MARCH 2020 Issue two page spread

FEATURES
Unveiling the value of censored materials
Literary works and student
publications have been
subject to censorship in the
past. Here is a brief history
and a current look at how
censorship is treated here at
Northwest and nationally.
Val Orozco, Kimberly Brown
staff writer, arts and entertainment editor
What crosses the line in
terms of appropriate literature in a
school environment?
For many years, the English department
at Northwest has grappled
with this question. Teachers
have used various genres and pieces
of literature to encourage students
to dive deep into a wide variety of
themes.
But what if those literary works
also contain controversial content?
1997- “The Color Purple” and
“Native Son”
In 1997, a parent raised the challenge
that Alice Walker’s “The Color
Purple” and Richard Wright’s “Native
Son” were inappropriate for her
son. Rather than accepting alternate
titles, she insisted that the literary
works be completely removed from
Northwest’s English core curriculum.
“Those were some tough times,”
retired Latin teacher Sarah Wright
recalled, who was Northwest’s
Teacher of the Year in 1997. “What a
headache.”
2012- “The Handmaid’s Tale”
In 2012, Grimsley and Page
High School parents presented a
petition with more than 2,000
signatures challenging Margaret
Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s
Tale.” The petition asked district
leaders to “make sure that our
school assignments do not denigrate
anyone’s religion” and to
“promote rather than tear down
traditional values.”
In each instance, the Guilford
County School Board upheld
the literary works, reminding
parents that they can always
request alternative titles for
their child.
HB 2044- Public Library Censorship
in Missouri
Meanwhile, in other parts of the
country, the ability to censor is being
put into law.
HB 2044, a bill introduced Jn. 15
by representative Ben Baker in souri, could potentially create a new
Mis-
precedent for how titles are chosen
to be in public libraries.
“The current bill notes in detail
how libraries receive state funding,
and it indicates where and how the
libraries shall work with the State
Librarian for further funding,” author
Kelly Jensen said.
HB 2044 provides for much
greater parental oversight of public
libraries. It creates restrictions for
sexual materials and any content
deemed inappropriate. Although it
has good intentions, the bill raises
concerns when it creates a parental
library review board as the ones
who decide what material stays and
what material goes.
This board’s selection of materials
directly affects the funding that
would go towards the library. It
raises the questions: What kinds of
people are going to be making these
executive decisions? What kind of
preparation and training will be
provided?
The answer is simple: the board
members will be chosen based on
parents’ ability to come to a meeting
rather than merit.
2018- “Perks of Being a Wallflower”
and “The Absolutely
True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian”
The most recent book to be challenged
at Northwest was “Perks
of Being a Wallflower.” Like many
other novels that are dissected and
analyzed in high school, “Perks
of Being a Wallflower” tackles the
heavy topic of rape, which can be
hard to digest for some students.
“The student and parent were very
religious and thought that some of
the content, including language and
sexual content, was blasphemous,”
English teacher Jason
Allred said.
This was an inde-
pendent reading
assignment, so
the student could change their book,
but there is a much larger issue
surrounding the negligence toward
reading certain materials; students
aren’t exposed to deeper topics.
Parents also recently voiced their
opinions about “The Absolutely
True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”
Despite being a National Awardwinning
book, this memoir by Sherman
Alexie has been removed from
reading lists around the country.
The book was required as a summer
reading assignment in 2018,
put in place of “Sleeping Freshmen
Never Lie.” Although the challenge
never went as far as the school
board, Northwest parents still argued
that it be taken off the reading
list.
“It is vulgar, obscene, overly-sexual
and has no place in the curriculum,”
one parent wrote in an email
to the English teachers.
Despite their complaints, the book
remained on the summer reading
list, but with an alternative--the
previous summer reading novel,
“Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie.”
Ultimately, in 2019, summer reading
was canceled altogether by the
School Based Leadership Team as
part of a blanket decision to eliminate
all summer assignments.
Freedom of Speech in Public
Schools
Photo by Kaylen Ayres
Senior Zoe Simon has her mouth covered up by symbolic, censoring hands. Sometimes
in an effort to protect a student’s innocence, parents and authority fi gures overstep their
boundaries and end up limiting their access to valuable content.
Not all parents are against their
children being exposed to sial content.
“As I told my neighbor,
great literature tackles
the thorny, complex
issues of controver-
human-
ity,” a different Northwest parent
wrote in an email. “This is just the
kind of education I want for my
daughter.”
But what happens when students
“tackle thorny, complex issues” in
their own publications, such as tne
school newspaper or yearbook?
Public schools in the United States
are all protected under the First
Amendment as established by the
1969 Supreme Court Case Tinker v.
Des Moines to have freedom of expression
for students after a school
banned the students from wearing
black armbands to protest the
Vietnam War.
“The school has to prove that the
conduct or speech metrically and
substantially interferes with school
operations in order to justify the
ban,” the Supreme Court ruled.
However, sometimes this freedom
is contested by the school leadership
itself.
Northwest Horizons’ battle
with censorship in 2010
In 2010, a Northwest Horizons’
student wrote about a taboo topic
new to Northwest’s halls. The story
was titled, “True life: I had an abortion.”
The article throws the reader into
a personal account of what this
student went through. The writer
pours her emotions into the article;
she speaks about the conflicts
it brought between her and her
boyfriend, and the legal trouble she
endured in order to go through the
process without telling her parents.
She talks about her deepest regret
being when she walked into that
doctor’s office.
The staff felt that this was an important
article. Northwest Horizons
prides itself on being able to tell the
indidvidual stories of a diverse and
large population of students.
Understanding the gravity of
this topic, however, adviser Melanie
Huynh-Duc created a board of parents
and colleagues to provide their
thoughts on the article.
The board, comprised of different
political leanings and opinions
unanimously agreed the article
should be published.
However, after the article was
forwarded to the administration of
the Central Office, its publishing
was halted under the ruling that it
was deemed inappropriate.
This is the only example of blatant
censorship Northwest Horizons
has experienced.
Should students and teachers
have free reign when it comes to
language and controversy? Probably
not. However, censorship
potentially removes valuable voices
that could have a transformative
effect on whoever’s listening.
Perhaps the late author Pat
Conroy said it best in 2007 when he
confronted a West Virginia School
Board for censoring his own books.
“Book banners are invariably
idiots,” Conroy wrote. “They don’t
know how the world works--but
writers and English teachers do.”
March 2020
www.northwesthorizons.com 15