Statement on MCS Board of Education Denial of Book Appeals
Tonight, we are disappointed but not surprised. This board has repeatedly shown contempt for district parents and their own constituents. Parents begged them to reconsider, to slow down and proceed carefully, to seek expert opinion, to listen to high school students and parents, but school board members refused to listen. More than 100 parents, students, alumni, and community members co-signed the appeal of Flamer, the first book to fall, and school board members refused to listen.
The biggest losers in this whole book-banning debacle are the students who have lost some important books from their media center that speak to their lives and experiences. Parents are angry at having their desire to be the ones making choices in reading materials for their children co-opted by this school board, and community members are embarrassed that our school system is now the leading book banner in the State of Georgia.
Point 3: this seems like “punching down”; when you marginalize plots and characters, you are marginalizing the kids who identify with them.
And that’s where some of us get real, real mad.
(Incidentally, some of these students bring the big standardized test scores-- how districts are rated. This should matter to real estate pros who need good schools to maintain property values)
lol. even as a liberal, I am all for this. Have you seen books like Icebreaker? These are a shame that we allow kids to read. There are still plenty of great books they can read. Or even better, just go get them from the public library.