OCTAVOS+Censorship+of+The+Fault+in+Our+Stars

Rancho Cucamonga, California A Riverside schools committee has banned the book The Fault in Our Stars from its middle schools after a parent challenged the teen love story as inappropriate for that age group. Following a parent’s similar complaint over a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in Cucamonga School District, the Rancho Cucamonga Middle School library reopened to students September 21 following a book audit launched by the controversy. On September 20, Unified School District’s book reconsideration committee voted 6-1 to pull all three cop- ies of John Green’s 2012 novel from library shelves at Frank Augustus Miller Middle School and not to allow other schools to buy or accept the book as a donation. The book will be allowed at high school libraries, said com- mittee chairwoman Christine Allen, librarian at Arlington High School, where the meeting was held. The vote was taken after parent Karen Krueger made her case to the committee and asked its members—teach- ers, parents, a principal, librarian and instructional ser- vices specialist—to remove the book or make it available for checkout only with parental consent. Krueger said she didn’t want to “come off as a prude” or block anyone’s freedom to read. But she questioned whether the book should be available at the middle school library because the subject matter involves teens dying of cancer who use crude language and have sex. “I just didn’t think it was appropriate for an 11-, 12-, 13-year-old to read,” she said. “I was really shocked it was in a middle school.” Some committee members agreed. “I still don’t think 12- and 13-year-olds need to read about a 16- and a 17-year-old having sex,” said STEM Academy teacher and committee member Jennifer Higgins. Parent and committee member Julie Boyes, who voted against banning the book, said she thought Green was trying to show what a dying 16-year-old girl might go through, such as being angry and choosing to have sex because she didn’t know if she’d live to 17. Students went to the library and requested the New York Times bestseller near the end of the last school year, shortly before the drama was released in June as a PG-13 movie. The book’s arrival was announced over the PA sys- tem and many kids read it, said Krueger, who has a twin girl and boy now in eighth grade there. Krueger complained about the book to the principal in May after her daughter brought the novel home. The prin- cipal said the book must go through the district’s formal reconsideration process. Since 1988, 37 books, including this one, have been challenged in the district. Until September only one— Robert Cormier’s 1974 novel The Chocolate War —had been banned, and that was in 1996. That book includes sex, profanity and violence by members of a secret school society. Green’s book is rated as suitable for “young adults,” which Allen said is sometimes defined as 12 through 18. District officials “strive” to choose age-appropriate read- ing materials as well as books students find interesting to encourage kids to read, Allen said. Arlington principal and committee member Betsy Sch- mechel questioned whether students could handle reading about terminally ill teens. “The thing that kept hitting me like a tidal wave was these kids dealing with their own mortality, and how difficult that might be for an 11-year- old or 12-year-old reading this book,” she said, later add- ing she thinks the review process worked. “If you have a process in place like this, then you have a way for anyone to be heard.” Cucamonga School District officials closed the Rancho Cucamonga Middle School library after a parent, Isabel Casas Gallegos, complained a day earlier about inap- propriate sexual content in John Updike’s 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Rabbit is Rich. No other books were removed when Principal Bruce LaVallee and the assistant superintendent of educational services reviewed the entire collection through an online library book system. The donated book was pulled without going through the district’s normal review process because Superintendent Janet Temkin agreed the content was inap- propriate for the age group. “A committee was not necessary because the content of the book is not suitable for the age level of the students at the middle school,” she wrote in an email. Reported in: Riverside Press-Enterprise, September 22.

I. Communication a. Propose a meeting with the parents who are offended by the book. i. In the meeting, discuss the concern of the parents and let them know that you understand their concerns. Also, present factual information regarding the offending book. In this case, the book is //The Fault in Our Stars// by John Greene. The parents felt that the book had material too mature for their middle school aged children. b. If parents are still upset by the idea of their child reading the book, the next step is to explain to them the process of writing an expression of concern, or a written complaint. The book review committee for the school district will then hold a meeting. II. Hearing/Meeting a. Gather letters of support from teachers and other local librarians for the book and for children to be able to read the book. b. Prepare to speak at the meeting in front of committee members regarding the legitimacy of allowing middle school age children to read //The Fault in Our Stars//. Stay positive and do not answer questions defensively. c. The committee will make their decision. If the committee makes a decision that you are strongly against, you can call for back up. The ALA or ACLU can be brought in to help gather support.

In this case the ACLU wrote a letter to the committee asking them to reverse their decision of removing the books from middle school library shelves. You can find the letter here: The committee reversed their decision and the book is now back on middle school shelves. -Outline by Kelli Hill