A few weeks ago, Sophia sent Charles Knitter our interview questions in an email in the hopes that we get more information about the protest that he had organized. While we have not yet gotten a response, we are still hopeful that he will respond some time soon. On Saturday, the girl who started the petition, Sayde, wrote us back saying that she is 18 and can answer our questions. Sophia sent her our questions on Sunday and we are hoping to get a quick response. These were the questions we sent her:

  1. Did you grow up in Accomack County and have you always gone to school there? If not, when did you start attending school there and where did you go before?
  2. Did you read To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn for a class? If so, how did the discussion go?
    1. How where they taught? 
    2. What were some of the themes you analyzed in the texts?
    3. Did you ever hear of any other student complaining about being uncomfortable?
  1. Why did you decide to start a petition?
  2. How did you start the petition?
  3. How many people signed it?
  4. In news articles, it said that your petition was taken away by the school, did that happen?
    1. If so, how did the school find out and take it away?
    2. What did you do after the school banned your petition?
  1. How did you come to be a part of the protest?
    1. What was the atmosphere like at the protest?
    2. How many signatures did you get total, from passing the petition around and at the protest?

We decided to ask her about the protest because she was in attendance and we would like to have some information on it just in case Charles does not get back to us.Both of these interviews are really important to our project. Partly because we have to have some sort of interview for the class, but also because their input would help to shape how we present the case.

This past week, I have worked on the protest and petition page, but I have also worked on the Storymap. I have found ten other cases of To Kill a Mockingbird being banned and I have put them into a chronological map to showcase the general area of where the book gets challenged. I have definitely noticed  theme of where the challenged occur but you will just have to look at it yourself to find out what that is.

Sophia has put together the timeline that is going on the front page. It looks really good and adds a new digital tool for users to interact with.

We are getting closer to finishing the site. It’s really exciting but nerve racking because this is a public project. Everything is coming together but knowing me, there are going to be more things to do than I think.