Forever Gets Two-Year Reprieve
in Illinois School
The board of the Elgin (Ill.) Area School District U-46 declined January 22 to override the December recommendation of a materials review committee to reinstate the Judy Blume novel Forever to the shelves of the Eastview Middle School. Although the book had remained available in district high-school libraries, the story of a sexually active teen romance had been barred from middle-school collections since 1997. District policy allows banned books to be reconsidered every two years; Forever supporters lost a 1999 bid to reshelve it.
“Parents have the right to chose what their children do, but I don’t think they have the right to tell my kids what to do,” board member Karen Carney asserted. “There is a better way of presenting the subject matter to our kids,” countered board member Glenn Murphy, according to the January 23 Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
South Elgin resident L. Dean Hufsey said in the January 22 Elgin Courier News that he had appealed the materials review committee’s decision because it reflected “the liberal views of the American library system.” Hufsey has formed a group called Citizens for Higher Educational Standards to challenge reconsideration policies as well as the district’s sex-education program.
Posted January 28, 2002.
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