A vow from Canal Winchester, Ohio, school officials to encourage parental involvement in their children’s education has motivated Douglas and Paula Ewart to drop their effort to remove Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries from the shelves of the middle school.
The couple, whose 10-year-old daughter had borrowed the book, had been displeased with a materials-review committee’s May 7 decision to retain the book but restrict
4th-, 5th-, and 6th-graders from checking it out. But Douglas Ewert told the August 7 Columbus Dispatch that he was relieved that the board was instructing school officials to allow library privileges only to students whose parents sign a consent form and to encourage parents to review their children’s school-related reading.
On August 9, officials revised the district’s challenge policy to emphasize that reviews “must be on the appropriateness of the material for its intended use” and that no subsequent complaints about the same item would be considered.
Posted August 16, 1999.