NEW YORK, N.Y., May 11, 2000 - Free expression groups today hailed the announcement that the Zeeland Public Schools, a school system in western Michigan, would lift most of the restrictions that it imposed last year on the use of J.K. Rowling's bestselling Harry Potter books. At a press conference in Zeeland today, School Superintendent Gary Feenstra said that he would restore the books to the shelves of the elementary and middle school libraries and permit students to borrow them without restrictions. "This victory will encourage others around the country to fight against censorship of the Harry Potter books," Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), said. ABFFE is a sponsor of Muggles for Harry Potter, a group that is fighting challenges to the use of the Potter books, which were the most challenged books in 1999, according to the American Library Association.

In November, Feenstra imposed a series of restrictions in response to complaints that the books about the young wizard Harry Potter portrayed witchcraft in a positive light. He banned oral readings of the books in class and declared that they could be checked out of school libraries only with parental permission. He also prohibited the use of the books for book reports without parental permission and said that the school district would buy no future books in the series. Parents, teachers and students protested the policy and formed a group, Muggles for Harry Potter, to fight the restrictions. In the Potter books, Muggles are people without magical powers.

At his press conference today, Feenstra accepted the recommendations of an advisory committee that had been created to review his policy. In addition to putting the books back on the library shelves, Feenstra agreed to permit oral readings of the books in the district's middle schools and to allow children to use them for book reports without obtaining their parents' permission. The superintendent also said that new books in the Harry Potter series would be considered for library selection applying the district's regular selection criteria.

The only remaining restriction is a ban on classroom readings in the elementary schools. However, the children in those grades now have the freedom to borrow the books from the library and to use them for book reports. Older children are not restricted in any way.

In March, ABFFE and eight other national groups launched Muggles for Harry Potter on the national level. Since then, over 3,200 people have joined the organization through its Web site, www.mugglesforharrypotter.org. The other sponsors are the Freedom to Read Foundation, the Association of American Publishers, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Children's Book Council, the Association of Booksellers for Children, the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN American Center and the People for the American Way Foundation.