Book challenge procedure? What book challenge procedure?

In Knox County, Tennessee:

After the meeting School Superintendent Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr. told the Journal that the parent identified this as an issue a couple of weeks ago and they have already removed it from the required reading list. He didn’t say whether the book was still in the schools.

...

Dr. McIntyre said it was his opinion the matter had been resolved by removing the book as required reading.

A) So... that sets an awesome precedent, right?

B) Re: the actual complaint, I can't think of another scene in YA lit that promotes abstinence MORE than that excruciating scene in Looking for Alaska, but whatevs.

I suppose it's time to re-visit this video, yes?:

 

Comments

[Angela H.]

Oh, Knoxville, land where I live AND am currently getting a MS degree to teach high school English. Argggh.

I have inside knowledge of this siuation b/c my friend is doing her pre-teaching observation hours at the school where this went down. Sadly, the book wasn't even a REQUIRED item, as the article seems to suggest. Instead, it was on a list of summer reading choices. Unfortunately, that newspaper article doesn't give more info and comes from a very small, conservative-leaning weekly paper -- not our main newsletter or one of our main news channels. None of them seemed to pick up the story for some reason.

[Angela H.]

Opps. Newsletter = newspaper. I promise we have bigger publications than newsletters down here. :)

[Dan Kleinman]

Well, such as it is, the book contains an oral sex scene. And it is pervasively vulgar, to use a phrase from Board of Education v. Pico that allows schools to remove pervasively vulgar books.

Further, if I read media reports correctly, parents were notified that some books contained possibly objectionable material, but LFA was not marked in that manner.

Be that as it may, my belief from calling the school and from media reports is that the school has a policy in place and that it was followed. But if I were to write on the topic, I would want to get more information first, talk to more people, read more reports, etc.

And remember, as the ALA's former top leader said, if a book does not meet a school's selection policy, "get it out of there."