Book pulled from classroom hints at larger debate

Jan. 29—Book banning has become a hot-button issue nationwide, and Haywood County Schools is not immune to the fervor that surrounds what types of literature can be used in the classroom.

At a Jan. 10 school board meeting, Tim Reeves objected to the use of a book called Dear Martin being assigned in his son's 10th grade English class.

"He shared with us there was some explicit language," said Reeves. "I was just appalled by the type of language that was within a book that was given to my son as a text."

Reeves investigated the book and found things that concerned him, including inappropriate language and sexual innuendos. He also mentioned that the class' syllabus did not list the book.

As a result, Reeves contacted his son's principal, who spoke with the teacher and central office administration about the situation in an attempt to resolve the matter.

When Reeves arrived at the board meeting, Superintendent Bill Nolte notified him that the book had been pulled by Nolte and would not be used in the classroom.

Not uncommon occurrence

Nolte said parental questions like this come up regularly during the school year.

"There are situations in which there is a book sitting on the shelf in the library, or a teacher's room. In some situations, books are assigned. There are even some situations where teachers give assignments and let students pick their own book," said Nolte.

In general, though, Nolte said the school system doesn't "ban" books.

"We haven't banned a book since I've been superintendent or associate superintendent," said Nolte, a time span of 15 years.

Dear MartinThe book in question — Dear Martin by Nic Stone — was published in 2017. It debuted at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list.

The book was written as a reaction to the murder of Jordan Davis, a 17-year old black high school student, by a white man.

The plot follows a high school student living in Atlanta who attends a predominantly white school. After the protagonist is thrown to the ground and handcuffed by a white police officer, he begins writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr. about his experience.

The book explores themes of race relations and adolescence.

Multiple school systems across the country have removed Dear Martin from their schools for a myriad of reasons ranging from vulgar language, the topic of racism and more. The book contains no sexual content.

The Columbia County School District in Georgia banned Dear Martin from its curriculum in 2019. Their reasoning was that the book of the explicit content in the book, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

As reported by the Chronicle, Columbia SUperintendent Sandra Carraway saig, "Books like Dear Martin and the content in that book — it's not a book that we would want sitting on a shelf."

Due to the amount of foul language, Nolte came to a similar decision and asked the teacher not to use the book.

"I thought the excessive amount of profanity distracted enough from the message that you could probably find another book with a similar message that was better," said Nolte.

According to Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit, research-backed review site for parents, Dear Martin includes violence, some swearing (including "f — k" and "s — t"), teen drinking, and grief. The overall rating for the book is for ages 14+.

A tricky process

Nolte made it clear that removing Dear Martin was an administrative decision, but not one made lightly. Each situation is different and there's always a gray area, said Nolte.

In the case of Dear Martin, Nolte and the school board did not outright ban the novel from school use. In this particular case, however, it will not be used.

"For Dear Martin, we said 'pick another book'. It doesn't mean if a student picked that book when they had a choice, we probably wouldn't say a word to them," said Nolte.

Nolte also recognized that removing books is a tricky process because it often falls to individuals like principals and superintendents to remove them.

"We can't just remove books because we don't like it," said Nolte.

Another problem in this particular case was that the book was assigned to students but parents were not made aware beforehand.

At the high school level, books are usually placed on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester for parents to review, especially ones that may be challenged because of their content.

Board policies

HCS has two school board policies that affect literature in the classroom: 3200 (Selection of Instructional Materials) and 3210 (Parental Inspection Of and Objection To Instructional Materials).

According to Board Policy 3200, "Instructional materials should be representative of the rich diversity of our nation and appropriate for the maturity levels and abilities of the students."

The policy also states that parents have a right under federal law to inspect instructional materials used in their child's classroom.

According to Board Policy 3210, parents can submit an objection in writing to the principal if they find any material unsuitable for their child.

If a parent submits an objection, the policy allows for the principal to establish a committee to review the objection and obtain input from the community if necessary.

If the principal or committee determines that any materials violate constitutional or other legal rights of the parent or student, the material must be removed or accommodations must be made to that particular student and parent.

If a parent finds the decision lacking, it may be appealed to the superintendent, which in turn the superintendent's decision may be appealed to the school board.

Ban worthy books

While Nolte said the school system has never banned a book while he's been at Haywood schools, there are some books he'd be willing to ban.

"There are a few books that are just written to be bigoted and hurtful and to try to help people to believe or promote racism or sexual discrimination or discrimination against personal beliefs. We do think if we ran across books like that, we would remove them or even ban them. If you have books that are that malicious, and there are some out there, you would be in good standing if you removed them permanently," said Nolte.

Book banning is a hot-button issue with strong viewpoints on both sides. Nolte recognizes that, but realizes neither side is right in every case.

"I do think there are some who argue that schools should be able to remove a lot of stuff. Most of those arguments are pretty invalid," said Nolte. Lack of solid cases

Nolte mentioned Supreme Court cases like Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988) in which the court delivered somewhat contradictory rulings for administrators who are faced with books like Dear Martin.

Tinker v. Des Moines defined the First Amendment rights of students in public schools. It established the Tinker test, also known as the "substantial disruption" test, and is still used by courts today to determine whether a school's interest to prevent disruption infringes upon students' First Amendment rights.

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier offered a somewhat different ruling, ruling that students writing for public school newspapers have a lower level of First Amendment rights.

The dueling cases are representative of the lack of law and court rulings on the matter of book banning.

"There's a little gray with everything. We just don't have solid court case stuff," said Nolte.

As such, Nolte likes to leave most of the decisions to each individual school, unless his support is needed. After all, teachers and principals are the experts in the classroom.

"They know the standards they're teaching," said Nolte.