The objections of a parent in Page, North Dakota, has led to the removal of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants from the library shelves of the Page elementary school. “I didn’t care for the language. I didn’t care for the innuendos,” complainant Dawn Ihry, who is a former teacher, said in the March 11 Fargo Forum.
Ihry’s challenge was initially rejected by a materials-review committee, but was upheld by the board of the Hope-Page Consolidated School District in January after negotiations between Ihry and two school officials broke down. The rejected compromise would have allowed retention of the book so long as it was restricted to older students.
The book’s removal triggered a reexamination of the district’s selection policy, culminating in a March 11 decision by the consolidated school board to approve all library purchases and to bar materials “that label or characterize undeserving individuals in a derogatory manner.” Page School Librarian Linda Miller told the newspaper March 13 that the ban could be applied to such classics as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Huckleberry Finn.
Posted March 18, 2002.