National anticensorship group joins fight over FHS library books
Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005
The National Coalition Against Censorship, based in New York City, is taking an interest in the recent debate over the content of some books in Fayetteville Public School libraries.
The coalition sent a letter, dated Tuesday, to Superintendent Bobby New asking him to resist the efforts of parent Laurie Taylor and supporters who have sought to remove books they find sexually explicit from the libraries.
The letter was signed by NCAC director Joan Bertin and representatives from four other organizations. They were Millie Davis, division director of communications and affiliate services, National Council of Teachers of English; Chris Finan, president or the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers; and Larry Siems of the PEN (Poets, Playwrights Essayists and Novelists) American Center. "It was a joint letter; it was processed by my office,"Bertin said. "I was authorized to sign for everybody."Director of School/Community Relations Alan Wilbourn said New has been out of the office this week and wouldn't have received his mail.
The superintendent's stance on Taylor's most recent request that the district conduct an "audit"into the content of its library books is that he wants to discuss the matter with district librarians before commenting on it, Wilbourn said. He plans to meet with them in August.
Even if it is still in the mail, the coalition's letter to New is already available on the Internet.
Taylor filed three formal complaints against specific books in the spring, and her request to remove them was rejected by an appointed materials review committee. She then appealed to the Fayetteville School Board, which voted 4-3 to approve a compromise where the books would not be removed altogether, but would be placed in the schools' parent library sections.
In a follow-up to that decision, Taylor sent an e-mail to New and the school board on June 22 claiming that she and other supporters had found 70 books "that have absolute vile and gratuitous sexual premises."
Many of books were apparently found doing searches of the school library catalogue, which is available online at fayar. net, the district's Web site. Subject searches using terms such as "sex"and "homosexuality"yield many results, Taylor said in a follow-up e-mail on June 28. She only listed seven of the 70 titles in the original June 22 e-mail, which included "The Homo Handbook: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Homo"by Judy Carter and "Forever"by Judy Blume. Since then, Taylor has provided the Northwest Arkansas Times with 47 other titles.
She has indicated the final total will exceed 70, but says she and her supporters want to thoroughly review the questionable books before announcing them publicly.
Bertin's letter said the board's decision in May to move the original three books from the general circulation "only resulted in escalating demands." "You are now seeing first hand the common consequence of censorship - it opens the floodgates to unending demands,"she wrote.
Although in her June 22 email she said she wanted to "purge"the school libraries of sexually explicit materials, Taylor has an idea for a compromise.
Place the explicit and objectionable books in a restricted area, and parents who do not mind their children accessing these materials can sign a permission sheet allowing them to do so, "Why are educators so incensed at the fact that parents want to have authority over what their children read?"she said.
The issue has always been that these questionable books are available for students to check out without parents knowing about it, she said. "Just put them in a restricted place and let parents determine if their kids can access it or not,"she said.
Taylor also said she would support a ratings system for books because there are such systems in place for movies, music and video games.
She read Bertin's letter online and called its position "a total circumventing of parental authority."It also seems like the writers were trying to be intimidating by citing court rulings to support their arguments, she said. "With a good selection process (by librarians) in place, the default is kids should get to borrow books unless parents tell them they can't,"she said. "(Taylor) can make it clear to her own children what material she considers inappropriate. She can enforce that any way she wants.... She should make arrangements with her kids. It's her responsibility to govern what they do."
Taylor has said she believes the books are inappropriate for school libraries because they deal with sex, and it's not the schools' job to promote sex. She has said though she doesn't approve of them, she would not protest their inclusion in a public library.
Bertin dismissed that idea. "It doesn't matter that it is a library in a school. It is a library most of all,"she said. "It's not curriculum choices where children are told to read something.
"She purports to be empowering parents, but she's really taking power away," Bertin said."She's the one making the decision as to what's good and bad. "
Taylor said she believes many parents besides her don't want their children to have access to school library books with questionable content. She had hoped the issue could be addressed before school starts, and she said she hopes to speak on the issue again at the July school board meeting. Laurie Taylor's library list
following a some books Laurie Taylor and her supporters have determined are unsuitable for libraries in Fayetteville public schools. The group is asking the school board to review these books and remove them from the libraries. "Beloved"by Toni Morrison "Snow falling on cedars"by David Guterson. "Song of Solomon"by Toni Morrison "Doing It"by Melvin Burgess "Choke"by Palahniuk "Between Lovers"by Eric Jerome Dickey "CHEATERS"by Eric Jerome Dickey "The Other Woman"by Eric Jerome Dickey. "The Homo Handbook Getting In Touch With Your Inner Homo"by Judy Carter "Gays/justice: A study of ethics, society, and law"by Richard D. Mohr. "Coming Out in College: The struggle for a queer identity"by Robert A. Rhoads "GLBTQ: The survival guide for queer & questioning teens"by Kelly Huegel "Rainbow Boys"by Alex Sanchez "Am I Blue? Coming Out From the Silence"by Marion Dane Bauer "Forever"by Judy Blume "Kissing Kate"by Lauren Myracle "Children of Horizons"by Gilbert Herdt "Family Values: Two Moms and Their Son"by Phyllis Burke "Eight Seconds"by Jean Ferris "Annie On My Mind"by Nancy Garden "BABY BE-BOP"by Francesca Lia Block "Leave Myself Behind"by Bart Yates Always running: La Vida Loca, gang days in L. A. "by Luis J.
Rodriguez "Bless me, Ultima"by Rudolfo Anaya "Breaking boxes"by a.m. Jenkins. "Chronicle of a death foretold"by Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Deal with it! A whole new approach to your body, brain, and life
as a gurl"by Esther Drill, Heather McDonald, Rebecca Odes. "Druids"by Morgan Llywelyn "Fade"by Robert Cormier "Fair game"by Erika Tamar. "Fallen angels"by Walter Dean Myers "Fools Crow"by James Welch "Girl Goddess #9: nine stories"by Francesca Lia Block "How the Garcia girls lost their accents"by Julia Alvarez. "I was a teenage fairy"by Francesca Lia Block. "Less than zero"by Ellis "Like water for chocolate: A novel in monthly installments with
recipes, romances and home remedies"by Laura Esquivel "Love in the time of cholera"by Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Lucky"by Alice Sebold. "My father's scar"by Michael Cart. "My heartbeat"by Garret Freymann-Weyr. "One hot second: stories about desire"edited by Cathy Young. "One hundred years of solitude"by Gabriel Garcνa Mαrquez "Paula"by Isabel Allende "Peter"by Kate Walker "Push: a novel"by Sapphire "Ragtime"by E. L. Doctorow. "Rats saw God"by Rob Thomas. "Tenderness"by Robert Cormier. "The bluest eye"by Toni Morrison "The perks of being a wallflower"by Stephen Chbosky "The Pillars of the earth"by Ken Follett "The rose and the beast: fairy tales"retold by Francesca Lia
Block she said.
Regarding Taylor's suggestion on a restricted shelf for certain books, Bertin said," I think it's an incredibly bad idea."
Developing such a shelf gives people the impression that some authority has said there is something wrong with those books, Bertin said, and it's a judgment that shouldn't be imposed by the library.
Bertin said she believes if certain parents want to restrict their child's access to certain materials, it is up to them to work with their child individually.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
