EDITORIAL
Published Sept 14, 2007
Refusal to return library books shows disrespect to others
Tuscaloosa News
I will start by stating that I have never heard of the author Ellen Wittlinger, or know the genre she is know for but, it is import to be able to expand my horizons and at least read plot overviews of the book (maybe even read it for that matter) in which she wrote that is in question in this article. For those who don’t know who she is, she is a mother of 2 children who didn’t find her niche writing children-young adult literature until she was a librarian. She enjoys writing poetry and plays as well. This information was acquired from Ellen’s Bio on her website.
The premise of the article entitled “Refusal to return library book shows disresepect to others” is that the book Wittlinger titled “Sandpiper” is under fire to be banned from a library at Brookwood
High School in the Tuscaloosa County School System. Upon my reading at Amazon.Com from the editorial review, I conclude that the novel is about a girl who is going through a crisis of identity; figuring out sexuality, friendships, dealing with death, and other tragedy.Anyways, because of themes in this story, a student and their grandmother found the story “inappropriate” to be on the shelves in the high school. The article states, let it be from the grandmother or the student that “the book is too sexually explicit and has no place on school library shelves”. Also according to this article, “state Representative Gerald Allen’s effort two years ago to ban literature by or about homosexuals from public school libraries.” So it sounds like this issue is something that has happened before.
To get at another quote from the article and my standpoint on this is the following:
“Return it and pick another book.
Nobody in the public school system is insisting that the student read it.”
It is issues like this that tend to get under my skin. Books are written and published for reasons of entertainment and information (fact or fiction) or whatever else you pleasure reason may be. I feel that this is a First Amendment issue happening; this is a censorship of writing, reading, and speech too. Plus, this is a PUBLIC SCHOOL, come on! If the student and grandmother are that concerned, maybe that student should be placed in a different setting. I can’t go and make assumptions on matters here of home life, (you assume, you make an ass of you and me…) so, I can’t go into what views they have. But please don’t go and ruin a good thing. By removing this book from the library, takes away one more resource that a student can have when reading about the world, about humanity. Also, isn’t it a good thing that students are reading?!?
Again, information from:
“Refusal to return library book shows disresepect to others”
