 1963
Special to the Press Telegram
SAN FRANCISCO—Attempts to censor school textbooks in Los Alamitos School District and other Orange County School Districts came under fire today at a hearing by the State Board of Education on textbooks.
Zane Meckler. secretary of the education committee of the Community Relations Conference of Southern California made the attack.
As part of his comment n books scheduled for adoption, he said:
“The attacks on the textbooks last year prompted some of us to pay more heed to the would-be censors on both the state and national levels. We have witnessed within this past year, and indeed within recent months. calculated attacks on textbooks, films, library materials and reading tests in the Los Alamitos School District, many of the other school districts in Orange County, Glendora, West Covina and Los Angeles.”
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ATTENDING the hearing, in which interested individuals or groups were invited to comment on the subject matter in the textbooks, were sixth and seventh grade students. No spokesman from Orange County groups that have criticized textbooks at a local level appeared at the hearing.
One spokesman, Walter Wofford, San Gabriel City Clerk, who said he heads an organization formerly called the Anti-Communist League of America, submitted a length report critical of many of the books.
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THE HEARING involved adoption of millions of dollars worth of textbooks for use in schools throughout the state.