Highland Park ISD suspends seven books after parents protest their content

[charisstoma]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20140921-highland-park-isd-suspends-seven-books-after-parents-protest-their-content.ece

AT A GLANCE: The 7 suspended books
Highland Park ISD suspended seven books from classroom use until they are reviewed by a committee of parents, teachers and students. Following are the books and references to content that raised objections from some parents:

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
This contemporary novel is told through the point of view of Enzo, a dog. Enzo tells the story of his race car driving owner, who loses his wife unexpectedly and faces a child custody battle with his in-laws. The book includes a sex scene in which a teenage neighbor forces herself on the main character and falsely accuses him of statutory rape.

The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler
This nonfiction book, written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is about employed Americans who live on the brink of poverty. It includes a story of a woman who was raped in second grade and had an abortion in high school.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
This classic novel, written in 1922, is about the spiritual journey of a man living in the time of Buddha. In the book, the main character fathers a child out of wedlock and has sexual encounters with prostitutes.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This contemporary young adult book is a National Book Award winner. It tells the story of a teenager who grows up on the Spokane Indian Reservation but leaves to attend an all-white high school in a farm town. The book has strong language, including racial slurs.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
This contemporary young adult book is about a boy who has dated and been dumped by multiple girls named Katherine. He goes on a road trip with a friend and tries to come up with a mathematical formula that will help him avoid heartbreak. It includes sexual references.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
This nonfiction book is about the author, who grew up in a dysfunctional home with parents who struggled with financial problems, alcoholism and mental illness.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
This coming-of-age novel, written by a Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner, is about a young black man who grows up in Michigan. It has profanity, sexual imagery and a story line about an incestuous relationship.

Comments

[mee-eep.livejournal.com]

The problem with censorship is it'll makes people want to read them who wouldn't care otherwise. Out of context lots of things can be made to sound obscene.

Incest - Remember how popular 'Flowers in the Attic' was?
I'm not sure but I think I read the first one once upon a time ;)

Sexual content - Lady Chatterly now there was a fuss, banned, big court case. Tv series (Sean Bean *sigh*), tv series of the court case even.
Lots of fuss over one scene that might mean they.. if not for the banning most would have overlooked it.
Read that one (and watched a little of Sean Bean's arse)

Swearing - Seems like a modern issue, lots of people using swearing to 'be real' I'm not sure, I think sometimes it has impact; it can certainly be part of a person and appropriate to situations or if used sparingly can make an impression. Also it can be immature and tedious ;)


Those books specifically only the first one made me wonder - it's from a dog's pov? With those issues? Not sure if that's clever, artistic, or just plain weird LOL

Who brought the books to the parents attention and how many of them have read every book they're protesting about? and do the same parents censor their children's tv viewing and online time?

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

The article mentioned sticky notes in the books so some of the people read them. I haven't so I don't know the context other than what is written in the article.
*grins* Yeah the dog's POV threw me too. That's an interesting *coughs* angle to present the subject with. Dogs aren't very judgemental of their owners unless it has to do with baths, vet visits, petting the other pet more than them... Wondering if that's a bit too cutesy for 15 to 19 year olds though.

Sean Bean ...hmmmm.... might have seen it. Vaguely I have a hazy memory most of which is that it was too short to fully appreciate the view.

Some parent probably read over the books to protect their little darling. I'm thinking that the public library had them so they didn't even have to buy them.

[mee-eep.livejournal.com]

So one parent read them and others revolted ')
Why bring so much attention to them, just put an age restriction on them or a sticknote warning and let people be adult enough to decide themselves. with the publicity they'll now have people everywhere picking up these books just for the scandalous content.

I don't like censorship, while there is content I feel should be strongly labelled - where do you draw the line?

Dogs pov for serious issues seems very strange I can't imagine it.
I think the topic if its showing the consequences to the man's life is an important one but dog's pov?!

15-19 is generally old enough to reason content IMO, at some point you have to provide the information and let them make informed choices of their own, better to say 'If you want to read it, then lets discuss it afterwards' than 'no, you may not read'


I remember the newspaper reviews decrying it as constanr sex LOL don't really remember it though just that I did watch it at some point and it was nothing incredible. But I did watch quite a few Sharpe too and quite liked the series ;)

I have all the feelings, okay?

[rout-of-snails.livejournal.com]

As an Aussie the thought of banning a book because swearing/strong language makes me want to laugh and drop a Cluster F Bomb out of spite. Seriously. Do they not know how teenagers talk?

(I'm actually struggling at work because I need to not swear around kids and I used to work in warehousing. I also wrote a fantasy novel that I suspect contains the most gratuitous uses of 'fuck' - or I hope it does. But this character is a trans man trying in one of the few ways he can to assert his masculinity, and it shows in his dialogue. He gets better, but to cut that would to cut his character arc, and I won't do it.)

By these standards, nothing I write, ever, is appropriate for high schoolers - which means we're not having real conversations about suicide, depression, queer and trans identities, gender, sex and sexuality, abortion, misogyny, ableism and social/systemic abuse. (I'm thinking of my novel, not Steve and company, although given Steve's dialogue about safe and accessible sex in the second book, that won't fly, either. And Steve fits the trend of the New Adult genre!) I know of authors who have softened their work/pulled punches to be published, but I'm reluctant to do that. We'll see what happens with that.

