Hudson City Schools: Administrators, Police Investigate Hiram College Writing Class

In September 2021, administrators at an Ohio public high school “collected” copies of a textbook used in a college writing class open to seniors at the high school as part of Ohio’s “College Credit Plus” program. The town’s mayor claimed salacious writing prompts in the book — a handful of the 600 writing prompts in the book, but which were not used in the class — constituted “child pornography,” and said prosecutions would follow. Prosecutors and police denied that the book constituted “child pornography,” but announced an investigation into whether the use of the textbook violated other laws. On September 21, a coalition of civil liberties groups led by FIRE wrote to the high school and local law enforcement explaining that both Ohio law and the First Amendment prohibit high school administrators from censoring college courses.