N C A C

Kids Right to Read Project

A project of the National Coalition Against Censorship

CO-SPONSORED BY

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression Association of American Publishers Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

School Board Members Teton School District 401 PO Box 775 445 North Main St. Driggs, ID 83422 December 5, 2013

Dear Board Members, We are writing to urge that you retain use of Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya in 10th grade English classrooms in Teton School District. We understand that some members of the community object to the book because of profanity and sexual content in the book. We hope that the information we provide will be useful in the reconsideration process. In brief, widely accepted legal and educational principles suggest that there is no basis for removing the book and doing so would raise serious constitutional questions. Bless Me, Ultima is an award-winning, best-selling novel by one of the recognized founders of Chicano literature. In addition to being one of 12 American novels recommended for The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read initiative, the book appears on the International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement (AP) lists and has appeared on the AP exam four times in the last ten years. The book is frequently taught in high school classrooms as a way to expand students worldview and introduce them to an American experience that is perhaps new to some students and immensely relatable to others. The language and situations in this work, as in any text under study, must be seen in the context of the entire work. An authors broad moral vision, total treatment of theme, and commitment to realistic portrayal of characters and dialogue are ignored when protesters focus only on aspects that are offensive to them. While there is shock value in isolating words and passages from a book, this does not reveal anything about the fundamental message or theme in a work or provide insight into its literary and educational qualities, which must be the focus of school officials responding to such challenges. Purging classroom reading lists of all works that contain profanity, harsh language or sexual situations will negatively affect students education, causing them to miss out on scores of recognized and educationally valuable works of literature. Books containing similar language and situations appear frequently on the AP exam, including: Ulysses, Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, The Color Purple, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Slaughterhouse-Five, As I Lay Dying, the works of Dostoyevsky, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. As these examples suggest, any attempt to eliminate everything that is objectionable...will leave public schools in shreds. Nothing but educational confusion and a discrediting of the public school system can result.... McCollum v. Board of Educ. 332 U.S. 203 (1948) (Jackson, J. concurring). Students are entitled to an education that prepares them as well as possible for a productive future and it is the task of trained educators to determine what that requires and to insure that all students receive it. Presumably, the school would not exempt students from a biology lesson on evolution, or a history lesson on the death of Armenians in Turkey because parents found the content objectionable, nor would they cut such lessons from the curriculum based on complaints. The same principle applies to literature.Excluding canonical and recognized works of literature like Bless Me, Ultima puts Teton students at an educational disadvantage when applying to and attending college. The development of critical thinking requires navigating diverse media and registers of language; these skills are learned not by excising unpleasant or uncomfortable words or realities, but by confronting communication in all its forms, with the guidance of an educator.

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While parents are free to request an alternative assignment for their children (in this case, Wuthering Heights was offered), they have no right to impose their views on others. Courts have held that a parent has no right to tell a public school what his or her child will and will not be taught, Leebaert v. Harrington, 332 F.3d 134, 141 (2d Cir. 2003), or to direct how a public school teaches their child. Blau v. Fort Thomas Public School District, et al, 401 F.3d 381, 395 (6th Cir. 2005). See also Parker v. Hurley, 514 F. 3d 87, 102 (1st Cir., 2008). Any other rule would put schools in the untenable position of having to cater a curriculum for each student whose parents had genuine moral disagreements with the schools choice of subject matter. Brown v. Hot, Sexy and Safer Productions, Inc., 68 F.3d 525, 534 (1st Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1159 (1996). See also Swanson v. Guthrie Indep. School Dist., 135 F.3d 694, 699 (10th Cir. 1998); Littlefield v. Forney Indep. School, 268 F.3d 275, 291 (5th Cir. 2001) Though extant district policies (Teton School District No. 401, 2540; 2530; 4120) govern the Learning Materials Review Process, it is our understanding that these policies are not being followed. Whats more, district policy states that the instructional program shall respect the right of students to face issues and to have free access to information and recognizes the need for the teacher to have the freedom to discuss and teach subjects and issues which may be controversial (Controversial Issues and Academic Freedom 2340). If the Board supports the concept of academic freedom as a cornerstone of education, as its policy asserts, it cannot in good faith remove instructional materials against the judgment of district educators and certainly not without proper evaluation and review. It is irrelevant that the novel contains language that students may not use in school in casual conversation. The rules governing student speech and conduct in school are completely distinct from the constitutional mandates prohibiting censorship of literature. Learning to distinguish between the conversational mood and language used in a particular context or in writing is undoubtedly one of the goals of your ELA courses. It would be wrong to assume that the profane language, negative events, etc., portrayed in a work are endorsed by the author, the teacher, or the school. Though the district has stated that the decision to suspend the book is not based on religious beliefs, the fact that the original complaint originated from a discussion in a religious class raises additional concerns and may make the district vulnerable to legal action. Regardless of whether the complaint or decision is framed in overtly religious terms, action by the school district that appears to defer to a specific belief system, at the expense of other religious or non-religious perspectives, would raise difficult and divisive issues. Government officials, including public school administrators, may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. Texas v. Johnson (1989). The Supreme Court has cautioned that [l] ocal school boards may not remove books from library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 872 (1982)(plurality opinion). Removal of constitutionally protected material can be justified only if it based on valid educational ground, and no such ground has been advanced in this case, nor could it be. There is no legitimate basis to remove or restrict this book. The book unquestionably has literary and educational value; its removal is sought solely because some are offended by its content. While one may sympathize with the parents concerns, the school has a duty to base its decisions on sound educational grounds and constitutional considerations. The students deserve no less. Sincerely,

Joan Bertin Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship

Chris Finan President American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

Charles Brownstein Executive Director Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Judy Platt Director, Free Expression Advocacy Association of American Publishers