The only one that sounds iffy is the first because the last thing rape/sexual assault survivors need is yet another narrative that promotes the (not-so-often-as-people-think) trend of crying fake rape. (Unless the narrative shows that this trend is bullshit. Then I'm for it.) The rest should be read. I have major problems with students NOT reading books about experiences with mental illness. High school students should read books that deal with sex, sexual assault and rape (at the very least the notion of enthusiastic consent) - I wonder how my life might have changed for the better if I'd had access to that kind of literature?

(Oh, I think Greene shouldn't be read, but that's because I think he's a problematic writer, not because of his content.)

As you can tell, I'm against banning books, because too much of the time the books that are banned shouldn't be, and books that are accessible - books that are racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic - are and will never be banned. I've happened across a ton of accidentally misogynistic/homophobic mainstream fantasy novels and nobody would have ever spoken of banning them because they contain content that inspires and encourages hate crimes.

Discouraging conversations about sex by removing books that deal with its uglier side? NO. That should be a (fucking) hate crime against teenagers in desperate want of real education and an entrance into dialogue about it!

Re: I have all the feelings, okay?

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Fake accusations of rape are a fact of life too but not, I hope, as prevalent. Haven't read any of these books so I don't know the context. Fake accusations are something that have been used to get back at teachers who haven't given the student a passing or better grade in this area. Again it doesn't happen often but there is a reason that we, people who work in the education field, are discouraged from unsupervised out of school interactions with students.

Yeah, most of the reasons stated in this article *sighs* are very out of touch with reality a reality that their children know. But this is TEXAS, a religious state that sometimes forgets the love part of religion and goes with a narrow version of Hell and Brimstone instead.

[frogs_of_war]

The only one I've read any of is Sherman Alexie's book. He's said most of the banning and suspensions have to do with the racial slurs, slurs used against him by real teenagers when he was one.

I think a lot of adults forget what it was like to be a teenager. Having kids read about uncomfortable things is good for them. Having boys read stories with girl leads teaches empathy. Learning more about people not like oneself is good. It's how I learn new stuff.

Do you have any problems like this where you work?

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

All persons in the school district, students and employees, are given anti-bullying, anti-sexual harassment training. So things like racial slurs and such are stomped on pretty hard.

What might happen outside school *shrugs* It's a big bad world out there and pretending it doesn't exist or isn't already impacting the students in their home life or social community is naive. Alot I think would depend on the age of the student. 11th grade is 16 going on 17. It's hoped that the teacher provides the right spin on the material in the books. Bringing up the issues and examining them with an intention to make students aware of how it feels from the other side hopefully would teach empathy.

In the past there have been a few books brought up for complaint by parents that have been in the Library. As far as assigned books for class reading, they can opt out of that book and chose another from a list instead. Don't know how many students have had their parents take that option. *grins* We did have one student bring back a book to us and tell us he didn't like it for X reason because he was uncomfortable with the content. We reviewed it and I think the Library book was sent to the home of books not intended for our age grouping ie. the Library dept's shelf where other Librarians might see it and offer it a home in their school Library.

The main thing that's been in the news before this hit the fan was exactly the opposite. Textbooks that espoused that creationism was just as scientifically valid as Darwin's evolution theory. Obviously future scientists in biology etc. they weren't planning as a carrier choice.

[frogs_of_war]

Sorry, I meant book banning. I'd just come home from a 10+ hour day and I guess I wasn't clear.

How are kids going to become scientists and cure cancer and whatnot if they don't understand what science is. I know I didn't get a good science education and that was back before teaching 'all sides'. My son sends me video links and I was enlightened to realized scientist were looking for a "no". How does something work? Take a guess then try to disprove it. And suddenly real science started to make sense.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

You work a horrible amount of hours. *hands you a drink and wraps you in a cuddly blanket*

Don't think there has been any recent banning but the local 1/2 Price Books Store is celebrating Banned Book Week. I should probably investigate if there are any new additions to that list.

I have a savvy Librarian who chooses well yet still gets the books that the kids want and should read. Easiest thing to do when there is a series or book that they want is to point them in the direction of the Public Library system. In our area there's 4 or 5 city libraries that lend out books to library card holders from the other 4 or 5 city libraries. A person puts in an on-line order to the Metroplex of Libraries system and it gets sent to the library of your choice for you to pick up. Returns are done in reverse order. It's handy.

[dyoklako.livejournal.com]

kids are kids. they will eventually learn to cuss, spit, growl, and fart in public. the thing is, these books tells about it and the parents MUST learn to talk it over with the kids and help them understand why things like this are happening to other people. it is simple laziness that they'd rather "censor" these books via protesting about their "questionable content". *sighs in exasperation*

i have heard and seen some of these books but since they are not my cup of tea nor am i that curious about them, i have not took the time to go get a copy and read them. i may read them at some other time but not right now. *shrugs*

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Yes. Exactly. By 11 th grade which is 16 - 17 years old, kids shouldn't need all that much putting the poisons up out of reach of them. They should be able to read and make their own decisions about how they'll act or choose to think and be able to intellectually explain why. It's part of growing up into an adult.

Then again there are adults here who believe everything that said to them. Example, don't vaccinate your children, global warming does not exist, if a person says something often enough you believe it inspite of logic and facts.