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No Telling What My Mother Doesn’t KnowThe removal this summer of Sonya Sones’s What My Mother Doesn’t Know from the library shelves of the Rosedale Union School District in Bakersfield, California, has created a new challenge for the school board: clarifying what the library materials–selection and reconsideration policies are for the district.The controversy stems from an objection filed by the parents of a Rosedale Middle School student about the book of coming-of-age poetry. When school officials did not comply with the complainants’ request to remove What My Mother Doesn’t Know, they took the issue to the officials’ superiors, who ordered its withdrawal—despite the fact that current district policy calls for the school librarian to determine what titles are appropriate, with approval from the principal. At its August 12 meeting, school trustees considered making themselves the ultimate authority should another reconsideration request be appealed. "I don’t want to be in the censorship game, but we are an elementary-school district and we want our instructional materials to reflect the community standards of our area," trustee Ken Mettler argued, revealing his particular discomfort with Sones’s poem “Ice Capades” —a teenage girl’s description of how her breasts react to cold. The board is scheduled to revisit the policy change at its September meeting, according to the August 13 Bakersfield Californian. Posted August 18, 2003. |
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