Teh One Who Knocks
02-10-2014, 12:47 PM
By Cathryn Creno - The Arizona Republic
A committee of parents and teachers this week pulled a controversial poetry book from Mesa’s Stapley Junior High School library.
“Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls,” compiled by Betsy Franco, will be offered to the Mountain View High School library, Stapley Principal Ken Erickson said.
He removed both copies of the book from the Stapley library and organized the Feb. 3 meeting to review it after a parent complained in December that the book’s poetry was too sex- and-drug oriented for young teens.
Lauren Mitchell, whose 13-year-old daughter attends Stapley, complained to Erickson after the girl brought the book home.
Mitchell said the poem that put her “over the edge” and motivated her to complain “talks about the wonderful, euphoric feeling it is to use crack (cocaine).”
“It didn’t point out that she might have died of a heart attack or become a sex slave,” she said.
Mesa Public Schools spokeswoman Helen Hollands said the two copies of the book had been on Stapley’s library shelves since before 2010, when the junior high had ninth-graders. Since then, ninth-graders in the district have been transferred to high schools, including Mountain View.
Stapley library staff have not had the time or resources to go through its collection to remove books written for students older than seventh and eighth grade, Erickson said.
“Things I Have to Tell You,” published in 2001, has won young-adult literature awards.
But it has been banned from Washington state school libraries, according to a 2005 Washington State University survey.
The book is not on the American Library Association’s list of frequently banned books.
But a book of poems by teen boys compiled by Franco, “You Hear Me?,” ranks 53rd on the association’s list of top 100 challenged or banned books between 2000 and 2009.
Hollands said Mitchell’s complaint is the only one Mesa schools has received about “Things I Have to Tell You.”
Lisa Bowen, Mesa schools’ library director, said the district’s only other copy of “Things I Have to Tell You” is at Red Mountain High School and there have been no complaints about it.
She said Mountain View’s staff will have the option of including the book in its catalog.
Erickson said the seven members of the parent-teacher committee that met Feb. 3 to discuss the poetry book were asked to read the book, discuss it and then vote whether to keep it, ban it or restrict its access to students who had permission from their parents to read it. Mitchell and Erickson also participated in an hourlong discussion.
According to minutes from the meeting, comments ranged from one by a parent who wanted to throw away the book because it “glamourizes terrible things” to another by a parent who thought the book might give students from troubled backgrounds “something to connect to.”
“It is an inappropriate book for a junior-high library,” Erickson said after the committee voted to remove the book.
He added that sometimes the committee review process keeps books on the shelves after parental complaints.
Committees have kept J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series and Nicholas Sparks’ “The Notebook” despite parents’ objections.
A committee of parents and teachers this week pulled a controversial poetry book from Mesa’s Stapley Junior High School library.
“Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls,” compiled by Betsy Franco, will be offered to the Mountain View High School library, Stapley Principal Ken Erickson said.
He removed both copies of the book from the Stapley library and organized the Feb. 3 meeting to review it after a parent complained in December that the book’s poetry was too sex- and-drug oriented for young teens.
Lauren Mitchell, whose 13-year-old daughter attends Stapley, complained to Erickson after the girl brought the book home.
Mitchell said the poem that put her “over the edge” and motivated her to complain “talks about the wonderful, euphoric feeling it is to use crack (cocaine).”
“It didn’t point out that she might have died of a heart attack or become a sex slave,” she said.
Mesa Public Schools spokeswoman Helen Hollands said the two copies of the book had been on Stapley’s library shelves since before 2010, when the junior high had ninth-graders. Since then, ninth-graders in the district have been transferred to high schools, including Mountain View.
Stapley library staff have not had the time or resources to go through its collection to remove books written for students older than seventh and eighth grade, Erickson said.
“Things I Have to Tell You,” published in 2001, has won young-adult literature awards.
But it has been banned from Washington state school libraries, according to a 2005 Washington State University survey.
The book is not on the American Library Association’s list of frequently banned books.
But a book of poems by teen boys compiled by Franco, “You Hear Me?,” ranks 53rd on the association’s list of top 100 challenged or banned books between 2000 and 2009.
Hollands said Mitchell’s complaint is the only one Mesa schools has received about “Things I Have to Tell You.”
Lisa Bowen, Mesa schools’ library director, said the district’s only other copy of “Things I Have to Tell You” is at Red Mountain High School and there have been no complaints about it.
She said Mountain View’s staff will have the option of including the book in its catalog.
Erickson said the seven members of the parent-teacher committee that met Feb. 3 to discuss the poetry book were asked to read the book, discuss it and then vote whether to keep it, ban it or restrict its access to students who had permission from their parents to read it. Mitchell and Erickson also participated in an hourlong discussion.
According to minutes from the meeting, comments ranged from one by a parent who wanted to throw away the book because it “glamourizes terrible things” to another by a parent who thought the book might give students from troubled backgrounds “something to connect to.”
“It is an inappropriate book for a junior-high library,” Erickson said after the committee voted to remove the book.
He added that sometimes the committee review process keeps books on the shelves after parental complaints.
Committees have kept J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series and Nicholas Sparks’ “The Notebook” despite parents’ objections.