- Objections of Arkansas parents to graphic descriptions
of sexual acts in books offered to students in their school libraries have
fueled a feud in the Ozarks.
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- Some parents say the books are so shocking they "will
curl your toes." The school superintendent compares the protests of
parents to "cancer."
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- The furor began eight months ago in Fayetteville, home
of the University of Arkansas, with the self-consciously liberal instincts
of a college town, but surrounded by a conservative, church-going county
in the heart of the Bible Belt. Fayetteville votes Democratic, and Washington
County votes Republican.
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- Laurie Taylor first went to the Fayetteville Board of
Education in January with concerns about three books containing explicit
descriptions and pictures of sexual activity. She and others subsequently
formed a group called Parents Protecting the Minds of Children.
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- One book for children in kindergarten through fourth
grade, "It's So Amazing," raised parents' ire with its narrative
and illustrations portraying, with a positive tone, masturbation, homosexual
relationships and abortion.
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- A book for ninth-graders called "The Teenage Guy's
Survival Guide" describes pornography as "natural and fine."
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- The district administration agreed May 28 that the three
books posed a problem and sequestered them in a parents-only section of
the school libraries, not available to children. The parent group has since
flagged 53 books in the Fayetteville High School library and one in middle
and junior high school libraries, citing their explicit descriptions of
how to engage in various types of sexual relationships, and validating
sexually active teens. The parents say another 50 books under review might
be problematic.
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- "They're beyond vile," Mrs. Taylor said of
the 53 novels her group has asked the school board to sequester in parent-only
sections of the school libraries. "They're not informational, they're
not sex education.They're just pandering sex to young people. It will curl
your toes."
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- The parents have appeared regularly at school board meetings
all year to voice their concerns. The unfolding story has widely reported
by the state's major newspapers and television stations, and has become
a staple of radio talk shows.
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- Bobby C. New, the superintendent of Fayetteville Public
Schools, declined to respond to four written requests from The Washington
Times for an interview or for comment.
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- Mr. New recently told talk-show host Don Elkins of Station
KFAY-AM in Fayetteville that he takes "Mrs. Taylor's problem and challenge
very seriously, but we can't stop flying the airplane because we have a
parent that is not satisfied, or parents that have issues with us."
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- The school division has had a committee reviewing and
deciding on one book at a time since the first three were flagged in January,
he said, and will review the subsequent 53 books on the complaint list
one at a time.
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- The parents object that this delays resolution of the
conflict. Some teachers agree. "It took about six months for the district
to deal with the first three books Taylor challenged," said Debbie
Pelley, a 27-year veteran English teacher in Jonesboro, a college town
(Arkansas State University) in another part of the state. "At that
rate, it will take 11 years to process [all the] books that Laurie and
other parents have identified that are even worse than the first three."
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- Mr. New told the radio interviewer: "This issue
is not time-sensitive; it's quality driven."
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- He takes issue with Mrs. Taylor's claim that many of
the listed books were pornographic. In an e-mail message he said: "This
is nonsense about pornography and all that kind of information. We will
take issue and have an honest disagreement over that."
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- He described the parent effort to identify sexually explicit
books in school libraries as "almost a cancer that grows within the
total body of our school district. What we try to do is work through that
issue."
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- The superintendent said school librarians are careful
to purchase only books recommended by the American Library Association.
The Library Association regards objections to almost any book as censorship,
even books for elementary and secondary school libraries.
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- "I will defend our librarians to the bitter end,"
Mr. New said. "They are professional, trained, serious [teachers]
who totally, totally have a process of reviewing everything that is ordered,
to include reviewing critics, national critics that have been identified
by the American Library Association as being credible."
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- Susan Winborn Heil, at-large board of education member,
said emotions were running high in Fayetteville. "I have found that
the majority of the highly emotional people I have talked with don't have
a good handle on the facts, but are relying on what they have heard to
be the truth." A methodical review of each book is necessary, she
says.
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- Mike Masterson, a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat
Gazette in Little Rock, the state's largest newspaper, calls Mrs. Taylor's
cause "selfless and noble."
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- "She has had the gall to insist that parents of
all elementary, middle and high school-age children actually be informed
when their children check out one of the more-than 70 books that concern
her," he wrote in a recent column. "These would be books that
speak in grossly inappropriate terms about promiscuous romps of all imaginable
shapes and forms, including incest with both parents."
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- Placing such books in a restricted section of the library
and school notification of parents for their consent when their children
seek access in person or by Internet request is appropriate, Mr. Masterson
wrote.
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- "This issue ... is only about a parent's right to
rear children in the way he or she believes is best without the state providing
hidden, potentially corrupting influences."
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