Librarians Land BISD Atop Banned Book List
By Ken Fountain | Beaumont Enterprise
September 29, 2009

It’s a widely acclaimed book chronicling the lives of Texas high school students that has served as the basis for an equally lauded film and television series. And if you attend any school in the Beaumont Independent School District, you can’t check it out of the library.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas calls that “the most egregious instance of censorship reported last year” in a report on school book bannings that was released this week.

The book is “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, a Dream,” a 1990 nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger. Bissinger spent an entire year in Odessa following the exploits of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they headed to the state championship.

The book and its screen adoptions have been noted for their frank portrayals of students’ use of profanity, sexual situations and racism at the school and the wider community.

In February 2008, following a complaint by the parent of a sixth-grader at Odom Academy, a committee of school librarians decided by consensus to remove the two copies of the book at Beaumont schools – the one at Odom and one at Central High School, according to Rosalind Eyre, lead librarian for the district.

Because the decision had the effect of removing the book from all of the district’s libraries, the ACLU said “a ban of such magnitude is rare.”

The report, called “Free People Read Freely” is the group’s 13th annual report on challenged and banned books in Texas public school. There are no books removed by Beaumont ISD listed in the report for the 2008-09 school year.

Eyre said the Odom parent who challenged “Friday Night Lights” felt that its depictions of profanity, sexual situations and racism were not appropriate for a middle school student. When Eyre polled all of the district’s librarians, she discovered that only two of the district’s school libraries had copies of the book.

The fact that so few schools had the book is why the decision to remove it was made by a committee comprised only of librarians. In cases in which someone challenges a book that is found throughout the district, a review committee might be made up of librarians, parents and sometimes students, Eyre said. In this instance, she decided not to refer the matter to a review committee.

In the letter she sent to the complaining parent, Eyre wrote the book had been removed “due to inappropriate language, racist references and sexual situations.”

Eyre noted that while “Friday Night Lights” was removed from the district’s libraries, it is taught in some English classes, particularly at West Brook High School.

In an email to The Enterprise, Eyre called the book “a well-written, thoughtful study of racism in a West Texas football town but perhaps not appropriate for reading by younger students nor for older students without guided discussion.”

Efforts to contact author Bissinger for comment for this story were unsuccessful. But in an interview in the ACLU of Texas report, he said he was “saddened, a little surprised, and angered” by the Beaumont ISD decision.

“Sure, the book has a few obscenities. Whether we like to admit it or not, kids down to the age of five have heard obscenities,” Bissinger said in the interview.

“I thought Beaumont’s decision was a horrible form of censorship and extremely shortsighted,” he said, adding that he couldn’t think of what sexual content in the book might have contributed to its ban.

The author said he felt the book was important for people to read, particularly kids from age 14 and up, because “it talks honestly about race and the ways in which African-American athletes are treated poorly.”

“I’m also sorry if the people of Beaumont or anyone else got offended by the use of the n-word in the book,” Bissinger said, adding that he had been offended by the use of that word while he was living in Odessa in the late 1980s.

“If I don’t use that word in the book, then the whole impact of writing about racism would have been completely lost,” he said in the ACLU interview.

“For Beaumont (ISD) to think they are doing anyone a favor by sheltering and shielding kids from depictions of racism, they’re doing exactly the opposite. They are depriving kids of knowledge they should have so that they’re more sensitive to saying things that are inflammatory and aware of the repercussion of what can happen,” he said.

Dotty Griffin, public education director for the ACLU of Texas, said she wasn’t aware of any other school districts that have removed “Friday Night Lights” from their library shelves.

“Considering that is about high school students, it kind of strains credibility that you could ban a book like that from them.”

Griffin said it is not uncommon for districts to decide to remove books based on complaints by only one or a few people, which she called “a tyranny of a vocal minority.”

Eyre said that in the 15 years she has held her position, only one other book has been challenged on a district-wide basis: Mildred D. Taylor’s 1977 Newbery Medal-winning “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.” The Depression-era novel deals with racism and segregation in the American South.

Eyre said the parent of an elementary school student challenged that book because it contains derogatory racial terms. The student complained because classmates were using those terms outside of class while they were reading the book.

In that instance, it was decided not to remove the book entirely, but not to use it in a classroom setting, Eyre said.

She said that if a review committee decides not to remove a challenged book, the complaining party can appeal that decision to the district administration, and then to the school board. The board would have to vote on whether to remove a book in an open meeting, she said.

Once a book is removed, a member of the public can have that decision reviewed by filling out a form. The decision to overturn a decision to remove a book would follow the same process, Eyre said.

“We don’t go out looking for books to ban,” she said. The district’s campus librarians make decisions on which book to add or remove from their shelves on a continual basis, she said.

