Controversial book prompts action

Last updated May 31, 2005 12:0pm0

Several months ago, John Shepherd noticed that his son Thomas was having trouble with a book he was reading for a ninth grade book club at Sisters High School. The book was “Beloved,” a novel about slavery by Toni Morrison, one of America’s best-known writers.

Morrison, who holds a faculty chair at Princeton, won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Shepherd recalls that, “It wasn’t until he (Thomas) was near the end of the book that I picked it up and started reading it. And it was horrible. There was excessive profanity, including the F word, repeated calling people niggers…It had graphic sexual violence, graphic description of a gang rape referred to over and over again, and excessive and graphic violence, including this woman beating her baby to death against a wall.”

So Shepherd called High School Principal Bob Macauley and said he thought the book should be withdrawn. He also called Superintendent Ted Thonstad and talked with or e-mailed all five members of the school board, arguing that “Beloved” was not an appropriate book for ninth grade students.

His complaints produced two results.

At the high school, following a decision reached “administratively,” counselor Debbie Newport, who was supervising the book club, told the students they could stop reading wherever they were in the book (See related story, page 38). They would participate in one more weekly discussion session, generally focusing on the book’s difficulty and then go on to something else.

And at the district office, Thonstad prepared a formal board policy on the selection of instructional materials, including a procedure to be followed when objections are raised by “any resident or employee of the district.”

Thonstad, who is in his first year as superintendent, said he was surprised to find that the district didn’t have in place a policy for handling complaints about books and other materials. In devising one, he borrowed from the policies used by other Oregon districts.

The proposed policy received a first reading at an April 26 school board meeting and Thonstad hopes he can bring a final version up for action at the June 13 meeting. He is waiting for comments and suggestions from the district curriculum committee.

The new policy basically provides a form to be filled out by anyone seeking a “reevaluation of instructional material.” The form goes to the superintendent who can appoint a committee to review the material in question. The superintendent then reports the results to the board. Finally, “If the complainant is not satisfied with the decision, a request may be made that the matter be placed on the agenda of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board.”

While his complaints clearly had some effects, Shepherd said last week he is not satisfied. He wants the school board to adopt a policy that contains specific “literary and moral” standards against which instructional materials can be measured.

“I was hoping they (the school board) would implement a kind of firewall to protect our students,” he explained. But if they don’t, he said, he’ll have to go back to the board.

His own proposal would establish three prohibitions: “One is excessive violence, the second is graphic sexual content and the third is prolific profanity. If literature (or other material) has any of those three, (its use) would require parental permission. It’s simple.

“Who would disagree with that?”

‘Beloved’ was chosen by students

“Beloved,” the Toni Morrison novel to which a Sisters High School parent objected (see related story, page 1), was chosen by the students who were reading it — members of the ninth grade book club. They voted to select this and four or five other books from titles and synopses on an American Library Association Young Adult Readers list.

The book club is not a class. It was created for the first time this year as one response to the fact that the school could no longer offer a ninth grade honors English class. Counselor Debbie Newport, who supervises the club, said it was one of six “enrichment” options ninth graders could select as ways of qualifying for 10th grade honors English next year. The students needed to complete three out of the six to be considered.

“Nobody was required to do the book club,” Newport explained last week. “And nobody was required to read any particular book.” Other books chosen for general use during the year included “Whale Talk,” by Chris Crutcher; “The Story of Pi,” by Lazarus Mudehwe; and “Treasure Island,” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Were there objections to other books? Newport said, “A couple of kids opted out of ‘Whale Talk.’ There is some language that some parents had objections to. And that was fine. Those students chose another book.”

Newport is not an English teacher and did not try to “teach” the students in the customary sense. She organized the club and helped find the parent volunteers who actually led the weekly group discussions.

The club has had 25 to 30 members. Newport agreed that “Beloved” is a “very heavy, dark book.” In retrospect, did she conclude that it was inappropriate for ninth graders? She acknowledged that, “I think it was a very difficult book and it would be much more appropriately done perhaps at the junior or senior level in a classroom discussion where there was an English teacher who was able to be working the kids through it.”

Generally, though, she said the book club has been quite successful and the school hopes to have it again next year.