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Crook County High pulls book after complaint
Friday, December 12, 2008 | No comments posted.
PRINEVILLE (AP) — A parent’s complaint prompted the Crook County School District to pull a book that had been assigned to a high school English class.
Hank Moss, a Prineville father of three, said he was appalled when he perused “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” Written by Sherman Alexie, it’s the semi-autobiographical story of a boy who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. It won the 2007 National Book Award for young people’s literature.
“I didn’t feel the book was appropriate for a required reading assignment for a 14-year-old,” Moss said. “It had a lot of references that I didn’t feel comfortable with.”
The protagonist, for example, discusses masturbation.
Moss photocopied some of the more graphic pages and took them to the Crook County School Board meeting Monday night. The book was yanked two days later.
School Board Chairman Jeff Landaker said Moss should have taken his complaint to the high school principal or the teacher who assigned the book. But though Moss didn’t follow proper protocol, Landaker said he couldn’t disagree with the man’s take on the book.
Interim Superintendent Rich Shultz said the district is going to use the controversy as a springboard to examine how it chooses the curriculum for its classrooms, and the decision to pull Alexie’s book may not be a permanent one.
The decision to remove it all disappointed Jim Golden, the principal at Crook County High. “I’ve been directed by the school board and the superintendent to pull the book, and I will comply with their directive,” Golden said. “But I respectfully disagree with what they are doing. It’s a slippery slope.”
Alexie, in an interview The Bulletin newspaper of Bend, defended the book, noting it has been used in classrooms across the country, and has only been challenged a handful of times.
“The book is incredibly positive about the world we live in, and people from vastly different politics and groups end up being friends,” Alexie said. The author added that if the detractors read the book, they would see it’s a celebration of values they hold dear.
Moss said he did read the entire book: “It seemed pretty trashy to me.”
Hank Moss, a Prineville father of three, said he was appalled when he perused “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” Written by Sherman Alexie, it’s the semi-autobiographical story of a boy who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. It won the 2007 National Book Award for young people’s literature.
“I didn’t feel the book was appropriate for a required reading assignment for a 14-year-old,” Moss said. “It had a lot of references that I didn’t feel comfortable with.”
The protagonist, for example, discusses masturbation.
Moss photocopied some of the more graphic pages and took them to the Crook County School Board meeting Monday night. The book was yanked two days later.
School Board Chairman Jeff Landaker said Moss should have taken his complaint to the high school principal or the teacher who assigned the book. But though Moss didn’t follow proper protocol, Landaker said he couldn’t disagree with the man’s take on the book.
Interim Superintendent Rich Shultz said the district is going to use the controversy as a springboard to examine how it chooses the curriculum for its classrooms, and the decision to pull Alexie’s book may not be a permanent one.
The decision to remove it all disappointed Jim Golden, the principal at Crook County High. “I’ve been directed by the school board and the superintendent to pull the book, and I will comply with their directive,” Golden said. “But I respectfully disagree with what they are doing. It’s a slippery slope.”
Alexie, in an interview The Bulletin newspaper of Bend, defended the book, noting it has been used in classrooms across the country, and has only been challenged a handful of times.
“The book is incredibly positive about the world we live in, and people from vastly different politics and groups end up being friends,” Alexie said. The author added that if the detractors read the book, they would see it’s a celebration of values they hold dear.
Moss said he did read the entire book: “It seemed pretty trashy to me.”
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