The great book debate
Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/32214/
Fayetteville School District patrons received a chance to voice their opinions on whether to restrict student access to certain school library books at a special town hall meeting organized by the school board Tuesday evening.
Although both sides were heard, the residents who favored allowing unrestricted access to such books made the most noise.
They also received the most applause from the crowd. The school board also allotted 10 minutes for a student and faculty member on each side of the argument to speak, but none spoke in favor of restricting book access.
Fayetteville High School senior Erin Roberts and FHS art teacher John Remmers, who is also the Gay-Straight Alliance sponsor, did speak for about that much time against restricting access to school library books.
Roberts, president of the FHS Literacy League, presented board president Steve Percival with what she said was a petition of 300 student signatures supporting her viewpoint.
She also claimed the 54 books publicly denounced by resident Laurie Taylor, who has been spearheading the effort to restrict stu- dent access to "explicit" books, had become some of the most popular books in the library.
Taylor has been waging a well-publicized campaign to restrict student access to explicit books. She has also filed at least four formal complaints about specific books in the library, including "It’s Perfectly Normal" and most recently "Push" by Sapphire.
As a compromise to removing the books, Taylor has proposed putting the books on a restricted shelf. Students could then only check out the books with their parents’ permission.
She has also lobbied for an "audit" of the library to determine what books might have inappropriate content.
Remmers gave an impassioned speech about the struggles of gay students and encouraged school board members not to place any restrictions on what books students can check out. Such students need a section of books on homosexuality that deal honestly with the issue.
Some of the books Taylor has objected to have homosexual themes. "I’m incredibly shocked at how controversial this became," Taylor said to the crowd of nearly 300 people.
She asserted the issue is about parents’ rights to regulate what their children read, and asserted that the books in question have "obscene, offensive, vile and pornographic" contents. Parents should be able to deny their children access to such works at school, she says.
Potentially, The Bible should be on a restricted shelf because there are passages that can be misconstrued, she added.
Tim De Noble followed Taylor, speaking strongly against restricting access to any existing books.
He also charged that by taking selected excerpts of explicit passages from the questioned books "out of context" and strewing them together, Taylor and her supporters had created a "Girls Gone Wild"-like compilation of explicit sex.
Regarding one book on the list," 100 Years of Solitude, "De Noble said," I cannot reconcile why anyone would restrict or ban this (book). "
Restricting books in Fayetteville will give the district a black eye the way his high school alma mater in Little Rock earned one when it resisted integrating schools, De Noble added.
Butch Pond followed De Noble by saying it was unfair to liken restricting access to not integrating schools. He said he didn’t see why Taylor’s proposed compromise was not an acceptable solution.
There are excerpts in the book" Push, "for example, that some people don’t want their children hearing, he said.
Pond is Justice of the Peace for District 9 on the Washington County Quorum Court, though he did not introduce himself as such.
Marcia Gordon read a definition of censorship alleging that it includes" restricting" book access. She also mentioned legal rulings against two other districts that reportedly tried to restrict book access, and those decisions were overturned by the courts.
Gordon added she didn’t like the "Left Behind" Christian book series, but she wouldn’t campaign to get it removed from the library.
The board heard from about 20 other individuals, with about half for the restrictions and half against. They spoke for about three minutes each.
Bruce Ritter said he wouldn’t repeat some of the passages in the book "Push" out loud and parents have a right to keep their children from checking out such a book. "It’s a little out of whack that I can’t say those words but my children can read them," he said.
The following is a collection of other comments from people who spoke during the meeting:
• "Unfettered access to literature does not corrupt young people," Bob Smith said.
• "It is very important for us to have guidelines," Anne Hannah said, lamenting, "My generation has failed to stand for righteousness and purity."
• "There’s no evidence of these students becoming reprobates based on what they read. I personally don’t take a book report from someone who hasn’t read (it)," Kathy Hall said.
• "I feel it’s important that we protect our children’s innocence for as long as we can," Kathleen Leatherby said.
• "I read ‘Push’ and I don’t believe it’s pornographic in its intent," Anita Fredrick said.
• "Some books are provocative," Todd Stockdale said. "You have provocative books in the library. They should be handled with care."
• "Many of these works are graphic because they tell stories about real life," FHS student Reed Faitak said.
The board will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the FHS Bates Annex to make a decision on how to handle the issue. Percival indicated they would hear formal comments from district librarians and the school attorney at that time.