Zeeland Officials Revisit
Harry Potter Restrictions
Two months after parents and teachers began a letter-writing campaign to have restrictions on the Harry Potter series lifted in the Zeeland (Mich.) School District, Superintendent Gary Feenstra has agreed to appoint a review committee to reconsider his unilateral decision to limit Harry Potter borrowing privileges to children with written parental permission. Emphasizing that he isn’t rescinding his November order in the meantime, Feenstra acknowledged at the school board’s March 20 meeting that “Parents want to see a broader process used to make a decision.”
“It’s what I wanted,” Zeeland parent Mary Ockerse, who helped organize Muggles for Harry Potter along with ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation.
According to the March 21 Holland Sentinel, the review committee will consist of 14 people, namely a parent and a staff member from each of the district’s schools as well as an elementary- and a middle-school principal. Feenstra said that after he “seriously considers” the committee’s recommendations, which are due May 1, he will “accept, change, or reject” its findings.
Posted March 27, 2000.
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