Panel: Nothing wrong with an English textbook; asks for details about 2 other novels
By Skyler Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — High school students in South Carolina should be allowed to continue checking out a novel about a woman addicted to meth from their public school libraries, as long as their parents agree, a state committee decided Thursday.
The review of three other books on the panel’s agenda Thursday stemmed from the complaints of one parent in Fort Mill.
Responding to her objections, the State Board of Education committee voted to keep an eighth grade English textbook in classrooms but postponed decisions on two novels: “Bronx Masquerade” by Nikki Grimes and “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros.
The full board will take up the committee’s recommendations on “Crank” and the textbook at its Dec. 3 meeting.
“Crank” was a holdover from a list of books the five-person committee decided to preemptively review Oct. 31 under a new regulation prohibiting books with “sexual conduct” from public K-12 schools.
Days later, the full Board of Education voted unanimously to require the removal of seven books from public schools for what board members decided were explicit descriptions of sex. Three classic novels can stay, board members determined.
Decisions on the first 11 books were meant to help clear up confusion about the rule, committee members said.
Some teachers have criticized the regulation for not defining “sexual conduct,” instead referencing a portion of the state’s obscenity law. Thursday was the first time the committee heard actual challenges from a parent under the new regulation.
‘Crank’
When “Crank” came up for review in October, committee members faced a conundrum.
Department of Education staff who reviewed the book found descriptions of sexual activity, which seemed to violate the regulation.
But committee Chairman Christian Hanley received a letter ahead of the meeting from someone saying the book was helpful in dealing with drug use in their own family, giving him and other committee members pause, he said at the time.
Sex is not the only factor in whether a book can be banned under the regulation, department policy and legal advisor Robert Cathcart told the committee Thursday. Committee members can decide to remove a book from the shelves for anything they deem to not be age appropriate.
“Crank” would qualify for that, department staff wrote in a report provided to the committee.
“While the book does not intentionally glorify drug use, in the 544 pages of poetry, drugs are omnipresent, and getting high is often seen as either pleasurable or an escape from the drudgery of life,” the department report reads. “Drugs, sex, rape, pregnancy, and depression pervade the book.”
The committee decided the descriptions of sex were not graphic enough to remove the book completely. Because of its heavy themes, the committee instead decided to require parental permission to check out the book from school libraries.
Parents whose children want to read the book should receive the entire five-page list of problematic excerpts the committee reviewed before signing off, Hanley said. The book is available in high schools only, department staff wrote in a memo.
“This is a poor compromise,” author Ellen Hopkins wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
She added that she would have preferred the board allow parents to opt out of having their children read the book instead of opting in.
“But at least it’s still there and semi-available,” Hopkins continued.
Hopkins loosely based the book on her own daughter’s experience with methamphetamine addiction, she said in a statement provided by the state’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter. The novel follows a straight-A, high-achieving high schooler who gets addicted to the drug and watches her life fall apart as a result.
“I was determined to turn other teens away from that path if I could,” Hopkins wrote in the statement. “I also wanted those who’d already chosen that direction to believe there was a way out, support, someone who cared, and urge them to speak up sooner rather than later. And I wanted people who’d never made that choice to develop understanding and empathy for those who had.”
Parent complaints
One parent requested reviews for all three new books the committee considered Thursday.
Emily Clement, who said she has two children in the Fort Mill School District, contested an eighth-grade literature textbook, along with two novels that English teachers in the York County district either assign or recommend to students.
Because all three books were part of school curriculums as opposed to simply being available in the school library, the committee allowed them to skip the normal appeals process. The complaint came to the state directly, bypassing the Fort Mill school board, Cathcart said.
Clement pointed to short stories in the textbook that deal with themes of violence, sexuality, racism and other heavy topics as reasons she believed the book should be removed.
“The parents of this school district should be very concerned about what their child’s hearts and minds are being filled with every day in school,” Clement wrote in her complaint. “Parents put their trust in this school board, the administrators, and the teachers of Fort Mill schools to protect their children from evil, not to encourage them to follow the darkness.”
The textbook already went through a state vetting process before it was approved for classrooms statewide, committee members said. For that reason, they unanimously agreed to allow it to remain.
“I have no objection to some of the materials, the ones that I have taught, that did not contain anything that justifies going against our regulation,” said Board Member Joyce Crimminger, who taught English in Lancaster County.
“Bronx Masquerade” by Nikki Grimes and “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, the two novels Clements raised for review, included scenes discussing sex, domestic violence, guns, suicide and drug use, she told committee members.
Her complaints did not include quotes from specific scenes, so board members voted unanimously to defer any decision until they have more information.
The exact quotes could make or break whether a book is banned or not.
Books in which characters kiss or have romantic relationships are fine under the regulation. As are mentions of sex and sexual assault that happened off the page, or on-page sex scenes that don’t give details, board members have said in previously discussing books.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau. S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
