USAToday.com--Last month, teachers in Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, a middle-class school district in Wayne County, Michigan, were told to remove Graham Swift’s “Waterland” and Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer-winning “Beloved,” after complaints from two parents, according to Michigan Radio.
One of the parents is Matt Dame, who ran for the school board as a Tea Party candidate last year and lost. He and his wife complained that a book like “Beloved” is inappropriate for students, since it contains passages that deal with s*x, ghosts and infanticide. At a public review meeting, Dame also complained the characters in the book used God’s name in vain. “Waterland” also contains s*xual passages.
In the place of “Beloved,” which deals with slavery, Dame suggested that a nonfiction text about slavery or survival should have been assigned instead, the Plymouth Patch reported. But a teacher, Brian Read, pointed out that the class in which ”Beloved” and “Waterland” are taught is AP English Literature. “It’s about fiction,” Read said. “Poetry and fiction.”
At the hearings, parents overwhelmingly opposed the ban, according to Michigan radio. Following the public meetings, a closed meeting is planned, at which a vote is expected on the subject. The vote will then go to Superintendent Jeremy Hughes who will decide the books’ fate in the district’s classrooms.
In 1982, the Supreme Court held, in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, that the motivation for removal of books from public schools’ libraries is the central factor in determining constitutionality. If the books are removed to prevent diversity of ideas for nationalistic, political or religious reasons, it is not allowed. However, officials have more discretion when using nondiscriminatory reasons, such as vulgarity or educational unsuitability.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Sunday, January 22nd 2012 at 4:29PM
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