letter to riverside: john green
TRANSCRIPT
8/20/2019 Letter to Riverside: John Green
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By Electronic Mail
October 3, 2014
President Patricia Lock-DawsonRiverside Unified School District Board of Education3380 14th StreetRiverside, CA 92501
Dear President Lock-Dawson and Members of the Board,
As organizations concerned with the freedom to read and the application of First Amendment law andprinciples in public institutions, we are writing in response to the removal of John Green’s T h e F a u l t i n O u r
S t a r s from middle school libraries throughout the Riverside Unified School District. Removing a book fromthe library because some people find it objectionable undermines important educational principles and raisesserious constitutional questions, and we urge you to reinstate Green’s novel to library shelves.
We understand that a reconsideration committee voted last month to pull all copies of the novel from theshelves of Frank Augustus Miller Middle School library, and to prohibit other middle school libraries in thedistrict from buying or accepting donated copies of the book. The decisions were made after complainantsvoiced concerns about the novel’s language and sexual content.
Removal of the novel raises serious concerns, given its popularity among young readers and its educationaland literary merit. A highly praised and critically acclaimed work, T h e F a u l t i n O u r S t a r s deals with issues of self-discovery and loss – issues that many young adults are dealing with themselves. As Lev Grossman wrotein T I M E , Green writes “with wit, unpretentious clarity and total emotional honesty ... [revealing] the hardestpossible truths, which Hazel and her boyfriend Augustus have to face head on.” Natalie Standiford of
T h e
N e w Y o r k T i m e s S u n d a y B o o k R e v i e w praised Green for writing “in his signature tone, a blend of melancholy,sweet, philosophical and funny.”
Without questioning the sincerity of anyone who objects to the book, their views are not shared by all, andthey have no right to impose those views on others or to demand that the library shelves reflect their personalpreferences. Parents may be equipped to make choices for their own children but, no matter how well-intentioned, they simply are not equipped to make decisions that address the needs of the entire student
body.
Moreover, the book’s removal raises constitutional concerns. School officials have a constitutional obligationnot to suppress material because some find it objectionable or offensive. The Supreme Court has cautionedthat, "[l]ocal school boards may not remove books from library shelves simply because they dislike the ideascontained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics,nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’"
B o a r d o f E d u c a t i o n v . P i c o , 4 5 7 U . S . 8 5 3 , 8 7 2 (1982)
(plurality opinion); accord M i n a r c i n i v . S t r o n g s v i l l e C i t y S c h . D i s t . , 541 F.2d 577, 581 (6th Cir. 1976) (access tobooks in library “is not subject to being withdrawn by succeeding school boards whose members might
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desire to ‘winnow’ the library for books the content of which occasioned their displeasure or disapproval”).This constitutional duty applies with particular force in the school library, which, unlike the classroom, has "aspecial role...as a place where students may freely and voluntarily explore diverse topics." C a m p b e l l v . S t .
T a m m a n y P a r i s h S c h o o l B o a r d , 6 4 F . 3 d 1 8 4 , 1 9 0 (5th Cir. 1995).
In practice, acceding to the demands to remove something that one person finds objectionable invariablyinvites multiple, sometimes conflicting demands to exclude other material. The attempt "to eliminateeverything that is objectionable…will leave public schools in shreds. Nothing but educational confusion and adiscrediting of the public school system can result …." M c C o l l u m v . B o a r d o f E d u c . , 3 3 3 U . S . 2 0 3 , 2 3 5 (1948)(Jackson, J. concurring). Any effort to remove books containing content that some members of thecommunity find objectionable would threaten a great deal of literature, including classics such as T h e
A d v e n t u r e s o f H u c k l e b e r r y F i n n , T o K i l l A M o c k i n g b i r d , and R o m e o a n d J u l i e t .
No one has to read something just because it is on the library shelf. A parent whose “child is exposed tosensitive topics or information at school remains free to discuss these matters and to place them in thefamily’s moral or religious context, or to supplement the information with more appropriate materials.”P a r k e r v . H u r l e y , 5 1 4 F . 3 d 8 7 , 1 0 5 (1st Cir. 2008).
We urge you to reinstateT h e F a u l t i n O u r S t a r s
in middle school libraries throughout the school district, sothat those students who wish to read it may do so. This result would show respect not only for FirstAmendment values and obligations, but also for all members of the school community, by allowing people tomake their own decisions about what to read and think.
Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance in resolving this matter.
Sincerely,
Charles Brownstein, Executive DirectorComic Book Legal Defense Fund
Chris Finan, PresidentAmerican Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression
Millie Davis, Senior DeveloperAffiliate Groups and Public OutreachNational Council of Teachers of English
Lin Oliver, Executive DirectorSociety of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
Joan Bertin, Executive DirectorNational Coalition Against Censorship
Judy Platt, DirectorFree Expression AdvocacyAssociation of American Publishers
Susanna Reich, ChairChildren's and Young Adult Book CommitteePEN American Center
Barbara M. Jones, DirectorAmerican Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom
Cc: Patricia Lock-Dawson, [email protected] Hunt, [email protected] Y. Allavie, [email protected] Cloud, [email protected] Lee, [email protected]