A program created to inspire a community dialogue in Groton, Connecticut, has erupted into a fight over what constitutes age-appropriate materials. The controversy revolves around middle-school field trips to Groton Public Library to view the March 4–27 exhibit “In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families” because three of the 20 photos on display are of same-sex couples and their children. Concerned parents can deny permission for their child to participate.
Organizers developed the program because of reports that some children were bullying classmates for living in nontraditional homes, according to the March 5 New London Day.
“We as a community, a state, and a nation have only ourselves to blame if our teens find themselves in abnormal relationships because they grow up thinking anything goes,” parent Bill Burdette commented about the field trip at a February 25 school-board meeting. “We’re just acknowledging that these lifestyles exist,” countered Betty Anne Reiter, head of adult services at GPL.
Part of the month-long “One Book, Many Families, One Groton” program, the field trip also includes a discussion of the 2000 Newbery and Coretta Scott King–winning Bud, Not Buddy, the tale of a 10-year-old’s search for his father.
Posted March 11, 2002.