Challenge news from across the pond about...

...a school in Indiana.

From the Telegraph:

Mrs Heermann asked her head teacher if she could use it in lessons last autumn and, with the backing of nearly 150 parents, was granted permission.

But when the matter came before the Perry Meridian high school board for final approval it was rejected, allegedly because a single member objected to swearing in the book.

From the Guardian:

Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. "That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no," she said.

She's been suspended for either one year or eighteen months without pay (I've read both, not sure which is correct) for 'insubordination' and 'neglect of duty'.  Now.  I understand why the board accuses her of insubordination (neglect of duty, not so much) -- but I don't understand why the school board took issue with The Freedom Writers Diary when the teacher had already asked for and received written permission from almost 150 parents.  If the parents were good with it and supported the use of the book, why would the school board start this uproar? 

There's also an essay by the director/screenwriter of the movie about the situation at the Huffington Post.

Comments

[Brian F.]

You're slightly misleading headline gave me pause and I realized that I never hear about book challenges in other countries. I'm that's because we're so ethnocentric but I do monitor some international news and all I typically see is stories about Americans banning books.

Do they have this problem in England, I wonder?

[Leila]

They pop up over there, too. It doesn't seem to be quite as often, but it happens. And then, of course, there are plenty of other countries in which it's actually, you know, the government that's raising the issue...

[Richard Lorig]

This story has gotten a lot of play here and every time I read it I get more frustrated. I think the accusation of insubordination (true and legally defensible) is a mask that the school board has used to divert attention from the word "censorship." Their assertion that the material is inappropriate for their community suggests that the community somehow magically exists outside of a world where teenagers have access to profoundly explicit material that has none of the socially redeeming qualities or truth that The Freedom Writer's Diary contains. According to the CNN interview I saw with Heermann, 149 of 150 parents approved the use of the book. Kudos to the parents who have spoken up and said that the book was an appropriate part of their child's education.

[Electric Landlady]

Seriously. If 149 of 150 parents think the book is appropriate for their community, how come the school board gets to say otherwise?