Worried About Provocative Books, Leesburg Votes to Separate Collection by Age Groups: Activists ask Leesburg Commissioners to Move Racy Books for Teens at Library
By Christine Show | Sentinel Staff Writer
September 28, 2009

LEESBURG – Responding to a call by parents, church and community leaders concerned about provacative books available to teens at the Leesburg Public Library, city commissioners tonight voted 4-1 to separate all books based on age groups.

High-school books will be placed in a separate area. City Commissioner Bill Polk voted “no” on the measure. Earlier, Polk also was on the losing end of a 3-2 vote to label specific books with a “mature content” warning label. City Commissioner David Knowles sided with Polk on the label idea.

“I don’t think we could be the ones to make that judgment,” said Commissioner Sanna Henderson, of the proposed book labeling. “If you’re going to get into that, it’s just going to open a big can of worms.”

About 90 people showed up for the meeting, with some spilling out the doorway entrance to the commission chambers. More than half of those on hand — people of all ages — were wearing red shirts.

Commissioners were to consider whether to review more than 4,000 books in the young-adult section of the library for its content and move the more racy content into a separate area available for a high school audience.

Parent Dixie Fechtel, who gained the support of dozens of community members and First Baptist Church of Leesburg, began a movement more than a year ago to have the procedure change after she noticed the books her 13-year-old child borrowed from the library containted sexually explicit content.

“Even if you dismiss our concerns tonight, this problem will not go away,” Fechtel said to commissioners.

Library Director Barbara Morse had suggested a compromise in which the books could remain in the young-adult section under new labeling for a high school section, so the books are available for a more mature audience.

Group opposed to adult content rallies at Comstock Center
By MICHAEL PETERSON, Argus-Press Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

OWOSSO – More than 50 area residents gathered Monday night at the Comstock Inn to discuss ways to remove explicit adult material from the Owosso branch of the Shiawassee District Library.

The meeting, organized by Citizens for Filtering Shiawassee District Library Public Access Computers, comes two days before the library board is set to meet to discuss a policy on regulating such content.

The group also took out three full-page ads in The Argus-Press and The Independent over the weekend expressing its view that adult materials shouldn’t be available on public computers at the library.

The library board is set to meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Owosso Middle School.

Library board member Beverly Adcock, who represents Bennington Township, said the board will discuss whether or not to allow two computers in the library to be unfiltered. The Shiawassee District Library began using program Untangle to filter the Internet on all its computers after the Board approved the move in June.

However, those involved in the movement say they want all the computers at the library to remain filtered. The group also claims the Untangle program is not effective and users can still access many inappropriate Web sites. Group member Ronald DeHaas operates locally-based company Covenant Eyes that sells Internet filtering software. He previously offered his program to the library at no charge.

The group also wants the Board to adopt a policy that requires children 13 or younger to be accompanied by a parent or guardian when accessing the Internet, and also requiring children between the ages of 10 and 18 to have permission forms signed by a parent or guardian before they can access the Internet, according to the Web site stoplibraryporn.com.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, spoke to the audience for the majority of the meeting, explaining the legal side of the issue.

He said he believes it “boggles the mind” that some expect to use libraries funded by tax dollars to view adult content.

“What those who oppose filtering assert is that people have a First Amendment, Constitutionally-guaranteed right to look at pornography – at your expense – in a public building full of children,” he said.

He added in the United States Supreme Court case of United States v. American Library Association, Inc., the court found filtering Internet content at a public library is not a violation of the First Amendment.

“We can respect the other side having the opinion that the Supreme Court is wrong, but the Supreme Court has ruled,” Glenn said. “It’s over. It’s been decided by the highest court in the land.”

The controversy began when Owosso resident Catherine Loxen informed board members her 10-year-old granddaughter accidentally caught a glimpse of a man viewing adult material on a computer at the Owosso branch of the Shiawassee District Library.

“When we got to the parking lot she said, ‘Grandma, when we were leaving I looked directly into that man’s screen and I saw all these pictures of naked women.’ And I was just horrified,” Loxen said at the meeting. “My granddaughter, who is 11 now, no longer wants to ever go to the library.”

Glenn said many of the claims of Internet filters making it difficult to access non-pornography sites, such as breast cancer research, are outdated.

The statement was illustrated by Bill Lawson, a customer service manager for Covenant Eyes. Lawson showed the audience a variety of Web searches and sites that could be accessed while using Covenant Eyes software.

Some of the subjects he searched for and was able to access included sites for testicular cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, human sexuality and breast cancer.

“The technology has advanced to where these claims are really a false argument,” Lawson said. “As you can see, it is a little hard to find something that is blocked, unless you are actually looking for pornography.”

Check out the links below:

ALA’s Banned Books Week

Amnesty International USA

University of Pennsylvania Banned Books Online

PBS covers Banned Books Week

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

Association of American Publishers