Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut have been banned by the Republic, Missouri school district in a 4-0 vote by the school board. The books will be removed from the curriculum as well as the libraries. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was also up for banning, but was spared and will remain in the schools.
Wesley Scroggins, a Republic resident, challenged the use of the books and lesson plans in Republic schools, arguing they teach principles contrary to the Bible.
It doesn’t matter what your religion is or how you, personally, want to think or believe, but objecting to books solely based on your religion and then pushing those religious ideas onto others is wrong.
In making a recommendation to remove the two, Minor explained that “numerous individuals have read the three novels and provided their feedback.” He conceded there wasn’t always consensus about what step to take.
Mr. Minor is the superintendent. It might have been a good idea for him to read the books as well in order to have a better informed decision. Relying solely on others is never a good idea. Instead, a task force was convened to decide what was best for the school district. This amounts to wasted taxpayer money when a decision could have been easily made if the superintendent and school board had simply read the books themselves.
The panel reviewed existing board policy and the public rating systems that already exist for music, TV and video games.
“We very clearly stayed out of discussion about moral issues. Our discussions from the get-go were age-appropriateness,” he said.
The board adopted the standards — which cover language, violence, sexuality and illegal substances — in April and those standards have since been applied to the three books.
The very fact that these books are being censored because of someone else’s morals says that you cannot keep morals out of the situation. You are trying to decide what is moral for other people’s children and what is appropriate for a particular age group.
The school district has said that, if a parent thinks their child can read the book for a school project, then that is permissible, leading one to wonder why the books are banned at all.
Melissa Duvall, the only board member to have read all three books proposed to be banned, said the school board’s vote was more about policy and less a criticism of the books in question.
If you have not read the books in question, then you should not be voting on the appropriateness of the books. This challenge has been going on for over a year. If the members of the school board cannot find the time in a year to read three possibly questionable books, then they should not be on the school board making decisions for thousands of students.
Banning books, but also allowing them if a parent says it’s permissible is one of the dumbest ideas a school board could ever make. If you remember, a single person complained about the books because they violated his religious morality. The outcome of the banning panders to a religious few, while the people in charge of making decisions cannot even bring themselves to read the books before making their decisions. This is not how you make decisions. This is how you cow tow to close-minded people.
